'A lot of anger' around Law Society report

Abigail Dougherty / Stuff

New Zealand Law Society President Kathryn Beck announced the findings of its survey into the industry's culture on Wednesday last week.

Some lawyers still deny New Zealand's legal industry has a problem with sexual harassment, despite the Law Society's damning report on its industry's culture last week.

Law Society president Kathryn Beck said on Monday that while 90 per cent of feedback to the report – which found nearly one third of female lawyers had experienced sexual harassment and more than half of all lawyers had been bullied in the workplace – was positive, some lawyers refused to accept the extent of the problems.

Beck apologised for the length of time it took the Law Society itself to acknowledge the problems in the industry: "I accept this took too long," she said.

"As a leader of our profession, I'm sorry that we have got to this point of crystal clear and common understanding as to the scale of our problem in different ways much slower than we should have."

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Beck said that although the society was aware of sexual harassment in the sector, it was "shocked at the scale" of what was reported in the survey.

"When confronted with the scale of crisis in our profession, lawyers everywhere are now asking questions around their own leadership," she said.

"Have they tolerated behaviours they shouldn't? Have they turned a blind eye and – deep down – have they known something was not right in their workplaces and culture, but failed to act?"

She said she was committed to banishing both bullying and sexual harassment from the industry and that most other lawyers who had read the report felt the same.

Some lawyers, however, had got in touch with Beck to express their "denial that there was a problem", she said.

"I'm aware there's a lot of anger around what this report tells us, including from those who, through their own experience, never doubted the results.

"The release of the survey results last week has forced people and organisations to face unpleasant truths. Now this anger and disappointment must translate into a unified profession committed to a very different future."

The report was prompted by an outbreak of sexual misconduct allegations earlier in the year, mainly regarding lawyers from Russell McVeagh and female students during its 2015-16 summer intern programme. Those allegations spurred universities to cut ties with the firm, and other lawyers to speak out against the normalisation of sexual harassment within law firms in general.

The Law Society eventually took action and invited 13,662 lawyers to take part in a confidential survey, managed by Colmar Brunton, into the industry's culture; 3516 lawyers responded, and their experiences made up the substance of the report.

WHAT THE SURVEY FOUND 

Women were more likely than men to be harassed by someone in a more senior position. 

Six per cent of lawyers who had been sexually harassed described the harassment as an actual or attempted rape or assault.

The survey found the reported nature of sexual harassment varied. 

While non-physical forms of sexual harassment were most common, two thirds of lawyers who had experienced sexual harassment said it included some form of unwanted physical contact.

Just over half of those who described being subjected to sexual harassment said it had been a one-off occasion.   

Over half of all lawyers surveyed said they had suffered some form of bullying in their career, with 21 per cent of lawyers experiencing bullying in the last six months.

Both sexual harassment and bullying behaviours were more common among lawyers working in criminal law, the survey said. 

In the last five years, 14 per cent of male lawyers experienced one of the 15 sexual harassment behaviours measured.

For both bullying and sexual harassment, less than one in eight reported the incident or made a formal complaint.

Only a third or less of affected lawyers sought support or advice. Fear of the consequences was the main barrier to reporting, the survey concluded.

Twenty eight per cent of people surveyed claimed they had suffered from anxiety as a result of their ordeal, and 10 per cent said they had suffered from depression.