Former BigLaw leader is reprimanded for inappropriately touching lawyers at bench-bar conference
Image from Shutterstock.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s disciplinary board on Wednesday ordered a reprimand for a former law firm leader accused of becoming inebriated and inappropriately touching female lawyers at a bench-bar conference.
The lawyer is Timothy McMahon, a former managing partner at the Harrisburg office of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, report Law.com and Law360.
McMahon pleaded guilty March 22 to harassment and disorderly conduct in connection with the incident, and resigned from the law firm March 31, according to Law.com. He was sentenced to a combined 15 months of probation.
According to a joint stipulation for discipline, McMahon attended the Dauphin County Bench-Bar Conference at the Omni Bedford Springs resort in July 2017. On the first evening of the conference, he went to the bar, consumed numerous alcoholic drinks and became increasingly intoxicated.
McMahon “began making unwanted and inappropriate advances toward the female attorneys seated near him” and “touched two of the female attorneys on sensitive areas of their bodies,” the joint petition says.
“After those two attorneys got away from him, [McMahon] began similar behavior toward a third female attorney at the bar,” the petition says. He persisted even as others tried to intervene.
When McMahon tried to order another drink, resort staff cut him off. McMahon “thereafter became belligerent and had to be escorted back to his room by four security staff members,” the petition says.
The joint petition noted that McMahon’s conduct did not involve multiple or ongoing instances of inappropriate sexual behavior. Nor did McMahon have a position of power over any of the victims. McMahon has also expressed remorse and says he has abstained from alcohol since the conference, the petition says.
Marshall Dennehey is ranked 91st in the United States in terms of size and 139th in the nation in terms of gross revenue, according to the American Lawyer.
