lawyer Antoine Vey before the disciplinary council of the Paris bar for suspicion of moral and sexual harassment

They all describe with the same words the hell they experienced within the walls of this prestigious law firm. Collaborators, interns, employees, several claim to have been “humiliated”, “reduced”, “harassed” by their boss, Antoine Vey.

This criminal lawyer, known for having defended the founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange, but also Patrick Balkany or the brother of Mohamed Merah, was chosen as a partner by the tenor Eric Dupond-Moretti in 2016, who then entrusted him with the reins of the firm after his appointment as Minister of Justice.

At 40, the lawyer is therefore accused of acts potentially qualifying as moral and sexual harassment, revealed by our colleagues from the newspaper Liberation in March 2023. Franceinfo was able to speak with certain former employees who say they are victims of the actions of their former boss. Over the years, several people have resigned, some have contacted the Bar Association, others, less frequently, have decided to file a legal complaint. Complaints that franceinfo was able to consult and which reveal a daily life described by a former collaborator as “an asylum”.

“I couldn’t go home without being in tears on the bus”says a lawyer who moved to Antoine Vey's office seven years ago. Like others, she recounts the “bullying”humiliations, and “control” exercised by the criminal lawyer on his colleagues. “As soon as we saw a message arrive, there was a panic that rose. We said to ourselves: 'What am I going to do next?', 'What new order and counter-order is he going to give me again? ?' and above all 'what discontent will he still express?', when we really had the impression of being at the end of what we could give”says the lawyer.

Arriving at the firm in 2017 after a personal tragedy, she found herself responsible for accounting and secretarial tasks despite her 20 years of experience. A summary table of current files particularly stood out to her. “It’s CP/CE1 level,” rebuffs the criminal lawyer according to the lawyer's account. She asks him to change his tone. “The next day I was assigned to this task for a month, which I had to redo over and over again, with color codes that changed, the pagination that was not exactly the right one. It was quite humiliating “, testifies the lawyer who decided to leave the firm after nine months because “of [son] body that no longer wanted and his loved ones who were worried. She will end up hospitalized in psychiatry after “a very violent decompensation”.

And she is not the only one to have seen her health deteriorate during her time at the office. Other former employees say they had to take anxiolytics to “try to sleep”, or have lost several kilos.

They all also describe “these humiliations” erected according to them “in system”. To maintain his influence, Antoine Vey uses what he calls himself, according to several former collaborators “the rubber band theory”.

“We were all a potential target. In turn. Antoine Vey systematically had a collaborator in his sights on whom he poured out his hatred, his anger, his frustrations for weeks. […] He changed when he felt we were on edge, ready to break down, rebel, resign.”

a lawyer

in his report to the Bar Association

Often public humiliations, particularly during “general meetings” convened several times a week by Antoine Vey. “He would return the copies, and sometimes he would show everyone a document and ask why it was crap”says a former collaborator. Scenes that the lawyers then debrief at length in private exchanges. “It’s really horrible, I feel like I’m at school, discussing homework so as not to get yelled at by the teacher,” writes a lawyer after a stormy meeting.

“This is what we all have in common: being stripped of all self-confidence and fearing not being able to bounce back elsewhere. We remain with the idea that we are worthless.” describes a lawyer in her report to the Bar Association. A vicious circle which explains the difficulty of several former colleagues in leaving the firm.

Added to these humiliations are constant requests, according to several testimonies. Incessant messages and calls from 6 a.m. until after midnight, during weekends, holidays and public holidays. “Your phone should be an extension of your hand”, warns Antoine Vey upon hiring, says a former intern. When his colleagues do not respond immediately, the lawyer does not hesitate to ask his colleagues via the many common Whatsapp groups (up to 147) to find out the reasons for this lack of response. “It could even happen when we were in the toilet for two minutes,” says a former collaborator.

Another recounts in her report to the Bar Association having put her phone on ringing mode constantly for a year and a half and having “lost the flavor of sleeping in” the weekend “lest he try to call me on a Saturday morning at 8am”. Public holidays are no exception. Easter Monday“I had the right to my little reminder this morning at 8 a.m.”, writes a lawyer from the firm in a common conversation between colleagues, where the extent of the discomfort arises in each exchange. “For real, everyone works???”, restart another one. “Yes because I have no choice”, replies a third.

