Unlike some of his criminal colleagues, his name is not known to the general public. However, in 2018, the magazine Decision makers ranked this specialist in international arbitration among the “50 best lawyers of the business bar”. “The reputation of Jean-Georges Betto is well established”, underlined the publication, recalling one of his last successes “in a file whose financial stake exceeded 100 million euros”. This Thursday, Me Jean-Georges Betto finds the Paris court. But this time, the tenor, who is associated with the former Minister of Justice of Jacques Chirac Dominique Perben, will be seated on the bench of the defendants. He appears until September 21 before the 31st correctional chamber for moral and sexual harassment of several collaborators.
The case dates back to the summer of 2018. As revealed Mediapart at the time, two former collaborators of Jean-Georges Betto had taken up the pen to denounce his attitude to the president, Me Marie-Aimée Peyron. An ethics investigation had been opened. It had resulted, in January 2019, in the opening of disciplinary proceedings. In this context, six women testified to his inappropriate behavior, said an article in the World. Jean-Georges Betto, he had partly denied the accusations. He defended himself by evoking “schoolboy jokes” and calling his “management” paternalistic. A line of defense which did not convince the disciplinary council of the Paris Bar Association.
“An unhealthy relationship of intimacy”
In December of the same year, the business lawyer was sanctioned with a suspension of one year, including two months firm. The members of this body stressed in their decision that Jean-Georges Betto had breached “the essential principles of the profession, in particular humanity, dignity, delicacy, moderation and courtesy”. Before adding: “He created an unhealthy intimate relationship with his collaborators and trainees. Jean-Georges Betto appealed against this sanction. As is the practice, it was then the Paris Court of Appeal which examined this disciplinary procedure.
And the magistrates went further by condemning him, in January 2022, to a temporary ban on exercise for eighteen months, twelve of which were suspended. always according to Mediapart, the judges considered that the lawyer established within his office a “sexualized climate” and an “intrusive atmosphere” which caused “a feeling of embarrassment, dishonor and humiliation” among his colleagues, “even the fear “. In question, “daily comments on the physical appearance of people in the firm”, “inappropriate remarks on the supposed sexual relations” of its collaborators, and even “inappropriate gestures” such as massages which made “everyone feel bad. comfortable”.
In parallel with this disciplinary procedure, the Paris public prosecutor’s office opened, in March 2020, a preliminary investigation for “sexual harassment” and “moral harassment”, entrusted to the Brigade for the repression of delinquency against the person of the judicial police. At the end of the investigations, he was sent back to the criminal court to be tried.
Other famous lawyers implicated
Me Betto is not the only renowned lawyer to be implicated in this type of case. Last March, Me Emmanuel Pierrat was sentenced by the Paris Court of Appeal for harassment within his firm to an eighteen-month ban on practice, including six months suspended. The court recognized “aggressive, insulting and humiliating behavior of a lasting and systemic nature” by the lawyer. The latter, who disputes the accusations made, indicated that he had appealed to the Court of Cassation.
A few months later, it was Me Antoine Vey’s turn to be targeted by an investigation by the Paris Bar Association. The former associate of the Keeper of the Seals, Éric Dupond-Moretti, is also accused of moral or sexual harassment by several former collaborators. The newspaper Release had published about twenty testimonies denouncing the behavior of the lawyer within his firm. He too has made it known that he denies these accusations. The Paris Bar Association, in any case, opened an ethics investigation in January.
And these media cases are only the tip of the iceberg. According to figures provided by the National Bar Council (CNB), 16.9% of lawyers said they had been victims of harassment in 2022. However, less than 5% of them started an appeal procedure.
“Encouraging victim lawyers to speak out”
“Things have to change, fear has to change sides,” says 20 minutes Me Anne-Marie Mendiboure, head of the “harassment and discrimination” group at the CNB. The body, which represents all lawyers in France, organized on March 31 a symposium dedicated to this issue. “We are really trying to put tools in place to break this glass ceiling, this deafening silence which from time to time is talked about in the press”, continues the former president of Bayonne. In particular, the CNB has published a “practical guide”, set up “systematic” training in law schools, established the presence of “referents in the orders and at the regional level”.
“The will of the CNB is to encourage victim lawyers to speak out, to say what they are suffering, and to encourage them to seize the presidents of the bar who are the prosecuting authorities for harassment and discrimination, indicates Mr. Mendiboure. It should be known that there are means of recourse, possibilities of being compensated. People who engage in these acts can also be convicted through disciplinary proceedings. “The lawyer recognizes that it is “not easy easy”, for his young colleagues or sisters who start the profession, to denounce a recognized professional. “But that has to change. We practice a profession that has strong ethical values. Already, as citizens, we cannot accept this type of behavior. But we accept it even less in a profession like ours. »