A law firm employee was left “humiliated” after being yelled at and sworn at by her lawyer boss, who contributed to what the worker described as an “unsafe” and “toxic” workplace.
The employee left her job and made a complaint to the New Zealand Law Society Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa alleging the boss bullied and was aggressive towards her employees.
The society’s Standards Committee investigated three incidents of aggression in the workplace, which led it to conclude the behaviour had amounted to bullying and unsatisfactory conduct.
In a recently released decision, the committee said it considered the conduct to be on the lower end of the scale and ordered the lawyer to issue a written apology to her former employee and reimburse costs of $1000.
Both women have name suppression.
In the first incident, the employee alleged the lawyer swore and raised her voice at her after she was asked a question.
The lawyer recalled asking her employee “what don’t you understand?” and accepted she may have sworn. She acknowledged she could have used a more professional tone.
The report confirmed the language and volume used by the lawyer appeared to be inappropriate and the committee was satisfied the interaction occurred as described by the employee.
The incident left the employee feeling “humiliated and really upset”.
In the second incident, the employee alleged the lawyer swore and raised her voice at her again after she failed to complete a task.
While the evidence supported that the boss swore during the interaction rather than directly at the employee, it was still unnecessary and unprofessional to do so, the committee ruled.
In the third incident, the employee alleged the lawyer swore and raised her voice at her for a third time, which she had an audio recording of.
The lawyer told the committee she was “deeply embarrassed and ashamed” by this incident but that it was not a part of a pattern of bullying behaviour.
When she yelled, she was disappointed and frustrated with the employee’s actions. However, she immediately regretted her reaction and emailed an apology two days later.
Speaking to the incidents generally, the lawyer argued her conduct was not bullying or harassment. While she accepted she could have managed situations better, she did not consider her conduct to be repeated, unreasonable behaviour.
She said she had a busy, understaffed practice and was working through personal issues.
She told the committee she had since engaged with therapy and was now working under supervision.
The committee concluded the lawyer’s conduct was not an ongoing issue and instead considered whether she had promoted and maintained professional standards.
It found incident three was the most serious and, when taken together with incidents one and two, demonstrated a pattern of inappropriate language and aggression in verbal communications.
It concluded the lawyer had failed to treat her employee with the required respect and courtesy, breaching the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act (Lawyers: Conduct and Client Care) Rules (RCCC).
It did not find the lawyer had harassed her employee as the conduct was not exclusively targeted towards the employee to the extent that it could be considered deliberate harassment.
The committee concluded the lawyer’s cumulative behaviour towards her employee, by a fine margin, amounted to bullying and was a breach of the RCCC, but the conduct was “at the lower end of the spectrum when set against other cases of this type”.
The committee considered the lawyer had clearly reflected on her conduct throughout the complaints process and deemed it appropriate to order the lawyer to provide the former employee with a written apology for incidents one and two.
The committee also ordered her to reimburse $1000 to the Law Society.
Brianna McIlraith is a Queenstown-based reporter for Open Justice covering courts in the lower South Island. She has been a journalist since 2018 and has had a strong interest in business and financial journalism.
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