Harassed lawyers tell blog about 'touchy feely' partners and 'massively inappropriate' comments
A blog hopes to inspire change by gathering stories from women lawyers subjected to sexual harassment at their law firms.
The “Pink Ghetto” series by Above the Law takes a look at “the sexual harassment that’s pervasive within the law, in firms small to large.” Women lawyers told the blog:
—From a lawyer taken off the partnership track after her complaint became known: “I was sitting in a meeting with several male partners and a male associate. I didn’t know any of them; I was new to the case team. In the middle of the meeting, one of the partners got up from his chair, walked over to where I was sitting, pressed against the back of my chair so I couldn’t push back from the table, and started rubbing my shoulders. I was so utterly shocked I didn’t know what to do. I tried to shrug him off and push him away, to no avail. … The partner started leaving me voicemails about how much he missed me and wanted to see me. I called the head partner on the case and said I couldn’t work under these conditions. He said, ‘It seems to me women have all sorts of ways of telling men they’re not interested. If he’s not getting the message, you must be sending the wrong message.’ ”
—From a lawyer at an employment law firm: “The ‘young’ partner was the touchy-feely type who was prone to give you impromptu back rubs, foot rubs, or hand rubs. … Whether it was telling jokes about putting a female associate in a thong for the firm’s next ad or telling an associate who had put on stress weight that she must be good at blow-jobs or her boyfriend would have left her by now, he was massively inappropriate.”
—From a lawyer who was told she wasn’t partner material because no one takes blondes seriously. “I was cleaning up my office after a big case and a partner came in and said, ‘I would love to clean your drawers… do you need assistance?’ The same partner then told me I should wear stilettos every day, and he later put his hand on my knee at a charity event.”
