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Aus lawyers respond to damning findings in Us Too? report
Law societies and advocacy groups around Australia have described the prevalence of bullying and sexual harassment in the Australian legal profession as “appalling”, with all noting that more must be done to combat and prevent such misconduct.
Jerome Doraisamy
Earlier this week, the International Bar Association released its Us Too? Bullying and Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession report, which revealed that while Australian legal workplaces “are ahead of the international average” when it comes to hosting anti-bullying and sexual harassment training, rates of bullying and sexual harassment are “significantly higher than global averages”.
Australian Women Lawyers said bullying and sexual harassment has been “endemic” across the nation’s legal profession for some time.
“Australia’s survey responses demonstrated levels of sexual harassment and bullying which were among the highest across the globe. This is appalling and action must be taken,” it said in a statement.
Law Society of NSW CEO Michael Tidball said that the “pervasive nature” of such misconduct throughout the legal community is something “we all need to be all aware of”.
“This is a clarion wake-up call for the legal profession about a problem we need to address. The data is unedifying, but it underscores the need for the Law Society of NSW to continue to provide leadership in confronting systemic inequity between men and women and, at an individual level, deal with the distress that arises from harassment, bullying and inappropriate behaviour,” he said.
“This heightened awareness presents both opportunities and challenges for the Australian legal profession to continue to lead a change of culture globally. The legal profession must display best practice and provide leadership in our community. This goes to the heart of everyone being treated equally by the law and before the law.”
Law Society of South Australia president Amy Nikolovski said the report’s findings show “these issues are a real problem that need to be addressed” by our nation’s legal profession.
“It was pleasing, however, that the highest number of respondents to the survey came from Australia. This indicates that Australians are willing to talk about these important issues, call out bad behaviour and discuss ways to improve workplace culture,” she said.
“The results appear to indicate two notable aspects about the Australian experience. Australia is better than average at reporting cases of inappropriate behaviour in the workplace; and Australia still has a way to go in addressing reports of mistreatment in a meaningful way.”
Movements like #MeToo have clearly been influential in Australia, Ms Nikolovski continued.
“As the IBA report showed, the reporting of bullying and harassment rose significantly after the #MeToo movement entered the public consciousness. Australia was one of the countries that was particularly receptive to the movement, with more Australians emboldened to speak out against the appalling ways they have been treated.”
The Law Council of Australia said that sexual harassment and bullying is not to be tolerated in any workplace, and the legal profession is no different.
“In order to have the confidence of the community, it is plain that the legal profession must be representative of the community. This means ensuring that all members of our profession, no matter their race, gender or sexual persuasion are treated with respect and not subject to inappropriate conduct which may force them to leave our profession.”
“In the event that perpetrators of such conduct are unable to understand the inappropriateness of their conduct and/or undertake to change their behaviour, then there may be no place for them within the legal profession,” it posited.
“To that end, the Australian legal profession has a range of professional conduct rules in place to deal with these issues. If substantiated, this type of behaviour may amount to professional misconduct and result in disciplinary action outside of any civil or criminal proceedings.”
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly. A former lawyer, he has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. He is also the host of all five shows under The Lawyers Weekly Podcast Network, and has overseen the brand's audio medium growth from 4,000 downloads per month to over 60,000 downloads per month, making The Lawyers Weekly Show the most popular industry-specific podcast in Australia. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of Minds Count.
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