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Home / New Zealand

Former Russell McVeagh interns detail alleged assaults at day two of hearing into lawyer conduct

Katie  Harris
By Katie Harris
Multimedia Journalist·NZ Herald·
17 May, 2021 11:05 PM6 mins to read

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Today is the second day of the hearing which is set down for five days. Photo / 123rf

Today is the second day of the hearing which is set down for five days. Photo / 123rf

A former intern at top law firm Russell McVeagh says she's been in counselling for "years", had to take tranquilisers and quit a job following an alleged assault by a former partner at the Christmas party.

Another woman, speaking today, said she felt like a piece of meat and "engulfed" by him when, she claims, he touched her bottom and kissed part of her face.

The women are speaking at the second day of a disciplinary hearing in Wellington for the man, who is accused of inappropriately touching multiple summer clerks in 2015.

Both women claim the man put his hand on their bottoms at a staff Christmas party in 2015.

Yesterday, two other former summer clerks, who now work in the law profession, shared their testimony of alleged assaults they say also occurred at the party.

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At yesterday's hearing a woman claimed he touched her breast and asked whether she was coming home with him.

The man is facing several charges of misconduct or unsatisfactory conduct laid by the New Zealand Law Society national standards committee.

The committee alleges that the lawyer abused his power as senior partner of a law firm due to the inherent power difference between a partner and an aspiring lawyer.

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Lawyer for the standards committee Tim Bain said the clerkship at a major law firm was "essentially a three-month trial for her dream job".

Five of the charges relate to multiple accounts of alleged sexual assault of staffers at a Christmas party in 2015.

Another charge relates to an informal event at the man's home where he is accused of inappropriately kissing and touching a clerk in a sauna.

Today, lawyer for the accused, Julian Long, asked the woman whether the man's exuberant dancing was like another lawyer's that night.

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"There are some men that sit on the sides and don't want to go there [to the dance floor], he's [the accused] the opposite of that."

However, the woman refused to answer and said: "I'm not going to conflate his dancing with the assaults".

The second woman to testify said his behaviour was "disgusting and gross" and to this day she is still in counselling after the event.

She said the situation was also a major part of her decision to move overseas to work.

A former team member of the accused told the hearing of an alleged incident where the former partner is accused of kissing a female intern in a sauna at his home.

The witness claimed that he made a comment like "what the heck" or "what the f***" then stormed off and left.

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Back then "doing something" wasn't part of his thinking but, looking back, the man said he should have acted - "[that is] always in my mind a little bit".

The next day he said he went to HR to report the incident.

Yesterday, a former clerk spoke about how she felt "extremely" distressed and "cried all weekend" after the man touched her without consent and allegedly touched her friend's breast in front of her.

The woman claimed he put his hand on her upper thigh, as well as "nuzzling" her face.

Later in the evening while waiting for a taxi, the woman said she witnessed the man touching her friend's breast.

"I felt incredibly guilty for many, many months after because I just sat there."

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When she discovered other women claimed they too had experienced misconduct, she said it was "terrifying" because it made it feel like "it's inescapable".

The alleged victim in the taxi incident told the hearing that it felt like he had touched her breast "forever".

That woman said he had also asked if she was coming home with him.

She said he was a pretty big guy, therefore intimidating and she felt overwhelmed during the taxi encounter.

"He seemed to seek me out and approach me at various times [that night]."

As well as this, she told the court that she was conscious that he could "ruin" her career before it started.

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Now, she said the thought of seeing the man made her ill and the whole incident made her seriously consider not becoming a lawyer.

At the time the woman said making a complaint to the Law Society was not "encouraged" and the partner she was working for stopped talking to her because she was crying all the time.

Some details of the allegations from 2015, which were first reported by media in early 2018, were included in a decision reissued by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal in March this year.

The tribunal said it was also concerned about "the nuanced differences" in the statements said to have been relayed to the five confidants by the complainant.

"Two of the five confidants do not state precisely what they were told but express their own conclusions about what happened. Evidence such as that could not be admitted on any basis," the decision reads.

In July 2018, Dame Margaret Bazley released an independent review into Russell McVeagh and made several recommendations for the law firm after allegations surfaced of clerks being sexually harassed over the summer of 2015-16.

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She found junior lawyers and staff were encouraged to "drink to excess" during that period, in a "work hard, play hard" culture which had instances of crude and sexually inappropriate behaviour.

Bazley noted failings in the firm's governance and policies, including no code of conduct, which she said contributed to poor management of the incidents.

A Law Society working group, chaired by Dame Silvia Cartwright, was also established in April 2018 following widespread allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination within the legal profession. It found female lawyers had been subjected to "sexual objectification" for decades.

The hearing will continue tomorrow and is set down for the rest of the week.

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