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11/16/2018
YL Board: This Is What Sexual Harassment in the Legal Industry Looks Like | The American Lawyer
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YL oard: This Is What exual Harassment in the Legal Industr Looks Like We call for the indutr to avoid ilence when witneing harament and hold perpetrator—no matter how ig a ook of uine—accountale. By The Young Lawyer Editorial Board of The American Lawyer | February 28, 2018
ditor’ note: Thi i the rt monthl editorial from The American Lawer’ new Young Lawer editorial oard. Law tudent are trained to undertand the dnamic of power and in uence a the exit within government organization and corporation. arl experience in courtroom, client meeting and negotiation further intruct new lawer on thee dnamic. ut oung lawer are not necearil prepared for the power tructure that exit within the law rm and legal department
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YL Board: This Is What Sexual Harassment in the Legal Industry Looks Like | The American Lawyer
whoe hall the walk, or the aue of power that exit within our profeion— including exual miconduct that ideline critical talent at a time when the indutr apire for greater gender diverit in it enior rank. A lawer, we erve a authoritie on the law; our occupation enale our jutice tem to function. Depite that privilege—or perhap ecaue of it—ome law rm and their memerhip (whether knowingl or unknowingl) diminih report of miconduct, condone a hotile work environment, and penalize thoe who peak out aout thee wrong. In e ect, lawer can ecome the antithei of advocate when it come to upporting and protecting the victim among them. Thi oard encourage the legal indutr—in all it enterprie, pulic and private—to take a hard look at itelf in the wake of the #MeToo movement, a weeping ocial media initiative that provided a platform for thouand of people to hare their experience of exual harament and aault. We elieve it i imperative that victim of exual miconduct in our profeion are no longer dimied or elittled, and that perpetrator of uch miconduct are held accountale irrepective of their profeional tature or ook of uine. Law rm often mijudge the cot of exual miconduct on their workforce and longevit plan. It i not lot on u how the related lo of talent —motl female—contriute to diparitie etween women and men in our profeion.
This Is What Sexual Misconduct in Law Firms Looks Like For thoe unfamiliar with exual miconduct in a law rm, and the unfortunate repone to uch ehavior, we o er the following real-world example: A ummer aociate join colleague for an after-part at a ar following a rm event. A he it next to a partner, he touche the jewelr on her writ and tate, “I’d like to ee ou in jut thi.” When he report the incident, the rm repond anning the partner from future interaction with ummer aociate.
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YL Board: This Is What Sexual Harassment in the Legal Industry Looks Like | The American Lawyer
A partner initiate an a air with an aociate on hi team and promie to leave hi poue for her. When the partner reconider, the team leader ak the aociate, who i one ear h of partnerhip, to move to another o ce location o that the partner can reconcile hi marriage. Ultimatel the aociate leave the rm o that he doe not have to relocate. The partner i not reprimanded and i permitted extenive time out of the o ce for couneling. A female partner engage in exual relation with a male ummer aociate. A partner tell an aociate that he will not e promoted to partner unle he agree to have an a air with him. A rm’ hiring partner i known for taking male and female ummer aociate to trip clu and to hi houe for “after partie” following rm event—which often involve aociate making exual advance toward recruiting ta who are alo preent. The partner i not reprimanded and i intead een a a recruiting upertar for howing the ummer aociate a good time. ome ma view comment related to exualit a workplace goip or harmle irting. ut oung lawer who are vigilant aout career advancement and rightl concerned aout peronal afet, crutinize and react to thi unprofeional ehavior through their career choice, which are often detrimental to the victim and to the rm. The following example demontrate how perceived favoritim aed on ex, and a rm’ reaction to exual innuendo, can reult in dratic career deciion oung lawer. A oung lawer known for high-qualit work increaingl receive work from a male equit partner who i uncharacteriticall kind to her, in contrat with hi reputation for eing di cult. Another partner remark that the equit partner ha a “cruh” on the aociate. The aociate quetion whether he receive work aed on her own merit. he eventuall decide to leave the rm due to her dicomfort with thi ituation. Partner openl comment that an attractive junior aociate i aked to preent to client ecaue of her look. Other aociate aume that the junior aociate will e favored for thi uper cial reaon and eek work in other practice area intead. A enior aociate meet with a partner to hare the experience of a junior aociate who con ded in her aout exual innuendo from another partner. The partner dimie it, tating that the junior aociate i eing “dramatic.” everal prominent male partner in a practice group are known for onl taking male aociate to lunch. A a reult, female aociate are not ale to dicu their career development or poile work aignment with thee partner and their team are virtuall all male. Mot female aociate end up leaving the practice group.
