Law Society survey ‘deeply saddening’

Tales of sexual harassment expose cultural crisis: President

A“cultural crisis” has been acknowledged in New Zealand’s legal industry after the damning results of a survey of the country’s lawyers revealed sexual harassment was rife.

It was commissioned by the New Zealand Law Society after increasing numbers of young women made allegations of sexual harassment within the profession, most notably at Russell McVeagh — one of the country’s “big three” firms.

The survey showed about one in three female lawyers has been sexually harassed during her career and in the past five years a third of female lawyers have faced sexually crude or offensive behaviour.

Nearly a third also received unwanted sexual attention, such as intrusive questions about their private lives or physical appearance.

Law Society president Kathryn Beck said the findings were “deeply saddening” but thanked those who had told their stories and shone a light into dark corners of the industry covered for too long.

“We must call a spade a spade — there is a cultural crisis in the New Zealand legal profession.”

Beck said the legal profession generally and the Law Society had been caught flat-footed by the wave of sexual harassment and assault accusations — which began this year.

“The stories kept coming. How big ● ● ●

was this problem? We didn’t know. Why didn’t we know about it? We didn’t know that either,” she told a room full of journalists at the Law Society’s Auckland office yesterday.

She apologised and acknowledged the Law Society has not provided the leadership so obviously required.

“I’m disappointed that this research is a surprise to us. I’m disappointed we heard about so much through the media,” she said.

“I’m disappointed that, for whatever reason, people chose not to report their experiences to us. I’m disappointed that for so many . . . the law has not been a safe profession.”

New Zealand Bar Association president Clive Elliott, QC, said the survey needs to be a catalyst for change. He said the findings were disturbing and “unveiled for all to see what obviously many in our profession knew already”.

One in five lawyers also said they were bullied during the past six months, with judges as a prominent perpetrator of bullying for 44 per cent of lawyers working in criminal law.

In an open letter to lawyers nationwide, Beck said there was a powerful cultural disruption highlighting injustice and inequality worldwide.

“Think [Harvey] Weinstein in the United States and the #MeToo movement,” she wrote.

“But this disruption is not confined to other countries. This is happening to our profession as we speak.”

A regulatory working group that the Law Society has already established, chaired by Dame Silvia Cartwright, is further examining the allegations and searching for potential changes to regulatory systems that guide the legal profession.

A task group will also be established by the Law Society to investigate the findings of the survey.

In March, Russell McVeagh chairman Malcolm Crotty announced an external review of the firm, led by Dame Margaret Bazley.

“It cannot and will not return to the way it was,” Beck said.

“While painful, embarrassing and difficult to confront, this disruption is a gift from courageous young people that the New Zealand legal community will not squander.”

HWatch video at nzherald.co.nz