Public Leadership Statement on Sexual Harassment and Discrimination
The Australian legal profession prides itself on upholding the principles of justice, integrity, equity, and the pursuit of excellence in service to the public.
Sexual harassment, in all its forms, offends these very foundations of the profession.
Sexual harassment is an abuse of power that undermines the dignity, safety and autonomy of those who experience it. It breaches the public trust in us as a professional community. It is unethical, unprofessional and against the law. It causes psychological, emotional, physical and financial damage to individuals and organisations alike. It is reprehensible conduct that has no place in the Australian legal profession.
Sexual harassment and discrimination are contrary to human rights including the right to equality and non-discrimination, health, the right to privacy, and concepts of human dignity which fundamentally underpin these rights.
As leaders of the Law Council of Australia:
We acknowledge more needs to be done to eliminate these behaviours from the profession. Gender imbalances in leadership, hierarchical and competitive workplace cultures, and high alcohol consumption in professional settings (amongst other factors) contribute to a higher risk of sexual harassment. The profession needs to move away from traditional power structures and address underlying contributors to achieve the goal of elimination.
We support the positive duty under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) to take reasonable measures to eliminate sexual harassment as far as is possible, which introduces more focussed obligations for the legal profession to actively address sexual harassment. This new approach requires proactive and meaningful action from law firms, legal practices, sole practitioners, barristers, chambers, and legal professional organisations to target the root causes. It presents an opportunity for the profession to innovate and evolve to promote gender equality and mutual respect.
We are deeply committed to advancing the purpose and practice of positive duties.
We recognise that the positive duty builds on and is consistent with the Law Council’s National Action Plan to Reduce Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession, which calls for cultural change in the Australian legal profession and sexual harassment prevention.
We, the Directors of the Law Council, commit to:
- Pursue the elimination of sexual harassment and discrimination by facilitating positive cultural change across the Australian legal profession.
- Prevent sexually harassing or discriminatory behaviour, and ensure effective responses for those impacted by these behaviours, within, and connected to, our organisations.
- Support the provision of sexual harassment education and training across the Australian legal profession to raise awareness and understanding of legal and professional obligations and ethics, underlying causes and potential risk factors, and best practice prevention and response frameworks.
- Develop elimination strategies that address the traditional and structural features of the Australian legal profession and promote innovative approaches to overcoming them.
- Ensure that we foster a high-achieving, equitable, inclusive, diverse and safe profession that is well-equipped for the future, delivers quality services, and meets the contemporary needs and expectations of our clients and communities.
- Hold ourselves, our organisations, and our members to a high standard1 befitting the status, responsibilities, and community expectations of the legal profession:
- recognising that unacceptable behaviour perpetrated by even a small minority has the potential to undermine public trust in the administration of justice; and
- to do so without prejudice, bias, or deference to professional position or hierarchy, and according to principles of natural justice.
- Promote respectful transparency (where possible and as appropriate, while also respecting privacy, confidentiality, procedural fairness and broader obligations) so that we can learn from incidents, continue to develop best practice approaches, and improve our accountability to our employees, workers and members, our associates and stakeholders, and the broader community.
- Periodically review our strategies in implementing the positive duty to measure progress, share review outcomes publicly to promote transparency, and adopt best practice approaches.
As the national peak body, we understand that the Law Council has an important role in upholding the reputation of the Australian legal profession, promoting standards of excellence and best practice, and supporting individuals, businesses, and organisations across the profession to comply with their legal obligations.
We recognise the importance of setting expectations, modelling best practice, and reflecting community values and expectations.
We will strive to contribute positively and proactively to harassment-free and discrimination-free workplaces and to empower our employees, workers, and members to do the same.
We strongly encourage other leaders across the Australian legal and justice system to join us in this commitment, to work with us in building a safe and respectful culture for the benefit of all our members and the communities we serve.
1 Under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), employers and persons conducting a business or undertaking have a positive duty to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate, as far as possible, sexual harassment in connection with work, sex-based harassment in connection with work, sex discrimination in a work context, conduct creating a workplace environment that is hostile on the ground of sex, and related acts of victimisation—see section 47C. See also the relevant professional conduct rules for solicitors and barristers in each State and Territory.
Last Updated on 11/10/2024