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Former Clayton Utz lawyer slammed over Facebooking

user iconThe New Lawyer 10 September 2009 SME Law

The national human resources partner at law firm Clayton Utz has become embroiled in a two-year battle with a former employee over social networking sites.

THE national human resources partner at law firm Clayton Utz has become embroiled in a two-year battle with a former employee over social networking sites. 


Joe Catanzariti, who is also the president of the Law Society of New South Wales, has slammed sacked lawyer Michael Mitchell, who sent a Facebook message to a former colleague. 


Catanzariti said the message, on top of other presumed searches he had done, could amount to stalking, harassment or intimidation, Joel Gibson reported in The Sydney Morning Herald today.


"The case has exposed the murky legal territory of social networking sites," he reports. 


Mitchell sent a message to a human resources manager through Facebook, saying he would making a discrimination claim against her and needed her address to serve documents.


Catanzariti wrote to the former Clayton Utz, and told him that his online activities and the tone of the message were ''cause for concern''.


''It is reasonable to draw an inference that you have engaged in similar searches for other Clayton Utz staff with whom you are apparently aggrieved,'' he wrote. 


''Clayton Utz … will not countenance any stalking, harassment or intimidation of its staff … Affected individuals may want to take independent legal and other steps to protect themselves.''


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