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YL Board: This Is What Sexual Harassment in the Legal Industry Looks Like | The American Lawyer
Recommendations for Young Lawyers The nature of legal work require long hour at the o ce, reulting in iolation from famil, friend and communit. Other cenario, uch a trial preparation, ma create ituation where colleague are unuuall dependent upon one another for profeional and emotional upport over an extended period of time. Notwithtanding thee factor, tr not to allow our perpective on profeional and peronal oundarie to ecome kewed. If ou feel that ou have een mitreated or that a colleague ha croed the line, eek advice from a truted peer or mentor and, importantl, alo eek guidance from omeone outide the legal profeion a well. A laperon can o er an ojective point of view a ou conider next tep. Additionall, man rm o er emploee aitance program with con dential couneling. If ou are the victim of exual harament, familiarize ourelf with our emploer’ exual harament polic. Report the incident to our human reource department, and if none, to the o ce managing partner. Conider that ome partner ma not repond with the rm’ o cial tance on miconduct; therefore, it ma e wie to con de in a partner who i in a leaderhip role outide of our practice group to eek uniaed treatment. If ou are the victim of a crime, report the incident a oon a poile to law enforcement. A afe, productive workplace free of exual harament i in everone’ et interet. Ideall, oung lawer who elieve the have een ujected to exual miconduct will e heard, repected and treated fairl their emploer. If ou are concerned that ou ma e treated unfairl, or penalized reporting the incident, eek aitance. Colleague and mentor can help ou navigate the ituation and potentiall lend upport to our e ort. You can alo conider contacting our network and a legal recruiter to gauge the legal market in our cit and our jo option. While leaving our emploment i not ideal, it ma e the onl option in ome circumtance. For
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example, if ou report an incident and our emploer’ reolution i not one that protect ou and other from eing further victimized, eek afe and upportive emploment elewhere. If ou witne exual miconduct, o er upport to the victim. Ak the victim if he or he would like for ou to peak up on their ehalf either contacting rm management or human reource.
A Call to Law Firms A the leader of the Time’ Up movement write, harament “too often perit ecaue perpetrator and emploer never face an conequence.” Lawer are empowered citizen, ut till vulnerale to the hierarchical tructure of legal emploment where advancement and promotion often ret in the hand and dicretion of powerful—and till primaril male—equit partner and management committee. Firm leader and human reource are too reluctant to challenge thi power tructure. Conequentl, practice group and o ce can ecome tainted miehavior, reulting in talented lawer lot and new uine unrealized, in addition to the ocial cot involved. Time i up for the tatu quo. Firm with hort-ighted repone to exual miconduct complaint will loe oung lawer, epeciall women, in law rm rank, exacerating the gender diparit in the enior rank of our profeion. Firm mut etalih zero tolerance policie for exual miconduct, without regard to title, revenue generation or equit tatu, and a tranparent and acceile venue for complaint. Likewie emploer mut enure that allegation of miconduct are thoroughl and promptl invetigated through an impartial, fair proce, which a ord due proce while alo protecting victim from retaliation. It i not the aim of thi oard to encourage rm to limit interaction among their profeional; rather, we call on thoe in leaderhip poition who value repectful and productive profeional relationhip to leverage their power to protect our profeion
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from damaging miconduct and a culture that permit aue. Firm mut encourage male attorne not to e afraid of mentoring female aociate or inviting them to profeional development or networking event, even thoe with a ocial component. Firm mut init that their attorne have nothing to fear if the do not aue their poition. Firm can provide coaching on appropriate conduct and training on genderneutral mentoring. If a client harae one of our lawer, tand our colleague at all cot. Too man oung lawer have lot their dignit at work, and in ome cae, their career, ecaue their emploer have idelined victim or failed to take remedial action. We encourage all of ou to tand with u and pledge to not e ilent when we experience, or learn of, exual miconduct in our law rm or legal department, and to init that the perpetrator are held accountale. Aaron werdlow Alex Tarnow Andrea Guzman Andrew Warner Anuia Gillepie Adin onai e Hinon lair Kamink rianna Howard rooke Anthon mil tedman mma Walh Garrett Ordower Geo re Young Heather ouder Choi Holl Doleji Jennifer Yahar Jeica Tuchink Ji He You Joh uerg Kevin More Kle heahen Lauren Dole Martina Treu Hufnal Mauricio pana Nicole Gutierrez Peter uckle Qunh Vu Rakeh Kilaru Reggie chafer akina Raheed Foter ara Harri hihene Jing Tamara runo Tim Fitzmaurice Timoth Perla Todd Koretzk Travi Lenkner Triha Rich Wle Proctor
The view expreed here are peronal to the author and do not repreent the opinion of their emploer.
Copyright 2018. ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved.
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