By Rod Vaughan
Three years after the New Zealand legal profession was rocked by damning allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and exploitation of junior staff at major law firms, it seems little has changed.
A just-released report by the Aotearoa Legal Workers’ Union (ALWU) suggests the profession is still beset by many of these issues, though women now run many of the country’s largest and most prestigious law firms.
The ALWU canvassed 245 junior legal workers. The respondents revealed high levels of mental distress due to poor working conditions, including a lack of adequate supervision, bullying, unreasonable workloads and long hours.
ALWU Co-President Bridget Sinclair says the results show that serious issues identified by Dame Margaret Bazley’s 2018 review of sexual harassment at Russell McVeagh remain in the profession, despite promises from key players that change would come.
Overall, 74% of respondents said their mental health had suffered as a result of their work with81% saying they also knew of at least one colleague whose mental health had suffered.
ALWU says 58% of respondents who stated their mental health had suffered disclosed some details. Common themes were stress, anxiety, burnout, poor or no supervision and a lack of feeling valued.
It says respondents frequently stated they were given an unreasonable workload requiring them to work late to complete tasks. “The prevailing attitude was that overtime was normal, resulting in complaints being ignored,” the report said. “Bullying by senior staff was frequently mentioned as a cause of poor mental health.”
ALWU says 80% of women reported a higher incidence of their mental health suffering compared to 61% of men. Those working in the private sector reported a higher incidence than those in the public sector.
“In particular, respondents from three large law firms reported extremely high rates of work adversely impacting their colleagues’ mental health, namely Meredith Connell (96%), Bell Gully (92%), and Simpson Grierson (90%).
“ALWU is saddened to see this report reflect the significant issue of mental health in the legal profession. Unfortunately, the data shows that despite increased rhetoric in this area over the last two to three years, not enough is being done to properly combat this important issue in practice.”
Professor Bill Hodge of the University of Auckland Law School, an employment law specialist with wide experience in workplace investigations, is somewhat ambivalent about the survey.
He agrees with ALWU that its report is “the best snapshot available” of the current situation. “But in the end, it is 245 respondents out of 800 members, about a 30% return,” he says. “And out of how many employee-solicitors? Two thousand at a guess? So, a snapshot, and thus a valuable bit of information, but not definitive or conclusive.”
Hodge says he doesn’t disagree with ALWU that some legal employees, particularly juniors, can work long hours under pressure. “I think that is a given, but it is another thing entirely to use loaded terms such as ‘bullying’. There are two sides to every story [and] the suggestion that New Zealand has one of the worst bullying environments in the world is not congruent with common sense.
“A proper definition of bullying will have an objective element (‘unreasonable’) and a subjective element (‘harm’). The difficulty with the subjective element is that some employees in some industries can laugh off and disregard significant banter, and others, by comparison, may be super-sensitive.
“Ironically, it may be that a ‘robust’ culture may mean robust employees, or employees who give as good as they get. It is not uncommon for allegations of bullying to arise subsequent to, or in tandem with, issues of competence or performance management.”
Overall, Hodge says he is surprised by the survey’s finding that some workers at Meredith Connell, Bell Gully and Simpson Grierson experienced extremely high rates of work which affected their mental well-being.
“My gut reaction, based on my years of hearing feedback, is that I am surprised by this. The three firms named have been regarded as good places to work and excellent training grounds for a future legal career.”
So, what do the three firms themselves make of the report and are they concerned at the findings?
Steve Haszard, managing partner of Meredith Connell, says the ALWU’s employment survey is “becoming a really important annual exercise that communicates wellness issues to the industry.
“In the future, we expect its value will only grow as the sample size improves from2020’s 245 respondents out of the industry’s15,500 employees, and the underlying survey methodology becomes more visible.
“Although it’s difficult to understand the particular factors behind the reported mental health impacts on staff (as the survey questions unfortunately aren’t published), we know from our own experience there will be a correlation with the challenging criminal prosecution work we undertake for the Crown.
“We are cognisant of this and supporting mental health is at the forefront of our organisational wellbeing thinking. For example, we will become the first professional services firm to achieve WELL v2 certification later this year.”
Bell Gully managing partner Haydn Wong says the survey focuses on issues that concern the legal sector as a whole. “Our own internal surveys, which we run every three to four months, are one of the ways we look to identify the areas of particular concern for our people and our consistently high response rates give us confidence that we have good insight into these concerns.”
Wong says mental health issues are “a particular focus” for his firm. “We provide a number of pathways for people to be heard and to be helped. In late 2015 we were the first New Zealand law firm to sign up to the Tristan Jepson Memorial Fund (TJMF), now named Minds Count, an Australian-based organisation which focuses on promoting psychological wellbeing in the legal profession.
“To assist with this goal, Minds Count provides guidelines on what aspects workplaces can have in place to promote psychological wellbeing.
“We have applied these principles within the firm. We undertake regular checks by HR on those where pressure may be a factor and offer firm-wide access to confidential support through our internal peer support network of trained staff members and external EAP providers.
“There is also an option to seek support from other mental health professionals with individuals able to use a professional of their choice to allow for existing relationships.”
Meanwhile, in a statement to LawNews, Simpson Grierson says creating a safe, healthy workplace and prioritising mental health is something it takes very seriously.
“So, it’s concerning to receive feedback that any of our people have reported suffering mental health issues. We want to hear from our people if they or any of their colleagues are experiencing issues and also want them to know that we will move quickly to support them.”
Simpson Grierson says it provides its staff with a safe and healthy workplace, starting with its values, culture and policies.
“We take multiple steps to support our people’s wellbeing, including by encouraging flexible working options, which allow everyone to balance work and personal commitments in a way that works for them.
“We also have a comprehensive wellbeing program which provides regular workshops and seminars.
“All of our people and their immediate family have access to our employee assistance program, and we provide training for our partners and managers on how to identify and manage mental health issues.”
Simpson Grierson says to get a better understanding of the breadth of the feedback to the ALWU survey, it asked the union for more details on how many of the 245 respondents nationally referred specifically to the law firm. But ALWU refused to supply that information, the firm says.
“Without more detail, it is difficult to interpret the findings published and know how accurately they represent our organisation. However, we think it’s important for any industry to have both internal and external efforts that are focused on people’s wellbeing and promoting positive dialogue.”
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