Darren Shaw

Introduction

Darren Shaw is a former Chartered Legal Executive who was expelled from the legal profession after a disciplinary tribunal found that he had harassed and made unwanted sexualised comments to junior female colleagues at a firm conference, including taking the hands of a wheelchair user and controlling her chair so that she could not move away. Shaw was Head of Financial Products at personal injury firm Keller Postman and head of its Manchester office from 2020 to 2024. The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal imposed a s.43 order prohibiting regulated firms or individuals from employing him.

Background Information

Shaw worked at Keller Postman, a personal injury firm, where he was Head of Financial Products and headed the firm’s Manchester office from 2020 to 2024. As a Chartered Legal Executive in a senior role, he held authority over junior members of staff. The conduct that ended his career took place at Keller Postman’s annual conference in 2022, beginning at the conference dinner and continuing at a bar in Manchester afterwards, where about 15 staff ended up with Shaw until around midnight.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

The trouble began over dinner when it was announced that one of the raffle prizes was a ‘Virgin Experience Day’. Shaw joked that a junior female colleague, referred to as Person A, was a “virgin” and that the winner would therefore be taking her virginity. He then repeated the gag, commenting, “I didn’t realise you could spend a night with [Person A]!”.

Colleague E, a junior member of staff who uses a wheelchair, testified that she saw Shaw “pulling female staff” on to the dancefloor, “some of whom seemed uncomfortable and tried to pull away”. She then became a target herself: Shaw took her hands uninvited and tried to pull her along in her wheelchair, “positioning his hands either side of her and controlling the chair so she could not move away”. He approached her again later, “held her hands and tried to move her wheelchair” on to the dancefloor, and although she objected repeatedly, he replied with words to the effect of, “Oh stop, you’re teasing me”.

Shaw also approached another woman, Person B, and adjusted her hat to show more of her face, saying, “Come on, come on… you should wear it like this. You’ve got a great face; you’ve got a great name. Are those your eyes?” A fourth colleague said Shaw appeared next to her “out of nowhere”, leaned in close and asked, with words to the effect of, “Do you want to come to the bar alone with me?”. At the bar, he told one attendee, “Has anyone ever told you you’re beautiful, gorgeous, really attractive?”, put his arm around another colleague and told her, “You smell like coconuts”, remarked she was “too pretty to be single”, and insisted, “Oh, what I’d do to you with those eyes”.

Colleague C agreed to dance with Shaw at the bar, but when she tried to walk away he put his hands on her waist, pulled her towards him, whispered, “I haven’t finished yet, I’m just taking a sip of my drink”, and then rubbed her stomach.

Public Reaction and Consequences

Complaints began rolling in from women who said they felt “shocked”, “uncomfortable” and “violated”, but who had been unable to object at the time because of Shaw’s seniority. Keller Postman appointed Gowling WLG to investigate and reported the matter to the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Gowling concluded that Shaw’s conduct was inappropriate, and the firm gave him a first and final written warning, banned him from drinking at work events, barred him from attending offices or events outside Manchester without prior written approval, and prohibited him from being alone with female staff in offices other than Manchester.

The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal agreed that Shaw’s misconduct was “serious and wholly inconsistent with the standards expected of an individual involved in legal practice”, particularly given his senior role, and imposed a s.43 order prohibiting regulated firms or individuals from employing him. The tribunal said his misdeeds “included behaviour towards a wheelchair user which restricted her autonomy and ability to move away”, and were compounded because he “did not desist when objections were made or when discomfort was apparent”. It noted that “the power imbalance made it more difficult for junior colleagues to challenge his behaviour at the time” and found that Shaw’s misconduct “was in some respects sexually motivated as alleged”.

Shaw disputed the process in an email to the tribunal, writing, “I never set out to cause harm or distress to anyone, it is not in my DNA, never has been or will”. He claimed “there was a corral of people in the Birmingham office encouraging each other to make wild assertions without evidence after the event”, said he had been “reassured by the COO & Managing Partner that this was a ‘process to be followed’” because the management team attending the event saw no issues, and complained, “I was ambushed and the process was flawed”. Keller Postman said it instructed an independent external law firm, self-referred the matter to the SRA “in accordance with our regulatory obligations”, and “fully accept the decision of the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal concerning a former member of our firm”.

Note on adjudication: these are findings of a professional regulator’s disciplinary tribunal, made to the civil standard of proof rather than beyond reasonable doubt. The s.43 order that expelled Shaw from the profession is a regulatory sanction; it is not a criminal conviction.

Current Status

Shaw has been expelled from the legal profession. The s.43 order means no regulated firm or individual may employ him. His LinkedIn profile states that he is currently open to work and “seeking a new challenge outside of law”.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Shaw’s career in law is over: as a result of the tribunal’s order he cannot be employed by any regulated firm, removing him from the senior financial products role and office leadership position he held at Keller Postman until 2024. Even before the tribunal, the firm’s internal measures had already restricted his working life, barring him from drinking at work events, limiting his travel outside Manchester and forbidding him from being alone with female staff outside the Manchester office. He now describes himself as looking for work outside the legal sector entirely.

Sources

• RollOnFriday, “Boss who trapped colleague in wheelchair banned from law”, 12 June 2026. source