Lady Justice podcast: Claire O’Connor SC reveals female lawyers face sexism, harassment in workplace

Legal powerhouse Claire O’Connor SC has battled some of the most famous legal fights. Now, she’s revealed shockingly high rates of sexual harassment among female lawyers.

Claire O’Connor is used to fighting against human rights’ abuses.

But when the now senior counsel first entered the law, it’s doubtful she expected to find her own profession so plagued with violations.

“I have had three women talk to me about attempted rapes and rapes that’s happened with senior people in their worksite. And all of this was in the last decade,” Ms O’Connor said.

Ms O’Connor has watched the legal profession haemorrhage female lawyers in the decades she’s been practising – and contrary to assumptions, research reveals the women are not leaving the job because of an inability to juggle family commitments.

In fact, in the ‘Review of Harassment in the South Australian Legal Profession’, conducted by the Equal Opportunity Commission and published last year, 42 per cent of respondents said they had experienced sexual or discriminatory harassment in the legal profession.

Of those 621 respondents, women by far accounted for the majority of sexual harassment victims.

Yet the state-based study is emblematic of a national trend.

Ms O’Connor’s comments — made in episode seven of News Corp’s Lady Justice podcast — follow settlement claims being finalised for three victims of former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon. All were sexually harassed while working as judge’s associates.

Claire O'Connor SC at Villeneuve Smith Chambers in Adelaide. Picture Matt Turner.

Listen to the new episode of the Lady Justice podcast below:

The women formed part of a group of six female judge’s associates who went public with complaints of sexual harassment against Heydon – all six had their claims upheld by investigation.

“When I think about what the judge’s associates were subjected to, the treatment they complained about in relation to Dyson Heydon’s matters … many of them don’t want to practice law anymore, and that’s the tragedy of it,” Ms O’Connor said.

“We’re losing women. We’re losing women in the profession because they’re not getting the deal they deserved.

“The reason women are leaving the profession is because of sexist problems. Now that is sexual assault, sexual harassment, lack of advancement and fairness in the legal system in relation to their position. They were watching their male colleagues who were the same age as them advance and faster. And they thought, ‘Why am I in this profession?’ Or they were experiencing serious sexual assault and there was no method to deal with that.”

Cornelia Rau with her former lawyer Claire O'Connor in Adelaide.

Ms O’Connor, an esteemed human rights lawyer who famously represented German-Australian resident Cornelia Rau when she was unlawfully held in immigration detention, has had her own experience of sexual harassment while working as a lawyer.

In 2016, she referenced the sexual harassment and/or bullying perpetrated against her by a fellow lawyer who went on to become a judge, in a Facebook post.

The post, which has since been deleted, called out her profession for its lack of diversity and favouritism of white male privilege — and resulted in two inquiries being launched.

In addition, the Legal Profession Conduct Commissioner ruled her post was insulting and diluted public confidence in the judiciary.

Ms O’Connor is in the process of appealing the finding and unable to comment on the matter.

What she will say is this: for true change to occur it needs to be cultural, and the onus needs to be not on the victim, but on the entire profession.

“No one rocks the boat if they want to row it,” she said.

“It has to come from the profession realising that it’s a toxic profession for some, that it needs change on the ground, that these solutions have to come from within the profession.

“You don’t walk past anymore because it’s very rare that some of the conduct that we know about happens in a vacuum. It’s often known and seen by others. And I’m very impressed now with some of the conversations I have with not always young, but some men who understand the need for change. They understand their role in making their colleagues safer.”

For more episode of the Lady Justice podcast go to www.ladyjusticepodcast.com.au