Law Society hit with a double whammy of accusations in the wake of sexual abuse and harassment survey

Friday, 1 June 2018

NZ Law Society President Kathryn Beck shares the findings of the Workplace Environment Survey commissioned after many women came forward complaining about sexual harassment within the profession. (File video)

The New Zealand Law Society has known about 'cultural problems' within the industry for years and has failed to act, the Wellington Women Lawyers' Association says.

The association's convenor Steph Dyhrberg has lambasted the society and its president Kathryn Beck for the ongoing failure to act in female lawyers' best interest.

Society President Kathryn Beck, this week, wrote to every lawyer in New Zealand expressing disappointment, disgust and regret about the sexual harassment and bullying uncovered in an NZLS-commissioned survey, which she said had left the society 'surprised and caught out by [the] results'.

New Zealand Law Society President Kathryn Beck says she's deeply ashamed of the findings in the survey.

But now, the society is facing significant backlash after issuing what's been called a 'disingenuous' statement in the wake of revelations that one in five lawyers have been sexually harassed in the workplace.

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In 2016, Josh Pemberton's 'First Steps' research paper, published on the NZ Law Society website, showed how bad it was for many junior lawyers.

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Former lawyer Olivia Wensley, a vocal proponent for change in the profession, says the results from the society's survey are far from surprising.

'This is our members' lived experience, and we all knew it. The survey results have confirmed what women lawyers and researchers have been telling our profession for years: the law is a hostile environment for many of the people who work in the sector,' Dyhrberg said.

A few bullet points from the NZ Law Society's Work Environment Survey they released earlier today.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the society received a report – Causes and Consequences of Work-Related Psychosocial Risk Exposure – in 2015, which stated that about half of all respondents, from Australia and New Zealand, had been exposed to some form of sexual harassment risk.

The 11-page PhD report, undertaken by R.T. Michalak at the University of Queensland, also suggested that 'organisational 'cultures of silence' were widespread' based on the majority, nearly 90 per cent, of mistreated employees not reporting their experiences.

The report was provided to all participating law societies in Australia and New Zealand.

Dyhrberg said the society needed to show leadership in the wake of the latest survey.

'It has been astonishingly difficult to get our profession, led by the Law Society, to take the cultural problems in our profession seriously and to take positive steps to address them,' Dyhrberg said.

Beck said the society 'absolutely accepted' that it had not done enough in the space and were committed to changing that.

'I accept that they [WWLA] are very frustrated at the past and this is a time for change. It's not that we didn't know there was sexual harassment or bullying out there but we didn't know the full extent of the culture of legal workplaces and that's why we did the survey. The story that the survey tells is disgraceful.

WWLA's stance has been echoed by former lawyer and vocal proponent for change in the profession Olivia Wensley who agreed results from the society's survey were far from surprising.

'It is common knowledge that sexual harassment has been an endemic problem for decades. The Law Society has failed in its duty to protect these individuals.'

The 2015 report should have been acted on sooner, she said.

'Perhaps if the Law Society took action when it received this information, 'it could have protected the interns at Russell McVeagh from suffering sexual assault in the summer of 2015-2016,' Wensley said.

However, Beck, who was aware of the report, said its focus on Australian firms meant it wasn't seen as particularly helpful

'The final report didn't distinguish New Zealanders from Australians and we also don't know what the sample was so it didn't provide those useful indicators.'

An additional report by law graduate Josh Pemberton highlighted similar issues, primarily among junior lawyers, with instances of sexual harassment by clients as well as within firms. That report was published on the Law Society website in 2016.

Dyhrberg said both WWLA and the Women in Law Committee of the Wellington Branch had encountered 'polite indifference, veiled threats and outright hostility' when bringing up such topics during seminars, workshops and panels.

She questioned Beck's claim that the society had only learned about the sexual assaults of young women at Russell McVeagh, among others cases, through the media. Something Beck disputed.

'We hadn't had any complaints of sexual harassment, sexual assault or bullying within legal workplaces but I fully accept that that is a problem.'

Changing the ways assault, harassment and bullying can be reported is something the Law Society's regulatory working group, led by Dame Sylvia Cartwright, will be looking at. While there is no set date for when that report will be completed, Beck said the timeline for it would hopefully become more clear next week.