While many legal organisations may already provide their own versions of staff training to prevent bullying and harassment, national president Graham Droppert said that it is valuable to “take a step further” and improve bystander intervention training to help all staff with building the confidence and skills needed to call out unacceptable behaviour. 

“Law firms also need these specific policies that outline responsibilities and protections for active bystanders,” Mr Droppert said. “This will provide the necessary supports and protection for bystanders who call out sexual harassment. We need to ensure that the bystanders are prevented from being victimised when they speak out.”

Drawing on revelations that former High Court justice Dyson Heydon harassed several young associates, Mr Droppert said it is a “tremendous loss” when intelligent, capable young women end their legal careers due to sexual harassment “and the professional culture that does not enable them, or others, to call out the problem behaviour”. 

The ALA launched the gender equality policy designed to encourage members across Australia to actively promote the role of women in the legal profession and call out the discriminatory and abusive conduct. The policy will also help create opportunities in law for women to progress and assume leadership roles within ALA and broadly. 

Within the alliance, the ALA has encouraged members to ensure that women hold the leadership positions, including presidents and directors. The ALA has also committed to ensuring that 50 per cent of presenters at CPD events over 12 months are women by 2021 and that 50 per cent of authors in its publication Precedent are female. 

When the ALA was formed 26 years ago, only 16 per cent of its members were female. Now, it celebrates 50 per cent and aims to retain this figure long into the future. 

As part of the policy, ALA has also encouraged members to raise awareness of issues of bullying and sexual harassment, implement workplace policies and standards, have active encouragement of regular and customised face-to-face training that addresses all forms of negative workplace behaviour, and support a better workplace culture. 

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Members have also been encouraged to raise awareness about the issues for younger legal professionals. This means that law firms should acknowledge the hierarchies and power imbalances that may prevent young people from actively advocating the issues. 

Considering recent reports of briefs received by female barristers, the ALA has utilised the policy to ask that members and employing entities who brief or select barristers do make “reasonable endeavours” to select women barristers with relevant seniority and expertise, experience or interest in the relevant practice areas. 

By January 2020, the alliance hopes to see that senior women barristers make up over 20 per cent of all briefs and the value of briefs and that junior female barristers account for 30 per cent of all briefs and brief fees given to junior supports.

“I think we are all disappointed that, as a profession, we have not taken many sufficient measures to prevent abuses of power,” Mr Droppert said. “The incidents this year have highlighted the importance of having practical policies in place to ensure that women are provided with equal opportunity and prevent sexual harassment and bullying.

“We need the senior people in our profession to call out bad behaviour when they see it – it can no longer be overlooked or ‘swept under the carpet’. I hope that, as a result of the public discussion this year, we will see a significant cultural shift.”