A senior barrister and part-time judge denied yesterday that his affair with a senior clerk was a “smouldering fire” that led him to overlook a “racist culture” at his chambers.

Roger Stewart, QC, is one of three heads of chambers at 4 New Square being sued for tens of millions of pounds by Aisha Bijlani, an Indian-born barrister.

Dr Bijlani alleges that clerks at the firm were racist, failed to give her work and did not collect her fees, costing her millions in lost income.

They were not held accountable because Mr Stewart was having an affair with one of them, Dr Bijlani claims.

Mr Stewart admitted an affair with the senior clerk at the chambers, Lizzy Wiseman, but said that he had always been “objective” about her.

Ms Wiseman is also being sued, along with Justin Fenwick, QC, with whom she also had an affair, and John Powell, QC.

At the Central London Employment Tribunal yesterday Althea Brown, QC, for Dr Bijlani, said: “Out of the three heads of chambers [Ms Wiseman] worked with, she had personal relationships with two of them.

“Because of that personal relationship between Ms Wiseman and the head of chambers in that period, the level of scrutiny of how she was doing her job was not as good as it ought to have been.”

Ms Brown asked Mr Stewart when he first became attracted to Ms Wiseman. He replied: “That’s an impossible question to answer. I’ve always thought that she was a very attractive personality.”

Mr Stewart added: “I believe I’ve always been objective about Ms Wiseman. The relationship started in July 2008. It did not start from some smouldering fire that had been going on for years beforehand.

“There was absolutely nothing that occurred between me and Miss Wiseman before July 2008 which I would not have been happy for my wife to know everything about.”

Dr Bijlani, who joined the chambers in 1994 and practised until becoming ill in 2006, said that she earned less than white colleagues who joined the firm at the same time.

She claimed that she was considered an “educated wog” by the clerks and that racist incidents were played down.

Mr Stewart denied that there was any “victimisation” and said that Dr Bijlani was overlooked for work because she was a poor lawyer. “I did not have a high opinion of Dr Bijlani as a barrister,” he said.

“My understanding is that each of the clerks did attend equal opportunities training. I myself attended such training. I do not believe that there was any racist culture in chambers.”

In bad-tempered exchanges Ms Brown accused Mr Stewart of being “two-faced” in his criticism of Dr Bijlani and “going to extraordinary lengths to put down the claimant’s attainment”.

She claimed that the chambers had ignored a Bar Council monitoring scheme out of “extraordinary arrogance”. Mr Stewart disagreed.

“You are taking these proceedings seriously, aren’t you?” Ms Brown asked at one point.

“Yes I am. I’m being sued for £34 million,” Mr Stewart, who is now living with Ms Wiseman, replied.

Mr Stewart and his fellow defendants deny wrongdoing. The hearing continues.

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