The Harman Review: What next for a better Bar?
Baroness Harriet Harman KC has unveiled a bold new blueprint for the Bar to tackle systemic misconduct. In the wake of her report, Lachlan Stewart sits down with Baroness Harman and Barbara Mills KC to explore the review’s impact, the challenges ahead and the crucial next steps
In September, the Bar Council published the independent review into bullying, harassment and sexual harassment at the Bar, chaired by Baroness Harriet Harman KC. Her report sets out 36 ‘decisive and radical’ recommendations to tackle systemic bullying, harassment and sexual harassment at the Bar.
It was a thorough review. Over the course of a year, the former MP, Solicitor General, Chair of the Joint Committee on Human Rights and Chair of Committees on Standards and Privileges in Parliament visited the six Circuits of England and Wales to speak to individuals, groups and organisations working in and around the Bar, and received hundreds of written submissions. Baroness Harman attended a Young Barristers’ Committee meeting where we spoke candidly about what we had experienced during our first few years as barristers.
Following publication of the report, I sit down with Baroness Harman and Barbara Mills KC to discuss the review, what happens next and what they hope it means for the future at the Bar.
When I ask if there are any aspects of the review she feels heartened by, Baroness Harman says it ‘came at a time when I feel the Bar is wanting to make the change – to end this problem’.
She continues: ‘I have been very impressed by how the Bar engages. Beyond their work and responsibilities as individuals, barristers have a keen sense of the part they play in the profession. I saw real commitment to give time [to the review] and to be open because of their dedication to the Bar. It’s admirable.’
Called to the Bar in 1990, Barbara was a junior female barrister of colour during a very different time. ‘I was always hypervigilant around people, constantly worried that anything I did might be seen as a grey area,’ she says. ‘Whenever I met someone new, my first thought was, “I don’t want them to think I want anything other than a professional relationship.” I put myself under a lot of pressure because of that.’
What would Barbara’s younger self think of the report and its conclusions? ‘Thank goodness somebody sees and hears me. That’s one less thing I need to worry about: someone with more power and influence than me has my back. Now all I need to do is the job.
‘I hope that’s how the junior members of the profession feel about the report today. We see you, we hear you, you are not imagining it – this is an issue,’ she says.
‘If someone did something that made me feel uncomfortable, I would often second guess and question myself. Is it me? Should that have happened? Should I mind? And there would be excuses like “Oh it’s only so and so, that’s what he does” or “Why don’t you have a laugh about it?”’
That’s why the review’s 36 recommendations aim to tackle what Baroness Harman describes as a culture of ‘collusive bystanding’ and ‘impunity’ by shifting the jeopardy from the victim to the perpetrator. I ask which three recommendations Baroness Harman thinks are particularly important. ‘Sanctions, the new Commissioner for Conduct and being tough on the protection of pupils,’ she replies.
‘Nobody is going to make a complaint if at the end of a very challenging process misconduct is found [but] the perpetrator receives a slap on the wrist and it is brushed under the carpet.
‘Sanctions must reflect the fact that bullying, harassment and sexual harassment are incompatible with membership of the Bar. The insistence in the report on tough sanctions includes tough sanctions on any members of the judiciary who are guilty of bullying. They should not be on the Bench either.