“Harassing us was its reason for existing”, summarizes a former employee in her report to the Order. Incessant requests, including during sick leave, for tasks presented as urgent but which sometimes concern Antoine Vey's private life. A lawyer tells franceinfo that she was asked, while she was not working, to organize her boss's birthday.

Requests very far from the missions of a law firm, which Antoine Vey does not hesitate to demand of his troops according to several of his former collaborators. “Go get her costumes, accompany her to the dentist or pick up her daughter from school, book her dinners and lunches at restaurants, or even her vacations,” lists a former member of the firm.

“He asked an intern to go buy him a toothbrush… We’re hitting rock bottom,” a lawyer wrote to her companion one day. Another employee, who filed a complaint against Antoine Vey, says he had to take care of a move between the lawyer's Parisian home and his second homes, clean up his children's vomit in his car, unclog the toilets in his apartment, take down the Christmas tree or the trash cans. In his complaint, this man says he was “treated like a stooge” for missions that he judges “degrading”. Treaty of “con”, forced to work “in front” his boss so that he could check what he was doing, this employee ended up leaving the firm. “An unhealthy tyranny” who has “jeopardized our family balance”, believes his partner in the complaint of this former collaborator.

To these “asphyxiating working conditions” Added to this is what a former employee does not hesitate to describe, in her case, as sexist and sexual harassment. Antoine Vey “had fun bringing his face closer to mine until I pushed him away. He said he was testing my limits”, she says in her report to the Bar Association. She also claims to have suffered “hands on thigh” and repeated misogynistic remarks: “It’s good when she’s there but especially when she’s silent”, “It’s not about the file that I want to talk about but about your little outfits”, “Everyone is looking at you, it’s normal with these pants”.

Until this scene, during a trip to the south of France to meet a client. Antoine Vey insists, according to her, on having a drink alone. She accepts, determined to confront him to put an end to this harassment. “I explained that his behavior made me uncomfortable and that if there was a reason he had recruited me, other than my professional qualities, then I would resign,” says this lawyer in her report. According to his story, Antoine Vey then replied: “95% of the guys who see you want to destroy you. Yes, that's a bit why I recruited you. But it's your fault, you put on makeup, you wear skirts, you do smiles.” Before turning the conversation “in derision”.

In her report, the lawyer also recounts the messages from Antoine Vey during his leave (“Do you miss me a lot?”) and the threats made if she denounced her actions. Informed of a disciplinary procedure in another law firm, Antoine Vey told him “What I do to you is worse” before threatening to “destroy” her career if she speaks, says the lawyer.

After two years in the firm, she decided to resign. In the summer of 2019, she consulted a doctor, her body gave up: “I was exhausted, I was crying, I couldn’t hold my phone in my hand anymore”she says in her report.

A former employee, contacted by franceinfo, recounts his relief after his departure. “I live again, I have found a taste for many things again”, he said. However, the day he announced his resignation to his boss, Antoine Vey threatened him: “If I learn that you spoke to Libé [le journal Libération, auteur de la première enquête sur Antoine Vey], I'm paying a guy to put a bullet between your eyes.”. “It really worried me,” says this former employee. A fear still present today. “I met him again in front of the courthouse, I felt nauseous and had a stomach ache for an hour, even though he could no longer do anything to me.”

Contacted by franceinfo, Antoine Vey's lawyer firmly denies the accusations of moral and sexual harassment made against his client. “The question raised by this file is that of the degree of requirement in firms of excellence”, believes Me Emmanuel Marsigny. A “requirement that most of these young lawyers who complain were not capable of satisfying”, continues the lawyer who believes that these accusations are based only on “around ten anecdotes over 10 years of life of the firm”. He will request on Tuesday November 18 a postponement of the hearing scheduled for 11:30 a.m. For these facts, his client Antoine Vey risks sanctions ranging from a warning to disbarment.