Ripples spread from law sector upheaval
Otago University law dean Mark Henaghan has stepped down from his role.
The move comes weeks after revelations emerged about an alcohol-fuelled law camp he attended.
The 63-year-old will remain at the university until the end of the academic year, before taking up a professorship at the Auckland University law school.
‘‘My decision to step aside as dean early is not related to student law camps,’’ he said.
The annual law camp was can- celled after concerns were raised about jelly wrestling and nude drinking games at the event.
Henaghan attended a talent show during the camp, which involved nudity, prompting several complaints.
Society of Otago University Law Students had run the camp for the past 10 years but was forced to cancel the event after the university withdrew its support.
Earlier this year pro-vice chancellor humanities Professor Tony Ballantyne said ‘‘a rethink and redesign of the event is required’’.
The revelations surfaced as law schools, Otago University included, severed ties with Russell McVeagh while a review into sexual misconduct allegations at the Wellington law firm is conducted.
Students working in the firm’s summer clerk programme in 2015-16 complained about inappropriate sexual behaviour and misconduct by staff in its Wellington office.
Allegations included sexual harassment and that staff engaged in boardroom sex with students.
Two incidents
And it was reported earlier this week that a partner at a Wellington law firm left shortly before Christmas after two ‘‘behavioural incidents’’.
The departure of the unnamed partner at DLA Piper, in Customhouse Quay, follows allegations that a culture of harassment is rife in the legal profession.
BuckettLaw senior employment lawyer Barbara Buckett said her Wellington firm currently had about six cases on its books from within the legal profession, each with ‘‘sexual connotations’’ ranging from inappropriate sexual behaviour to sexual discrimination.
‘‘None of the big [law] organisations are free from it. It is innate there.’’
The pattern was usually the same, she said. The incidents involved older men, their younger female juniors, alcohol, and afterwork events.
A source familiar with the DLA Piper New Zealand case said the partner had been under orders not to go to work functions unsupervised before a party around Christmas last year. It is understood he went to that party, where an incident happened, after which he left the firm.
DLA Piper New Zealand country managing partner Martin Wiseman would not discuss specifics of the case, but confirmed two ‘‘behavioural incidents’’ happened during 2017 and were reported to the Law Society.