Bazley report: Russell McVeagh apologies don't wash

Thursday, 5 July 2018

OPINION: As long as a year ago, Russell McVeagh executives told Stuff the trouble at the mill (so to speak) was an isolated feature of a single department and not reflective of the great culture at the firm. This was a nice bit of PR spin, but has been shown to be way off the mark.

Thanks to the Bazley report released Thursday, we now know what the culture at Russell McVeagh was like. The report calls it 'work-hard, play-hard', which I find a rather vanilla kind of phrase for what really was a licence to do whatever took your fancy when it came to the underlings in the firm.

Sources tell me many of those 250 Russell McVeagh employees who came forward to speak to Dame Margaret were encouraged to do so by the firm, and were also encouraged to tell her what a marvellous place to work it is.

For those who were egged on to drink to excess, then grabbed, assaulted, humiliated, spanked, flashed at and groped – and worse – it was not so marvellous at all.

**READ MORE:

* Bazley report: A light shines into Russell McVeagh

* Russell McVeagh barred from UC campus

* Russell McVeagh backtracks on claims of doing work for Women's Refuge

* Hey, Russell McVeagh. Why don't you teach lawyers to stop harassing women?**

The emails have been rolling in to #metooNZ in the wake of the report's release, and one in particular stands out.

It came from top Wellington chef Pip Brown, who was part of the catering team at a Russell McVeagh Christmas party, organised by interns, at a waterfront location some years back.

Pip describes having to protect her staff as the night wore on and behaviour deteriorated. She describes this as 'hard work', as grossly intoxicated guests smashed French doors, threw chairs into the water, smeared food up and down the walls and smashed glasses.

Her astonishment at what she archly calls 'these reputable young legal minds' turned to horror as one female server was pushed up against a wall and lewdly propositioned by a Russell McVeagh staffer.

It was after midnight, the employee was scared out of her wits and Pip was the only other sober person in the room. She sent the woman home in a taxi, and in due course, did the right thing and made a formal complaint to the law firm.

She says she was never told the outcome.

That was more than 15 years ago. For Russell McVeagh management to suggest that they've only just realised how broken their culture is, and how sorry they are as a result, simply does not stack up alongside the facts.

In December 2017, two of the interns from the 2015/16 summer clerkship sent a letter to Russell McVeagh management containing allegations of sexual assault at its most serious. They asked that the letter be read to the firm's partners. Sources tell me that request was acted on. Thus the partners did know. But the firm did nothing until those very brave young women took their complaints to the media. Russell McVeagh's mea culpa came only when the story was blown wide open on the news websites.

Now the apology has been made, and alongside it a commitment by the firm to do much, much better. This apology, and any commitment that goes with it, deserves to be viewed with scepticism.

The firm has promised it will be getting an 'independent expert to set up new policies dealing with sexual harassment and assault, bullying, alcohol, and a range of other issues'.

To have any credibility at all, that overhaul must be victim-focused, and not a copy of the policy and training that appears to have become the norm; where protection of the firm is the main goal, and victims are left in dark about where their complaint is going, how it's being handled, and by whom.

One comment in particular, to Dame Margaret from a staff member, gave me chills.

Talking about the culture of bullying at the firm, a junior member told her 'bad behaviour does not seem to affect career progression'.

No, indeed. As Stuff's #metooNZ project has found, almost without exception the opposite seems to be true. There are senior figures in some of our largest and most respected organisations who have flown from promotion to promotion, reaching the very top of the executive greasy pole, brazenly in spite of their bad behaviour. In some companies it does not even appear to matter how many allegations, from completely separate employees, they face – the rainmakers, the ones with the power, are the ones who are believed.

If the results of the Bazley report make you feel a bit queasy, you'd better take a seat. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of organisations with similar issues of systemic sexual harassment and misconduct throughout New Zealand's business landscape.

The Bazley report is not an end point for anything. In fact, when it comes to shining a light on the grubby, and in some cases criminal, practices in places like Russell McVeagh, we have not even begun.