Dame Margaret Bazley to head review into law firm Russell McVeagh
Wednesday, 7 March 2018
Public service troubleshooter Dame Margaret Bazley will lead an external review into law firm Russell McVeagh.
The firm's chairman Malcolm Crotty said in a statement that the external review would look at incidents of sexual harassment within the company that occurred in 2015/16. Dame Margaret will be assisted by a woman lawyer whose appointment will be announced shortly the statement said.
Some of the incidents include inappropriate sexual behaviour, including staff having sex with law students in a boardroom. Russell McVeagh has said it happened 10 years ago, was consensual, and the staff involved were reprimanded.
Dame Margaret has led a number of state sector organisations and was a member of the Waitangi Tribunal for a decade.
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Russell McVeagh senior partner Pip Greenwood said the company recognised 'that the incidents of sexual harassment that have occurred at our firm have had a profound effect on the women involved and we are all truly sorry and horrified that they occurred'.
'We are committed to ensuring that such incidents do not happen again. We are extremely grateful to Dame Margaret for agreeing to conduct this review. We have been conscious, in making this appointment, to appoint a person who is truly independent as well as who has experience in such work.'
Crotty said the women who have been subjected to any form of sexual harassment during that time want to be assured that the review will be thorough.
'Our current staff and partners want that as well.'
The scope of the review included the 2015/16 incidents any other that may come to light during the review.
WHO IS DAME MARGARET BAZLEY?
Wellington's Dame Margaret Bazley entered the public service as a psychiatric hospital nurse. She gained notoriety - and critics - due to successive governments' zeal for parachuting her into taxpayer-fed organisations during crises.
Her career peaked with her scrutiny into a police cover-up, and also included her investigation into rugby culture, which she criticised for over-indulging young players who transgress off the field.
Louise Nicholas accused three policemen of pack raping her when she was a teenager in Rotorua in the 1980s. Bazley oversaw the public inquiry into the scandal, leading to major police reform.
She has spent more than 60 years in the public service.
Under the Lange Government in the 1980s she served as Transport Secretary and chaired the Fire Service Commission, both through reform.
Following that she was appointed chairwoman of the struggling regional council in Canterbury.
Bazley, 80, will come out of retirement, which she announced last year, to conduct the Russell McVeagh review.