You cannot fail to have noticed the seismic cultural and societal shift in attitudes towards allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace.
Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the last few years, you cannot fail to have noticed the seismic cultural and societal shift in attitudes towards reports and allegations of sexual misconduct in the workplace.
The wave has been slow to reach the legal sector directly but recent headlines in the national and international media confirm that law firms are now firmly in the spotlight with regards to sexual misconduct cases.
In September the same year, the Financial Times2 ran an article stating that:
____________________________ 1. Bowcott, O. (2019, May, 15) “Bullying and sexual harassment rife among lawyers, global survey finds”. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/may/15/bullying-and-sexual-harassment-rife-among-lawyers-global-survey-finds
2 Beioley, K. (2019, September, 27). London law firms sex scandals near record high. Financial Times. https://www.google.com/search?q=London+law+firm+sex+scandals+near+record+high&rlz=1C1GCEB_enGB851GB851&oq=London+law+firm+sex+scandals+near+record+high&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.576j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
And then in October came the news that Freshfields were threatening to fine partners for “inappropriate behaviour” in the wake of one of their former partners being fined by the SDT and resigning following allegations of sexual misconduct by a junior female colleague3.
According to a global survey of almost 7,000 lawyers across 135 countries carried out by the International Bar Association (IBA)4 and titled “Us Too? Bullying and Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession”, levels of bullying within the UK legal profession are above the international average with 62% of female respondents and 41% of male respondents reporting that they had been bullied in connection with their employment. By comparison, the international averages were 55% and 30% respectively.
The report also highlighted that the frequency of sexual harassment in the UK is closer to the global average, with 38% of female and 6% of male respondents reporting that they had been affected. Internationally, 37% of female and 7% of male respondents had experienced sexual harassment during their career.
However more than 75% of such cases globally were going unreported for a variety of reasons including the victims’ fear of repercussions for their careers.
Horacio Bernardes Neto, President of the IBA wrote, following the publication of the report5, that:
____________________________ 3. Slingo. J (2019, October 21) “Freshfields threatens to fine partners for 'inappropriate behaviour’”. The Law Society Gazette. Retrieved from: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/freshfields-threatens-to-fine-partners-for-inappropriate-behaviour-/5101882.article
4. International Bar Association (2019). “Us Too? Bullying and Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession”. Retrieved from the International Bar Association Website https://www.ibanet.org/bullying-and-sexual-harassment.aspx
5. Bowcott, O. (2019, May, 15) “Bullying and sexual harassment rife among lawyers, global survey finds”. The Guardian. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/may/15/bullying-and-sexual-harassment-rife-among-lawyers-global-survey-finds
The IBA made a series of recommendations including raising awareness and developing and implementing policies, standards, training and procedures to deal with harassment and bullying.
The SRA has seemingly taken up this call to arms by the IBA and vowed that there will be no let-up in the prosecution of senior solicitors suspected of sexual misconduct with colleagues.
Where such issues have previously been treated as HR investigations or as criminal matters and thus not within the SRA’s remit the regulator has made it clear that if such allegations are found to have breached the regulatory code either through an abuse of authority, a complete lack of integrity and have brought the profession into disrepute, they will be put at the most serious end of the scale for enforcement action.
Such has been the deluge of reports to the SRA that they have been prompted to launch a dedicated sexual harassment unit6 to handle all such cases.
Below, we briefly consider some practical points for what firms should be doing to protect against exposure to these increasing risks: To quote a time-worn phrase immortalised by Bob Hoskins and Maureen Lipman in the old BT adverts: “It’s good to talk”.
6. Rose, N. (2019, July, 25). “SRA received 70 workplace harassment complaints last year”. Legal Futures. Retrieved from: https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/sra-received-70-workplace-harassment-complaints-last-year
Jennifer Chan Associate Director Claims Advocate, FINEX Global
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