SRA consults on sexual harassment reporting and non-disclosure agreements following criticism
updated on 29 August 2018
Following the mishandling of sexual harassment allegations by several law firms, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has begun consulting on how to make it clearer when firms need to report serious breaches of its rulebook.
As the #MeToo movement has gained traction, recent and historic allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct at several high-profile firms have been made public – as well as the ways in which firms investigated those allegations. In a number of examples, firms used controversial non-disclosure agreements (NDA) to silence victims in return for payment, in order to prevent damage to their reputations. Firms have also been criticised for negotiating NDAs on behalf of their clients – lawyers for the disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein infamously made his former employee, Zelda Perkins, sign an NDA that barred her from speaking publicly about how Weinstein had “sexually assaulted and attempted to rape a colleague of mine”.
As The Lawyer reports, the SRA was also criticised by MPs over an “apparent lack of rigour in the SRA’s approach to investigating whether there had been unethical practice by the lawyers involved in the Zelda Perkins case”.
The SRA has concluded that firms’ “understanding of when the duty to report a potential breach is triggered can differ”. The regulator’s consultation into providing greater clarity on the issues, particularly NDAs, is open until 27 September.
