Indian-origin woman accuses law firm of bullying

Priti Dhulia, a tax consultant with Clifford Chance, has also alleged that her colleagues singled her out for making private phone calls in Gujarati rather than English. 

The 54-year-old claims the experience at the socalled leading “Magic Circle” law firm has left her shattered, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Dhulia says she developed an adjustment disorder, went on to suffer severe depression and anxiety and was forced to take a year away from work. 

According to a writ lodged with the UK High Court, she worked far longer than her contracted 35-hour week and was frequently forced to work weekends.

Dhulia, from Hounslow in west London, worked for Clifford Chance from September 1995 to September 2015. Dhulia’s treatment is said to have worsened when colleagues began making snide remarks about the number of private phone calls she made, allegedly singling her out because some of them were in a foreign language. She maintains her private calls were no more frequent than those of her colleagues in the same office. 

Viren Dhulia, husband, said, “It was ridiculous. My wife was speaking in Gujarati to her sister who was ill and had to have an emergency procedure. It was an urgent matter. Other people would make personal calls but because they were in English nobody cared.” 

In July 2011 his wife broke down in tears during an “assertiveness at work” course and complained she was being bullied, but says that no steps were taken to deal with the issue. She resigned in September 2014.