Christmas parties like any other work gathering: Gadhia
It’s important to limit alcohol intake at the office Christmas party and to treat it like any other professional gathering, Toronto criminal lawyer Roots Gadhia tells Lawyers Weekly.
“The last thing you want is to come into court on Monday morning with people talking about what you did on Saturday night,” she tells the legal publication.
Gadhia makes the comments in an article about how to behave at office celebrations as Christmas party season approaches.
Lawyers Weekly says it’s important to remember there are fellow colleagues, Crown attorneys, support staff and even judges at these gatherings, so it’s vital for lawyers to be aware of their surroundings, especially since it’s impossible to know what everybody in the legal community looks like and who might be in attendance.
Gadhia says the fights and other unsavoury details that happened at Christmas parties at Toronto’s old East Mall courthouse 20 years ago still come up in conversation amongst some lawyers she knows, says the article. Reputations, she tells the publication, can take a lifetime to build but they can come crashing down quickly.
“If people begin to talk about you and it impedes your ability to speak with authority in court or if a judge hears you’ve been drinking at a party and making a fool of yourself, you may not get the same attention in court that you’re entitled to,” she says.
“When your reputation is all that you have, you need to be exceptionally careful about what you do.”
Back to News
