The legal profession is no playground, so why are schoolyard bullies running rampant?
A recent study commissioned by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism found that, of the more than 6,000 Illinois lawyers who responded, almost a quarter experienced bullying within the past year. See Bullying in the Legal Profession: A Study of Illinois Lawyers’ Experiences and Recommendations for Change.
Stephanie A. Scharf and Roberta D. Liebenberg of the Red Bee Group, which conducted the study said, “We found that bullying is prevalent in the legal profession in Illinois, and we believe it is equally prevalent elsewhere too.”
Unfortunately, it is.
In 2018, the International Bar Association piloted the largest-ever global survey on bullying and sexual harassment in the profession. Almost 7,000 individuals from a broad spectrum of legal workplaces in 135 countries responded. Those results showed that approximately half of the female respondents and a third of the male respondents had been bullied in connection with their employment. (The statistics on sexual harassment were equally dismal.)
In the Illinois study, about 2/3 of the lawyers bullied in the past year reported “verbal intimidation, such as disrespectful speech, insults, name-calling, shouting” and 14 percent cited “physical intimidation, such as hovering, invading personal space, throwing objects, stalking.” Cyberbullying was reported, as well.
It comes as no surprise that this bullying disproportionately affects women, persons of color, LGBTQ+ attorneys, and attorneys with disabilities. Similar to the International Bar Association results, the Illinois statistics showed that 38% of female lawyers were bullied at work in the past year, compared with 15% of male lawyers. Thirty-five percent of Black lawyers, 34% of Hispanic lawyers, and 28% of Asian American lawyers were bullied, compared with 23% of White lawyers. Twenty-nine percent of gay, lesbian, or bisexual lawyers were bullied, as were 38% of lawyers with a disability.
The Illinois study’s authors also found that junior lawyers experience more bullying than more senior practitioners because, “Bullying is a power play—it’s using power against people—and the easiest people to use power against are the most junior.”
Bullied lawyers tend to suffer in silence. Only about a fifth of the Illinois lawyers who experienced bullying reported it to superiors, and more than half of those found the response lacking. Some lawyers reported being told that bullying is just part of the job, and they should accept it. A desire to avoid being viewed as weak or a complainer was the most common reason lawyers gave for not reporting workplace bullying.
Part of the problem is that the bullies often are those in power positions within the victims’ organizations. A third of the Illinois lawyers identified the bully as a lawyer external to their organization, 31 percent identified the bully as a lawyer within their organization who was in a more senior or high-level position, and 14 percent said they were most recently bullied by a judge.
Unchecked, bullying negatively impacts lawyers’ productivity and their emotional and physical health, as well as hampering their organizations’ recruitment and retention efforts, along with increasing attrition from the legal profession as a whole.
Legal employers and the courts need to impose accountability on the bullies themselves for the health of the firms and the profession. According to the authors of the Illinois report, “The ultimate responsibility for preventing bullying rests not on those who are bullied but rather on those with the power to set and enforce policies in workplaces, courtrooms, and conference rooms.”
The study recommended that legal workplaces develop, implement, and enforce anti-bullying policies. They should conduct training specific to their organization’s anti-bullying policies and procedures to equip lawyers with tools to respond, whether they are being targeted by bullying or witnessing it. Additionally, courts should enforce anti-bullying standards in courtrooms and during other activities surrounding litigation, and Bar Associations should use their resources and reach to advance programs that educate members on the prevalence and impact of bullying in the legal profession.
For the good of the profession, law’s schoolyard bullies must be stopped. Yes, many aspects of law practice, such as litigation and deal negotiation, are adversarial by nature, and lawyers are required to represent their clients zealously. Nevertheless, all lawyers deserve to be treated with civility, dignity, and respect.
