Lawyer kept unpaid butler
The Athens Bar Association yesterday imposed a six-month professional suspension on a lawyer who allegedly failed to pay his foreign butler’s salary and benefits for two-and-a-half years. The lawyer, who was not identified, is alleged to have employed the man in December 2003 to be his butler but to have also made use of his services as a housekeeper, driver and secretary. However, according to the association’s discliplinary committee, the lawyer failed to pay the employee any wages or social security contributions. When pressed by his employee, the lawyer allegedly prepared bills of exchange to the tune of 18,000 euros but failed to honor them. The association barred the lawyer from practicing for six months as punishment for behavior «not only inconsistent with financial obligations but unfitting for a lawyer.»
