Sima KotechaSenior UK correspondent
Warning: This article contains detailed description of sexual harassment.
It had been a long and tiring day for 23-year-old Eve Robinson who was having after-work drinks with colleagues.
On a summer evening, the pupil barrister was sitting in the outside section of the bar when a barrister she had met only a couple of times sexually assaulted her.
Speaking exclusively to the for the first time about her ordeal, Eve says: “He put his arm around me and he put his arm up my dress and down inside my tights and when I pulled his arm out he did it again.
“He then put his hand up my dress and onto my chest and again I pulled his hand out and then for the third time he put his hand up my dress and down my tights,” she says.
Eve says she froze in shock for several seconds. She rushed to the toilet and locked herself in the cubicle as she tried to process what had just happened. Her heart was pounding loudly.
“To sit there and think why has that just happened to me and that was really difficult. I felt shame. I felt dirty. I felt really uncomfortable and I just felt completely overwhelmed by it, in a really negative way. It was awful and was a complete violation of your personal space, the respect for you, he completely violated that,” she says.
One month later, Eve made an official complaint to her then chambers and the matter was later referred to the Bar Standards Board.
A tribunal found that Craig Charles Tipper’s behaviour could amount to sexual assault and unlawful harassment. He was suspended from practising law for several months.
The tribunal accepted that he had admitted the allegations early, showed genuine remorse, and had taken action to prevent a recurrence of the conduct.
According to an independent review carried out by Baroness Harriet Harman KC, Eve’s experience is not rare.
It concluded there was “systemic sexual harassment and bullying” in and around the Bar. It also found there was a “cohort of untouchables” and trainees felt that reporting bad behaviour was “career suicide”.
“There is definitely a power dynamic in law and those who aren’t as senior are scared of complaining because it could explode your career. And nobody wants that,” another female barrister, who declined to be named, says.
The Bar refers to the legal profession and community of barristers who provide legal advice and argue cases in court. There are 17,864 barristers practising in England and Wales, according to The Bar Council.
The review received more than 170 written submissions, and Baroness Harman also met pupils, junior and senior barristers, and those working in chambers, where barristers share offices, to listen to their experiences.
Some shared how they had been groped, propositioned, shouted at in court, and were left feeling “completely isolated” by what they had been through.
Harman said: “Bullying, harassment and sexual harassment is a problem at the Bar and on the Bench, within chambers and courtrooms, in open court and behind robing room doors.
“It needs to be acknowledged and dealt with to protect future victims. But it is also vital to protect the reputation of the Bar from the stain of misconduct. The Bar is at the centre of the rule of law. It must uphold high standards.”
The Bar Council asked Harman, a former leader of the House of Commons, to carry out the review after 2023 research found increasing numbers of barristers were experiencing or witnessing inappropriate and unacceptable behaviours within their chambers, workplace and in courts.
The report found 44% of respondents said they had experienced or observed bullying, harassment or discrimination while working either in person or online over two years.
“When I was 20 where I was the only female, a male barrister asked me if I liked sadomasochistic sexual acts and whether he should demonstrate them for me. Afterwards, he got my mobile number and messaged me, asking me to go out with him,” said one woman who spoke to Harman as part of the review.
Another said: “A male barrister at a Manchester set of chambers offered to pay for my Bar Professional Training Course if I engaged in an intimate relationship with him. When I refused, he called me frigid and suggested that it was my fault for asking him to review my pupillage application. I assumed he was being helpful, but I now understand he made similar offers to other female law students.”
The review acknowledges that action has been taken to try to tackle the bad behaviour but concluded more needs to be done to bring about real and sustained change.
Baroness Harman made 36 recommendations including:
- Mandatory anti-bullying and anti-harassment training
- A new conduct tsar within the Bar
- A new complaints system
- Banning relationships between those doing their pupillage or training and barristers and employees
In the report, Harman writes about a fee-paid judge who had sex in his judicial chambers more than 15 years ago. Paul Kirtley was found to have committed misconduct and issued with a formal warning. He remains on the Bench.
Harman said: “In my view, the courts are a place for the administration of justice not for sexual activity. I cannot see how it is acceptable for a judge to continue on the Bench when he has had sex in his judicial chambers during an adjournment.”
The report also exposes bullying behaviour among the highest echelons of the legal field.
A contributor told the review of one judge in the Midlands who “regularly shouts at, and bullies junior counsel”. It is alleged this behaviour caused panicked barristers to prioritise the judge’s cases over others, leading to delays for others.
In response to the review, chair of the Bar Council, Barbara Mills KC, said: “There is no place for bullying and harassment at the Bar. We’re aware of the scale of the problem, but seeing its impact on our colleagues and those aspiring to join the profession in this report makes for uncomfortable reading.”
“It is clear from the review that decisive action is required,” she added.
You can access a range of support for the issues raised in this article through Action Line.
