Misconduct victim won’t be on panel
That couch in the law partner’s office hasn’t always been just to sit on. Tom Hunt reports on the toxic culture of after-work drinking.
The ground-breaking voice of a woman who spoke up as a sexual misconduct victim will not be heard on a Law Society panel looking into the stain on the profession.
Justice Minister Andrew Little encouraged Olivia Wensley to put her name forward for the panel – led by Dame Silvia Cartwright – and she did just that.
The Law Society has strongly defended its response to the scandals but confirmed it never agreed to put Wensley’s name forward to go on the panel.
The regulatory working group is just one of a large raft of measures the Law Society has taken after waves of sexual misconduct allegations.
They initially centred around law firm Russell McVeagh but, after Wensley went public with her tale, it became clear the situation was more widespread.
While the society says it acted on the issue as soon as it became aware of it, Wensley has joined the chorus of those saying it was too little, too late and the society now needed to step up.
‘‘I’m extremely disappointed with the Law Society in the way they have approached this,’’ Wensley said.
‘‘It is nothing short of scandalous. They have known about it for decades and done nothing about it.’’
Sexual misconduct was a thinly veiled secret in the profession long before the Russell McVeagh allegations, but the society only took action when Little warned that if it did not take adequate steps he would order a ministerial inquiry.
Wensley’s story, in February, led to an anonymous blog set up by legal researcher Zoe Lawton, which attracted more than 200 tales in a month – many of them of sexual misconduct, but some scathing of the Law Society’s handling of the issue.
While the Law Society did not put Wensley’s name forward for panel selection, it said she would likely be invited to speak to the panel.
President Kathryn Beck said there was an able victims’ rights advocate on the panel.
There was already a gender equality charter long before the allegations broke and next cab off the rank was sexual misconduct and bullying, which had been planned long ago.
As it got feedback on the gender equality issue, it was apparent sexual misconduct within the profession was an issue and it had already started to educate about it. The Russell McVeaghrelated saga expedited that work, she said.
While the society received some complaints about sexual misconduct between firms, or between lawyers and clients, it had not received any related to in-office issues.
‘‘They have known about it for decades and done nothing about it.’’
Olivia Wensley
Oh how they laughed as the fork drove into the waitress’s backside. They had been drinking since lunch. It was a long lunch. It was, after all, Friday – the end of a week of battle in Wellington’s colosseums of boardrooms and courtrooms.
Somewhere else in Wellington, another legal gladiator was still at work. All there – especially the younger, female staff – knew that couch in his office wasn’t just for sitting. Those younger, female staff feared the invitation.
It was Friday afternoon and the law firm bar was stocked with beer, bubbly, spirits. For all intents and purposes the supply is endless – though by the time the night is out that will be tested.
Barbara Buckett has been in law for 35 years and seen her fair share of bad behaviour. What she hasn’t seen first-hand she has heard about – being an employment lawyer will do that.
She watched as the #metoo saga began after the Harvey Weinstein sex scandal, then the Russell McVeagh saga, then as accusations about her profession rolled in – many thanks to a blog set up by legal researcher Zoe Lawton.
Buckett isn’t out to name names. She wants – and till recent developments wouldn’t have ever dared dream it could happen – systemic change in the law community.
Now she is hopeful. It is an avalanche, she says, a tsunami, that will only withdraw when sexual harassment in the law fraternity is no longer tolerated.
The stories she can reel out – the boozy long lunch she attended where a senior male lawyer laughed as he prodded a passing waitress’s backside, the partner and his ‘‘casting couch’’, the bottomless office bars – will one day be a thing of the past, she hopes.
Perhaps also assigned to the scrapheap of history will be the acceptance of the associated bad behaviour. The vomit and boozesoaked sexual indiscretions so easily laughed off as the gladiators return to work on Monday.
Already, Buckett says, there are improvements. She recalls trying to arrange a function for young lawyers in years past. Their reputation was so bad that the venue cancelled on them. That reputation has now improved, she says.
After the Russell McVeagh allegations surfaced, Lawton set up a blog where those in the legal world could share their tales anonymously. What transpired over the subsequent month was a torrid litany.
‘‘[They] hold the dinners where they seat known male chauvinists beside young juniors, supplying alcohol and no host responsibility and then laughing at the men and women who get drunk and throw their weight around,’’ Female, 36 to 45, wrote.
A man, also 36 to 45, wrote of how attractive, young women were hired. Work hours were long. ‘‘Partners [encouraged] younger male lawyers to adopt their sexist attitudes, and senior staff focusing their attention on young women at functions. The drinking was excessive, but only a problem in that it lowered men’s inhibitions such that they were happy to act on their worst impulses.’’
Those posts were just some of the ones received in a single day. The blog was live for a month. There are many more examples, that also go into bullying, alcohol-free sexual harassment, and – at the most extreme end – rape.