Reflections from a Headhunter & Hiring Partner: Stopping Sexual Harassment (Enough is Enough!)

It’s a familiar story. A woman associate is sexually harassed by a partner. The harassment may be subtle or grotesque, occasional or frequent, or hint at a quid pro quo.  It may be fueled by martinis at midnight or take place at lunch. It may happen in the office, at a restaurant, or at a firm meeting. Between 5 and 10 percent of the 5,500 women lawyers and law students I’ve met since 1977 report they have been harassed. I believe that number understates the scope of the problem. 

Firms must enforce a zero-tolerance, no-exception rule against sexual harassment. The legality of the conduct is for others to debate. Senior management must recognize that harassment is offensive, unprofessional and inappropriate.  It derails and damages careers. It’s time that law firms stop writing hall passes for misconduct.

After the jump, a typical harasser, a typical management response, and some harsh realities about the way to change the culture that allows for both ...

Ex-Law Student Leads Landmark Battle Against Sexual Harassment in Egypt

"A recent study by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights found that 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign women experience public sexual harassment in [Egypt]..., including explicit comments, groping, men exposing themselves and assault," reports the Los Angeles Times.

A 27-year-old former law student, however, has fought back by pursuing a complaint in a landmark case.  The young woman, who was groped by a truck driver, was urged to file a complaint by her father, documentary filmmaker Noha Rushdi Saleh.  The truck driver was sentenced, in October, to three years of hard labor.

Betrayal: Sexual Harrassment by Mentors

I can't stop thinking about a recent story out of a Texas district court of several alleged acts of extremly severe sexual harrassment by a federal judge. There are a number of disturbing circumstances involved. The alleged aggressor is a federal judge-a person we all trust to uphold the law. The alleged attack was barbaric and, according to more than one accuser, just the most recent and sever in a long history of abuse of female subordinates.

Lawyer pleads guilty to spying on female colleagues [Clippings]

The AP reports,

A former Legal Aid Society lawyer pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegally using a hidden video camera to spy on female co-workers as they changed clothes in their offices.

Peter Barta, 32, of Queens, used a camera hidden in a clock to videotape five co-workers in the public defense agency's Manhattan offices, recording at least one woman with her breasts and buttocks bared.

The women told police they regularly changed clothes in their offices before and after work. . . .

Barta pled to a felony so he is automatically disbarred. Thank goodness.

You can read the full AP news article [Newsday] and get tabloid coverage of his "kinky" seized property [NY Post] and his arrest [Above the Law].