Michelle Duff: The five women who brought a firm to its knees

Friday, 6 July 2018

Law firm responds after the release of a report detailing sexual assaults and misconduct against women interns.

OPINION: If powerful men were not yet beginning to feel nervous, now might be a good time.

If women were in any doubt that speaking out against sexual harassment and assault can bring about change, then the story of the five summer clerks who brought a law firm to its knees is one of empowerment and hope.

Yes, there have been criticisms of Dame Margaret Bazley's 90-page independent review into Russell McVeagh, which canvassed allegations of sexual misconduct and the wider culture that allowed it to go unchecked.

Public service troubleshooter Margaret Bazley's independent review of Russell McVeagh was released on Thursday morning.

Prominent lawyers Catriona MacLennan and Olivia Wensley, who have fronted calls for change, say it glosses over the worst behaviour, leans too heavily on alcohol as a catalyst (as opposed to exploited power imbalance) and does not go far enough in calling for sanctions of the firm or the alleged perpetrators.

Bazley report: what it shows isn't good

Alison Mau: Apologies don't wash**

It's true what happens next is currently in the hands of the Law Society and Russell McVeagh, two entities that, with previous obfuscations and deliberate minimising and downplaying of the incidents, have hardly imbued the public with a sense of trust.

This report cannot be the end; there are questions that remain unanswered, including whether Russell McVeagh acted unlawfully by not immediately reporting allegations of sexual misconduct to the Law Society. This is currently under investigation. There are individuals who still need to be held to account, including the alleged sexual predators and those who enabled them.

The firm's working environment - one that was so patently unsafe for young women, and undoubtedly some men - has to be turned inside out. Sexism and entitlement isn't easy to unlearn.

But. The significance of this moment should not be downplayed.

Can anyone tell me the last time a large-scale, independent review was conducted by one of the country's top watchdogs into a private company? And released publicly, to be disseminated by mainstream media? And the company apologised, vowing to change? Never, in my memory.

This is a turning point for New Zealand workplace culture, and the women who bought this about - the law clerks, the lawyers, those who supported them, journalists Melanie Reid and Sasha Borissenko, who broke the story - deserve our greatest respect.

I can only begin to imagine what the survivors of this sanctioned workplace sexual violence had to go through, both in experiencing such gross violations and in being believed, finding support, and gaining some semblance of justice.

Because make no mistake. At the time, this conduct was permitted. It was allowed to happen.

Bazley's report outlines how, of the Russell McVeagh staff who saw the alleged sexual misconduct - and there were multiple incidents of it at the 2015 work Christmas party alone - no-one said a thing. Those who witnessed inappropriate behaviour or comments at other times were described as laughing, or staying silent. It must have been a long, lonely road.

The report leaves no doubt that what these clerks experienced was abhorrent, and Russell McVeagh's response woefully, hideously inadequate at every turn.

At times, it reads as dark satire. At one point, the chief executive is told of an incident of sexual harassment: 'No formal investigation followed. The firm then went on holiday for Christmas.'

The leading law firm somehow managed to employ 330 people, yet had a two-page harassment policy. A junior lawyer who helped the young women was labelled a 'troublemaker'. Counselling was arranged for an alleged male perpetrator, and not the women.

(Sorry, I just need to take a minute here. WHAT??!!)

The culture, Bazley said, was not restricted to Russell McVeagh. In my experience - both personally, and from working on Stuff's Me Too investigation for the past several months - it's not just one industry.

The most illuminating finding of Bazley's report is one we need to hear repeated: workplace sexual misconduct is systemic.

It's not just isolated sexual predators who are the problem; it's a culture that allows them to flourish, for them to attack with impunity, for their behaviour to stay in the dark.

Now, there's a light on. Let's keep it that way.