Dear Colleague,

At the Law Society’s 2020 Annual General Meeting, the Society was mandated by its members to:

• Commission a profession-wide survey in similar terms to that carried out by the International Bar Association (IBA) on bullying and sexual harassment; and

• implement recommendations of the IBA Report titled “Us Too? Bullying and Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession.

Following this mandate, the Law Society appointed an independent external consultancy firm, Crowe, to deliver the Dignity Matters survey to enquire about solicitors and trainees’ experience of work environments in Ireland, specifically as it relates to bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment. The survey was the first of its kind carried out by the Law Society and took place from 6 May to 18 June 2021.

Dignity matters report

The resulting report contains information that readers may find distressing. If this is the case, please see supports available to you below.

• Download the report from the Law Society website

The report is a landmark milestone in the Society’s commitment to improving professional wellbeing, gender equality, diversity and inclusion in the solicitors’ profession. It sheds light on the nature, prevalence and impact of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment as experienced by members of the Law Society and Law School trainees. It also provides a suite of recommendations for the Law Society and the solicitors’ profession to prevent, respond to, and tackle these types of behaviours.

Support for you

The Law Society offers a range of supports for solicitors affected by the issues highlighted in the report. These include LegalMind - a confidential, independent, low-cost mental health support for members - and the popular Professional Wellbeing Hub, which offers helpful information and signposts to further resources.

• Contact LegalMind

Unacceptable behaviour

The significance of this report cannot be underestimated. The findings are unequivocal. Unacceptably high levels of bullying, harassment and sexual harassment have been reported. These revelations, while deeply troubling, are calls to action to reaffirm our commitment to eradicating these negative behaviours that have no place in our profession. We must now work collaboratively with our members to stamp out bullying, harassment and sexual harassment.

Below are some key findings from the Dignity Matters survey. We encourage you to take a closer look at the full Dignity Matters report in your own time.

• One in three women (2.9) and one in two men (2.3) experienced bullying.

• One in two women (2.3) and one in nine men (8.6) experienced harassment.

• One in two women and one in eight men (8.3) experienced sexual harassment.

• The workplace is the most common location where these negative behaviours are experienced.

• A consistent majority did not report their experience of bullying (73%) or harassment (71%), with this figure rising to 91% for experiences of sexual harassment.

• In so far as respondents were aware, reporting resulted in no sanctions for the reported party in 88% of bullying incidences, 89% of harassment and 78% sexual harassment.

• The profile/status of the reported party was the most prominent reason provided by respondents for not reporting bullying (70%), harassment (76%) and sexual harassment (49%).

• Experience of bullying (46%), harassment (50%) or sexual harassment (21%) has contributed to a respondent leaving their workplace.

• Almost three quarters (73%) of respondents to the survey indicated that their workplace did not conduct training relating to bullying/harassment or sexual harassment.

Your ideas

The survey asked for your ideas about how to tackle and challenge bullying, harassment and sexual harassment in the profession, and we listened. The results from this landmark survey have helped the Society to identify further measures to support a culture of dignity, respect and inclusivity in our profession. The Law Society is already proactively addressing some of the issues raised in the report through a range of trainee and member training, workshops, charters, and signposting to resources. However, over the coming year, we will focus more explicitly on these matters, continue to implement report recommendations and engage in a deeper analysis of the report for further positive change. As we make progress, we will continue to learn from other sectors also tackling these types of behaviours. Unfortunately, this is not unique to the solicitors’ profession.

Time for change

The solicitors’ profession is predicated on the highest ethical standards and we know that the majority of solicitors uphold these standards in the course of their work. However, we now have the evidence that worrying levels of harmful behaviours are also present in the profession and that we need to address this issue collectively. We will work with our members and firms to eliminate unacceptable behaviour that does not align with the values of integrity, trust and respect that are the foundation of our profession.

We must all work for positive change. We must all prioritise this.

With kind regards,

James Cahill

President