Few would be surprised by a finding of ‘systemic’ problems of sexual harassment and bullying at the bar. The unacceptable experiences of countless barristers were acknowledged in an independent report published last week by Labour peer and former solicitor general Harriet Harman KC.
Over the course of a year, Harman and her team met with law students, pupils, junior and senior barristers, as well as senior judges and others working in the bar, and received 170 written submissions.
Her report relates how barristers had been groped, propositioned, shouted at in court and left feeling ‘completely isolated’. She presented the Bar Council with a report condemning the ‘culture of impunity’ and ‘collective bystanding’.
She found there was ‘no confidence’ in the complaints system, which created a ‘cohort of untouchables’ because reporting bullying, harassment and sexual harassment is deemed career-ending for complainants.
The council commissioned the report after research found increasing numbers of barristers were experiencing or witnessing inappropriate and unacceptable behaviours within chambers, at workplaces and in court.
The problem attracted widespread media attention last year when Jo Sidhu KC, former chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, was disbarred after a tribunal found that he had engaged in inappropriate sexual activity with a young aspiring barrister who was doing work experience with him. Sidhu is appealing against his disbarment.
The Bar Council told the Gazette that it earmarked up to £150,000 to cover the cost of the report. It comes almost 10 years after movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s downfall for sexual assault and misconduct sparked the global #MeToo movement.
Some may ask why it has taken the bar a decade to catch up with the zeitgeist and peep behind the gown or into the robing room. Did it need to hire a politician – and a solicitor to boot – to tell it what it must have already known?
The problem of bullying and sexual harassment across the entire legal profession was highlighted by the International Bar Association. Its 2019 report, Us Too? Bullying and Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession, found that bullying and sexual harassment were ‘rife’.
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Among nearly 7,000 people from 135 countries, it found that roughly one in two female respondents and one in three male respondents had been bullied, with one in three female respondents – and one in 14 men – saying they had been sexually harassed in a workplace context.
Further, a 2021 report from the charity LawCare found that one in five legal professionals – including members of the judiciary, solicitors, barristers, chartered legal executives, trainees, paralegals, legal secretaries and business support staff – experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination in the workplace.
A separate LawCare report two years later revealed that 92 people had contacted the charity for mental health support because of workplace bullying, harassment or discrimination in 2023 – up by 95% from 47 in 2022.
There are nearly 18,000 practising barristers in England and Wales and almost 180,000 solicitors. Instances of bullying and sexual harassment among solicitors – including those in the City who can often work all night and even sleep in their offices – are likely to dwarf those at the bar.
While there have been high-profile cases of alleged sexual misconduct before the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, the solicitors’ profession has not had what Harman described as the bar’s ‘moment of reckoning’.
The Law Society cannot afford to be complacent – a fact accepted in its response to Harman’s report. Vice president Mark Evans acknowledged a profession-wide problem and affirmed Chancery Lane’s ‘commitment to a zero-tolerance approach within the solicitors’ profession’.
Among 36 recommendations, Harman’s report calls for the appointment of a bar ‘conduct’ commissioner and an overhaul of the complaints system. She suggests it should be a disciplinary offence for barristers to have sexual relations with pupils or those doing work experience.
The first two are likely to add further expense for barristers, while the third, if it had applied in the past, would have affected many relationships and marriages at the bar and seen numerous barristers up on disciplinary charges.
Defending the cost of the review, Bar Council chief executive Malcolm Cree told the Gazette it was a ‘necessary and strategic investment in the collective future and sustainability of the profession’.
He said the ‘cost of inaction would be high’, as bullying and harassment lead to ‘devastating consequences for individuals and their wellbeing, loss of talent, reputational damage, legal and regulatory risks and costs to chambers and barristers’.
Cree said the council is considering Harman’s proposals and will ‘develop an action plan,’ insisting that ‘by taking positive action there will be a reduction in regulatory costs over time’.
Harman’s report will have troubling repercussions for the judiciary – who are mostly drawn from the bar. Bullying, sex-pest barristers may go to the bench. Harman also identified the same poor behaviour traits among judges and called on the judiciary to ‘acknowledge the problem of judges bullying barristers’ and take steps to stop it.
The bar has its report. But these longstanding problems have been identified before, with little action as a result. Does the bar have the resolve to act this time?
Catherine Baksi is a freelance journalist and qualified barrister
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