Students take on legal world in fight against sexual harassment

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This was published 2 years ago

Students take on legal world in fight against sexual harassment

By Anna Patty

After Erica Giulione felt publicly humiliated and bullied by a male lawyer, she received an apology – and a warning. She had better get used to it if she wanted to work in the legal profession.

“He apologised, but then he said that I’d better get used to it if I wanted to become a lawyer. He legitimised his behaviour as something that was normal in the profession,” she said.

University of Sydney students Erica Giulione (left) and Urvashi Bandhu are part of a team that has developed an online platform that users can use to anonymously report sexual harassment in the legal profession.

University of Sydney students Erica Giulione (left) and Urvashi Bandhu are part of a team that has developed an online platform that users can use to anonymously report sexual harassment in the legal profession.Credit: Wolter Peeters

That personal experience motivated her to join four other students at the University of Sydney in designing an app to help law graduates record and report incidents of sexual harassment and bullying.

The students, from law, media, policy and computing backgrounds have developed Confidant – a free digital platform to help anyone in the legal profession to anonymously record and report incidents. The students who developed the app also include Amer Nasr, 26, Amy Su, 20, Marcus Lee, 23, and Urvashi Bandhu, 27.

Ms Bandhu left the industry after being publicly humiliated by her male colleagues in India. She thought the poor treatment of female lawyers was restricted to her home country. After arriving in Australia to study public policy at the University of Sydney, she discovered the same problem “was beyond borders”.

“When I was a young graduate, I was subjected to constant bullying from seniors and public humiliation,” she said.

“I left the law because of what I went through. I thought it was a cultural problem in a developing country. But then I realised the problem was equal here.”

Ms Giulione, 26, who studied criminology at the University of Ottawa in Canada before starting her post-graduate law degree at the University of Sydney, said she was shocked to read headlines in Australia about sexual harassment in politics and the judiciary. She said young lawyers were often reluctant to report incidents.

“We’re worried that our careers could be curtailed by an allegation of harassment – we could get blacklisted, and we may feel that our colleagues wouldn’t support us. This can be a lonely road,” she said.

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Sydney Law School’s Professor Simon Rice, a discrimination law expert, said a survey released in 2019 by the International Bar Association showed the rates of bullying and harassment in Australian law firms were significantly higher than elsewhere.

“Anti-discrimination laws put the burden on the victim to pursue a complaint – young lawyers risk everything when they call out bad behaviour. The burden should be on the law firms to take positive action to protect their workers,” he said.

The app is set to be released later this year or early 2022. It records details and identifies repeat perpetrators.

Juliana Warner, president of the NSW Law Society, said it was calling on firms to sign up to a charter that promotes a zero tolerance approach to sexual discrimination, harassment and bullying.

The Law Council of Australia was also rolling out a national plan to address sexual harassment. Law Council president, Dr Jacoba Brasch, said it would provide information and resources about sexual harassment. The council has also advocated amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 to ensure it applies to judges.

    “The Law Council recognises cultural change is at heart of eliminating sexual harassment in the
    profession and this is a priority issue,” she said.

    NSW Bar Association president Michael McHugh said it was committed to the elimination of unacceptable behaviour in workplaces.

    Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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