Barristers’ chambers and courts are plagued with sexual harassment, bullying and abuse of power, according to a group dedicated to delivering justice to exploited lawyers.
The inaugural meeting of Behind the Gown, held in central London on Wednesday evening, heard complaints of inappropriate behaviour and discriminatory conduct by judges, QCs and senior lawyers.
None of the victims or alleged abusers were named and the gathering was held under Chatham House rules, preventing identification of those who spoke.
Inspired by the #MeToo movement that emerged following allegations of sexual abuse by the US film producer Harvey Weinstein, Behind the Gown aims to highlight harassment at the bar.
Barristers’ self-employed status and reliance on senior colleagues to advance their careers makes them vulnerable to exploitation, the meeting was told.
“It’s harassment if it’s unwanted conduct of a sexual nature,” one barrister said. “It’s not a defence for anyone to say afterwards: ‘I didn’t mean it’.
“Sometimes a senior members of chambers staff makes an advance on a junior member of staff and is rejected. Then the [junior] is subject to ill-treatment. That’s discriminatory conduct. There has been silence about this for too long and we can’t be complicit with it.”
A woman QC told the meeting: “This is not a snowflake matter. The reality is that [bullying] also happens in court. Very few people make complaints.” Younger barristers often felt “belittled” by judges. “If the judge was taking it out on you, that’s not acceptable.”
Anonymous reporting apps that highlighted where multiple complaints had been made against specific individuals would help identify some of the worst offenders, it was suggested.
“The experience of being harassed is very isolating,” another woman barrister said.
A lawyer who tried to pursue multiple complaints by younger colleagues against a senior barrister who regularly made sexist comments said that she eventually had to leave her chambers. “In the end, there was a huge explosion and he was screaming at me.”
Earlier, Elizabeth Prochaska, legal director for the Equality and Human Rights Commission and founder of Behind the Gown, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “In chambers, you have a group of individuals who have agreed to work together but who are not managed by any central structure.
“We know from a recent survey that 40% of women [at the bar] complained that they had been subject to sexual harassment. [But] when people raise their voices about unacceptable behaviour, they are told to keep quiet.
“There is a spectrum on which there are many types of abuse of power. It’s broader problem than sexual harassment. People can complain to the Bar Standards Board but we found that there had been only two complaints of sexual harassment to the BSB in the past two years.
“In some cases, it [should be a matter of] warning people about their behaviour, in others, asking them to leave the organisation and referring them to the BSB.”
Sam Mercer, head of equality and diversity at the Bar Council, which represents all barristers in England and Wales, said: “The Bar Council is absolutely against any abuse of power in any organisations in which barristers work. Tackling issues of harassment and bullying is a top priority.
“We welcome the Behind the Gown initiative and look forward to working in conjunction with it to find additional and better ways to prevent harassment from happening in the first place – and to ensure that there are appropriate remedies and solutions when it does.”