Whistleblower campaigns for changes to behaviour
FORMER lawyer Olivia Wensley says a free sexual harassment policy she has created with a legal software company has already been downloaded hundreds of times.
The Queenstown woman is also campaigning for a change in legislation covering lawyers’ behaviour.
Mrs Wensley blew the whistle on the culture of sexual harassment within the legal profession through a blog on professional social media site LinkedIn, leading to hundreds of people sharing their own experiences.
She decided to speak out after quitting her law career to join the legal tech industry.
Mrs Wensley said: ‘‘I just felt like it had to be done, something had to be done.
‘‘Hearing about what happened at Russell McVeagh [allegations of incidents of sexual harassment at law firm] was a trigger for me.
‘‘It’s 2018. Why is this still happening?
‘‘I have a little sister who’s 20 at law school and I don’t want this to happen for her generation.’’
Mrs Wensley also spoke to Minister of Justice Andrew Little for a second time, last Wednesday.
‘‘I put forward to him that legislation needs to be updated.
‘‘Currently there is a pro vision which says practitioners must not treat other practitioners with discourtesy. But that’s a very vague and oldfashioned term.
‘‘So my proposal is to update the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2008 to include specific terms, to include bullying, harassment, discrimination, because often when you find one you’ll find another in a culture.
‘‘He was certainly open to that suggestion. It could be a good first step to make clear what is acceptable and what is not, what constitutes official misconduct.’’
She also met with the New Zealand Law Society president, Kathryn Beck, and acting executive director, Mary Ollivier, the same day to discuss their next steps.
‘‘They’ve said they’re starting to get complaints through, which is wonderful.
‘‘And there has been a huge amount of dialogue in many workplaces, not just law, saying ‘What is sexual harassment’, ‘Do we have a policy?’’
The Law Society is forming a committee to review the issue, beginning with sending out questionnaires to firms.
‘‘It’s a start.’’
More immediate practical steps included launching a website last Saturday, which supports people who want to come forward and make official complaints about sexual harassment and assault.
‘‘My vision is to have lawyers who want to volunteer their services, and pair them up with women who want to make a complaint.’’
‘‘I’m all about practical solutions and working with my colleagues. I work for a legal software company, and we have created a free sexual harassment policy, which we’re giving away to companies.’’
Mrs Wensley is head of customer success at Automio, a lawyerbot tech firm (automated legal advice).
‘‘Our goal is to get a thousand people downloading this policy and use it. We’ve had a huge amount of businesses using it . . . it’s in the hundreds.
‘‘It’s really good. This dialogue is happening and we want it to be spread through New Zealand and that companies start taking a responsible approach to protecting their employees’ safety.’’