RollOnFriday understands that the DLA Piper partner who referred to women as "gash" is under investigation by the SRA.

Nick West was caught out when emails he sent to Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore were leaked. In one email West complained about an in-house lawyer - "have spent all day fending Edna off my graphite shaft. She is terribly relentless isn’t she?!” In another he advised Scudamore to “save the cash in case you find some gash”.

Scudamore's PA was appalled by the exchanges. She leaked the emails to the press and West found himself hitting the headlines and had to issue a grovelling apology. But to the surprise of pretty much everyone, DLA took no action. It merely noted that it had "accepted Mr West's assurances that these emails are not reflective of his beliefs and values and that there will be no recurrence of this behaviour".

The Archbishop of Banterbury yesterday

Insiders have told RollOnFriday that West had only escaped censure and/or the chop because he makes a ton of money for the firm and, therefore, none of his partners can touch him. The SRA has no such shackles and it will be interesting to see whether referring to women as "gash" in a work email, albeit one sent confidentially to a single recipient, is classed as appropriate behaviour for a partner at an international law firm.

Neither DLA Piper nor the SRA would comment.