Intern interest up at infamous law firm

If the Russell McVeagh saga achieves nothing else, it shows there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Around the time hundreds of students cried ‘‘me too’’ in Midland Park in central Wellington, the law firm – at the centre of allegations of sexual misconduct of interns and literally upstairs from the park – was opening applications for the next batch of summer interns.

It would, this year, receive a higher-than-usual number of applicants. It was the predecessors of those interns who, just two summers before, were the victims of alleged sexual misconduct at the firm.

Russell McVeagh senior partner Pip Greenwood told a media conference on Thursday there had been a ‘‘marginally higher’’ number of law clerk applications, which opened in mid-March for the summer of 2018 to 2019.

Victoria University Students’ Association welfare vice-president Bethany Paterson was at the protest in March on Midland Park. She said the number of applications did not necessarily indicate confidence in the firm, ‘‘but the competitive nature of law and why bullying and sexual harassment have existed in these spaces, unchecked, for so long’’.

‘‘Law students still want to become lawyers and these big firms provide good job opportunities. That’s why the idea of speaking out against their poor culture is intimidating for many, because it may affect the types of job opportunities these young people can access. So it’s not a complete surprise their intern numbers haven’t dropped as a result of public outcry about their management of serious issues regarding young staff members.’’

She had heard that the culture at Russell McVeagh was improving and word-of-mouth from that could have helped numbers.

News that summer clerks at Russell McVeagh had allegedly been victims of inappropriate sexual behaviour broke in February.

By the time applications for the coming summer’s clerks opened in mid-March, a swag of new claims had come to light.

These allegations, some historic, included sexual abuse, sex and drug-taking, ranking women’s looks, heavy drinking, attending strip shows on the company dime, sex on a boardroom table, and the now-infamous allegations of the summer of 2015-2016.

Canterbury University Law Dean Ursula Cheer said students were aware of what had happened and ‘‘may be thinking it is a good time to work there since the firm is apparently committed to change’’. ‘‘While it is under the spotlight, also, there is a strong incentive for it to ensure nothing goes wrong.’’

She and other deans had been working with students interested in internships by building confidence, teaching them their rights, and how to complain if necessary.

‘‘They also know they can talk to their dean if they need to,’’ she said. ‘‘I also think the MeToo movement may be giving more confidence to interns and more transparency to the process generally.’’

‘‘It may affect the types of job opportunities these young people can access.

Bethany Paterson