Baroness Harman addresses delegates
Judges have failed to acknowledge the “clear” problem of bullying and harassment among some on the bench, a former Labour solicitor-general has said.
Baroness Harriet Harman KC, who was twice the party’s temporary leader and served as solicitor general, said the senior judiciary needs to “start on that journey” of recognition because “they have not yet got to the stage of that full acknowledgment”.
She also called for an end to the “culture of excuses” and “zero tolerance” of misconduct by barristers, with better systems for reporting complaints that switch the “jeopardy” or repercussions from victims to perpetrators.
Barbara Mills KC, chairwoman of the Bar Council told delegates at the organisation’s conference in Birmingham on Saturday that bullying and harassment had become an “intractable problem within the profession”.
Baroness Harman, who is conducting an independent review into bullying, harassment and sexual harassment at the Bar, contrasted the judiciary’s inaction with the willingness of leaders of the barrister’s profession to tackle bullying and sexual harassment.
Her report is expected to be published later this year, but she previewed some of her findings at the conference.
Part of her report on the extent of sexual harassment among barristers and the behaviour of Jo Sidhu KC, the former chairman of the Criminal Bar Association who had been in the running for the post of director of public prosecutions, was leaked last week to Channel 4 News.
Mr Sidhu was disbarred for sexual misconduct earlier this year, after three aspiring barristers complained about him. He is appealing in relation to the individual whose complaint was upheld and the sanction.
At the conference, Baroness Harman first turned her attention to the judiciary. She said evidence from the Criminal Bar Association and Bar Council was “clear” that there is a “problem of judicial bullying” and “concerns about misogynistic bullying, which has a harassment element in relation to women”.
Junior barristers in the Crown Courts were especially susceptible to bullying behaviour by judges, she explained.
She accepted that those judges were “working in a completely unacceptable situation” due to underfunding of the courts, but said the stresses of the job did not excuse bad behaviour.
The solicitor peer suggested that the support for and deference to the judiciary from the Bar meant leadership judges “generally don’t get told what is actually going on when there is a problem of a particularly notorious judge on a particular circuit”.
She said: “You get a situation where there are WhatsApp groups reporting that a judge is behaving badly, but there doesn’t seem to be a system of dealing with it.”
Looking at why the Bar has struggled to deal effectively with bullying and sexual harassment among its own ranks, Baroness Harman said that “many of the things which are so great about the Bar are the structural reasons why the Bar is challenged in dealing with these issues”.
She praised the commitment among barristers to teach those entering the profession, embodied in the structure of pupillage.
But she said: “That can also provide dark corners where people can use that personal relationship to perpetuate abuse and to take advantage of those they are purportedly helping.”
She highlighted that traditional institutions find it harder to charge and said that the competitive nature of the profession made individuals reluctant to speak out for fear of being known as a troublemaker.
In addition, she said: “The Bar is a network of very supportive individuals – but that is also a downside because the complainant might see this close network and think ‘if I speak out, they’ll all band together’.”
Baroness Harman identified the fact that barristers dealt with evidence in their jobs, as a reason they were reluctant to report instances of abuse that they have heard about from others, which she said contributes to the “sense of impunity”.
She told the audience: “One person said to me that the perpetrator of misconduct at the Bar can more or less count on the silence of their victim.”
In addition, the adversarial nature of barristers’ work “can be used as a cloak for people who bully” because they will claim that their behaviour is “just robust testing of a case”.
She said: “Without undermining all the strengths that there are at the Bar, there need to be systems which enable bullying, harassment and sexual harassment to be tackled.”
Baroness Harman called for an end to the “culture of excuses” and instead “zero tolerance” of misconduct by barristers.
“It wouldn’t take very long if just a few people lost their careers for bullying, harassment or sexual harassment… everyone else would get the message very quickly,” she said.
At present, much of the “jeopardy”, or repercussions, of reporting misconduct were felt by the victim – which needed to change.
“The question of jeopardy needs to move from the person who’s the victim of the misconduct to the person who is perpetrating [it],” she said.
Baroness Harman called on all barristers to follow the Bar Council’s leadership in working to stamp out misconduct, which would not just protect young people from being bullied or sexually harassed, but protect the reputation of the bar.
Speaking separately to the conference, the Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr, said she was “aware of real concerns about instances of judicial misbehaviour” which she took with the “utmost seriousness”.
“Looking forward” to seeing the evidence in the Harman report, sje said: “I am sure that there will be scope for appropriate engagement between the judiciary and the Bar in due course – including looking at ways of enhancing routes for barristers to raise well-founded concerns and providing reassurance that barristers should not hesitate to raise such concerns.”
The Channel 4 News story contained interviews with the three women – one anonymous – who accused Mr Sidhu, which included strong criticism of the Bar Standards Board (BSB). One described the process as “traumatic on top of an already traumatic event”.
It also reported that the draft of the Harman report seen by the broadcaster detailed “significant failings” by the regulator.
In response, BSB chair Kathryn Stone said she was “so sorry that the BSB added to the trauma of the already distressing situation that the witnesses found themselves in”.
She continued: “It further saddens me to hear that yet again women must challenge the Bar to have a moment of reckoning and introspection; that victims of bullying and harassment are afraid to come forward; and that when women place their trust in those more senior across the profession – those concerns are not acted upon and properly reported…
“I want to assure everyone that the BSB is listening, and we will do better to support those who come forward to make reports and give evidence. We shall do that immediately.”
She pointed out that “securing enforcement action through the tribunal process can be complex” and that “effective enforcement will not be enough on its own to uproot the culture” behind the wider problem.
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