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Sexual Harassment in the Legal Profession: It's Time to Make It Stop

By Wendi S. Lazar

In 1992, the American Bar Association implemented a policy, spearheaded by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, to take action on sexual harassment in the legal profession ' stating that it was a “serious problem” constituting a discriminatory and unprofessional practice. ABA House of Delegates, Recommendation 117 (Feb. 1992). The ABA called upon members of the legal profession to provide leadership and education in eradicating sexual harassment, recognizing that it has major psychological and economic consequences for employees as well as significant costs to employers in lost productivity and turnover. At the time, sexual harassment was cited as one explanation for the gender gap in high-level legal positions. According to the 1992 ABA report, “[l]awyers play a special role in educating society about sexual harassment and eliminating it from the workplace.”

Unfortunately, in the intervening 25 years, sexual harassment continues to plague women in the field of law (Janet E. Gans Epner, “Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms,” ABA Comm. on Women in the Profession 10 (2006) (finding that between 47% and 49% of women reported being subjected to harassment while working in a law firm setting) and more pervasively, women of color Id. (finding that 49% of women of color reported the same).

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