Partnership Survey: Law firms ‘must unite’ to tackle harassment, says Kate Jenkins

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins urges law firms to do more to stamp out sexual harassment, as women break 30 per cent ceiling for legal partnerships.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins has urged law firms to take a collective approach to tackling harassment. Picture: Aaron Francis

Non-disclosure agreements should be used to protect people who have been the subject of sexual harassment, rather than to reduce brand damage to organisations, says Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins.

Calling for a more limited use of secrecy provisions in a bid to stamp out bad behaviour, Ms Jenkins has also urged the nation’s leading law firms to set aside their rivalries and take a “collective approach” to tackling harassment — including sharing policies and training and establishing an external avenue for complaints.

Almost a year after the High Court revealed former judge Dyson Heydon had been found to have harassed six associates, Ms Jenkins said the rate at which law firms were promoting women was “unacceptable” when females had been a majority of legal graduates for decades but she welcomed progress in the right direction.  Her comments come as The Australian’s Legal Partnership Survey conducted by Eaton Strategy + Search reveals women now make up 30.4 per cent of partners — the first time the figure has risen above 30 per cent.

However, on the key measure of equity partnerships, women lag further behind – comprising just 25 per cent of equity partners at 41 leading law firms.

This is up from 18 per cent five years ago.

The improvement in female promotion rates has shaved a year off the date when gender parity among legal partners is forecast to be achieved – but this is not expected until 2035.

Analysis by Eaton Strategy + Search reveals that women are not expected to reach an average of half of partners at the leading law firms for another 14 years at the current rate of promotion.

Almost half (46.2 per cent) of new partners appointed over the six months to July 1 were women.

Two boutique law firms lead the pack on promoting women – Banki Haddock Fiora, where 66 per cent of equity partners are female, and Swaab (60 per cent).

 

Of the larger law firms, international firm Dentons is in front — a third of equity partners there are female, followed by Allens and Minter Ellison on 32 per cent.

At Gilbert + Tobin, which used to lead the league tables for gender diversity, 31.3 per cent of equity partners are female, closely followed by Hall & Wilcox with 31.2 per cent.

At the opposite end of the table, only 10 per cent of equity partners at Holman Webb are female, 10.7 per cent at Thomson Geer and 11.7 per cent at Piper Alderman, while at Quinn Emanuel and McCullough Robertson, 12.5 per cent of equity partners are women.

In contrast, women make up a majority of lawyers at the nation’s leading firms (58.6 per cent, excluding partners), and were also a majority of new graduates appointed over the past six months (58 per cent).

Ms Jenkins said sexual harassment was a barrier to women succeeding and reaching leadership roles and it hampered firms’ productivity.

“Law firms in particular do have a really historic belief that if you set the rules and you tell people what the rules are, they should follow the rules,” she said.

However, this was not enough to create safe and respectful workplaces — especially for lawyers, given the inherent risks associated with the profession’s hierarchical structure and the reliance on each other for work.

Ms Jenkins said she had encouraged law firms to work together to combat sexual harassment.

“I’ve really encouraged them to share,” she said. “Every firm doesn’t need a different training program, a different policy.”

Offering multiple avenues for complaints – including an external mechanism – was also helpful, she said, adding that law firms had been discussing a centralised system for handling complaints, rather than separate state-based legal regulators.

“People do want independent, confidential places to go,” she said. “Even at the best law firms people are still reluctant to disclose to their own employers.”

Law firms and others should not be fearful of an external system, because it could deliver information and lessons, but she cautioned the industry against making the system more confusing.

Minter Ellison acting chief executive Virginia Briggs said policy statements underpinning the firm’s partnership agreement made “explicit” the firm had zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

“This means there will be action and consequences that are appropriate and proportionate considering the offender’s behaviour … and the person’s wishes subjected to the harassment,” she said.

Lander & Rogers chief executive partner Genevieve Collins said her firm introduced mandatory reporting obligations for bystanders who witnessed or became aware of sexual harassment, as part of an overhaul of its sexual harassment policy.

“This reinforces the firm’s zero tolerance of harassment and its commitment to an inclusive workplace,” she said.

King & Wood Mallesons chief executive Australia Berkeley Cox said his firm was “actively” considering its use of nondisclosure agreements, bystander obligations and a complaints-handling system.

“We are giving very careful and active consideration to these topics … and most importantly culture, to focus more proactively on the prevention of sexual harassment and bullying,” he said.

Norton Rose managing partner Alison Deitz said her firm encouraged bystanders to report but did not impose obligations on them, recognising partners and leaders were better able “to call out bad behaviour”.

Thomson Geer chair Loretta Reynolds said that the past six years, more than 40 per cent of new partners promoted organically at her firm (rather than hired laterally) had been female.