In mid February 2018, there was widespread media reporting of allegations of sexual harassment and assault at large national law firm Russell McVeagh. At the time, many people seemed to be under the impression that this was an isolated incident at one firm but based on my experience, and the experiences of my female colleagues, I knew that this was a much more widespread issue. I decided to provide a forum for people to share their experiences and to demonstrate to the NZ Law Society that this was a widespread issue that needed to be taken seriously.
The blog was live for six weeks from late February 2018 - March 2018 and 220 posts were made. During this time the blog received widespread media coverage and was viewed over 50,000 times. It ultimately led to the NZ Law Society undertaking the first ever survey of sexual harassment in the legal profession which showed that one in three female lawyers have been sexually harassed during their career. The results of this survey then led the NZ Law Society to undertake an independent review of its complaints process which concluded that this is not fit for purpose.
All information was provided for publication on the understanding that any identifying information would be redacted to prevent the identification of any individuals involved. If you wish to quote any material from the blog in an article, thesis, artwork, or other publicly available material, please contact me first to discuss. While the information in the blog is anonymous, it is sensitive and should only be reproduced in an ethical manner out of respect for those people who provided the information. The information is their personal stories which they provided for educational purposes only.
To download the archived blog please click here.
