Sex discrimination and harassment complaints against HWL Ebsworth … NCAT hearing … The case shows signs of devouring significant time and costs 

She alleges that as a partner she was paid less than her male peers and was unlawfully discriminated against in the areas of employment and partnerships. 

She further alleges that Bowyer and Martinez subjected her to bullying and sexual harassment. All of them deny the allegations. 

The case came before the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal where a preliminary issue was addressed earlier this month. 

The president of the Anti-Discrimination Board had narrowed the time of the relevant conduct, the subject of the complaints, to between February 2015 and February 2016. 

Ms Patrick sought to amend her complaints to include conduct alleged to have occurred before February 12, 2015. 

NCAT principal member Anne Britton refused the application.  

In her reasons she said that a delegate of the president of the ADB had written to Matkovich and Bowyer advising that the president had decided to accept for investigation a complaint of sex discrimination, and in respect of Bowyer a complaint of sexual harassment. 

NCAT said: 

“As a consequence of the decision made by the president in respect of reach complaint, the tribunal lacks the power to amend complaints, by extending their temporal scope to include the period before February 12, 2015.” 

Since the complaints were referred to NCAT there have been three case conferences and the hearing to determine the application to amend the scope of the complaints. 

Ms Britton added: 

“In my view this matter has the hallmarks of proceedings in which significant time and costs are likely to be expended before the matter is ready to be listed for hearing.” 

The matter is listed on November 29 for directions to fix hearing dates. In the meantime, there’s a lot of paperwork back and forth. 

See: Patrick v The Martinez HWL Practice Trust t/a Ebsworth Lawyers  

The HWL Ebsworth website gives us some artwork suggestive of Jackson Pollock’s brushwork and goes onto say: 

“Despite what many law firm websites say, it can be very difficult to differentiate one firm from another. The more they claim to be different, the more similar they appear to be. 

Let us introduce you to a genuinely different law firm …”