Online harassment and bullying – an interim report on our survey findings

As you may recall, we recently announced that we were conducting a survey into online bullying and harassment with a particular focus on LinkedIn. This survey has now closed, and the response has been brilliant – thank you to all of you who took the time to take part and/or have been sharing your experiences with us via DM. Where we have been asked to, we will, of course, treat the information you have kindly provided to us with the utmost confidentiality.

We honestly weren’t expecting the breadth and depth of the responses we have received. To do justice to the trust you have placed in us, we want to take some time to reflect on the results of the survey and produce a report with the level of granularity you deserve and have a right to expect. I am currently working with some experts in HR, DEI and reputation management to work through all the details.

What we can already say is that the survey has revealed some deeply troubling insights into the shadowside of being active online: a staggering 65% of legal professionals have received harassing or negative messages, with 44% facing sexual harassment directly through LinkedIn. It seems that the more ‘famous’ you are on LinkedIn, the more likely you are to attract unwanted and malign attention in the form of trolling, sexual harassment, sexism, racism, bullying, threats of rape and other forms of physical violence – you get the somewhat bleak picture.

As a team, we are, of course, saddened, but by no means surprised, at this. What matters most to us now is determining how best to reflect the findings of our survey in a report that has the power to effect positive change. One thing we are certain of is that nothing substantive can be done without the engagement of LinkedIn itself, which is why we have asked them to engage with the findings. Our desire is to put in place the twin guardrails that will serve the legal industry’s many people well: compliance and policy on one side and safeguarding on the other.

That’s why we want to collaborate with safeguarding officers, CMOs and HR teams at law firms so that lawyers posting on LinkedIn can be more confident in the knowledge that their employer has their back if and when the less savoury members of the LinkedIn membership come a-calling in the comments or via DM. The imperative for lawyers and other business professionals to use this platform for their BD work is only going to grow stronger as we move ever further into the digital era, and law firms are therefore going to have to do much more to look after their people and install some proper guardrails to protect them from online harassment and bullying. If we aren’t getting it right on LinkedIn, what hope do we have that we’re getting it right on other platforms?

To conclude this week, we want to make one thing clear: the survey may have closed, but it is definitely not too late if you would still like to provide us with qualitative input as an HR professional, a LinkedIn coach, or someone who has suffered – or is still suffering – some form of harassment online. We would love for you to be involved in helping us in planning the next steps so we can make LinkedIn a safer space for everyone.

Please DM me if you'd like to be involved.

In other news

The inaugural Law Firm Maturity Index Report is out

Last week, the Maturity Institute and Lex Solutions jointly published the 2024 Law Firm Maturity Index Rankings for the UK’s 30 largest firms. The rankings are based around a live dataset of law firm health measured through a comprehensive human systems framework, rather than focusing solely on financial performance.?

Manu Kanwar , founder of Lex Solutions, comments: “The announcement of the LFMI marks a turning point for law firm benchmarking. For the first time, we are able to assess and compare law firms by their purpose, culture and authenticity. To drive meaningful change in our sector, we have needed an independent, robust and systemic measurement.? And now that we have it, we can move way beyond tick boxing to deliver meaningful value for firms, their people and wider society.”

You can download the report here .

UK Law Firms Lag in Pro Bono Work

UK law firms trail behind US counterparts in pro bono rankings, with US firms like Dechert leading in hours and lawyer participation, according to a Law.com survey featured in The Times .

Accountancy Firms Struggle in Legal Sector

The “big four” accountancy firms have seen their share of the legal market drop to 0.7% from 1% in 2002, with PwC’s legal branch falling short of revenue targets at ￡77m annually, according to Catrin Griffiths in The Lawyer (￡).

New Appointments in Tory Legal Team

Kemi Badenoch has appointed Lord Wolfson as shadow attorney general and former Sillivan & Cromwell and Skadden lawyer Robert Jenrick as shadow justice secretary following the recent general election, per Legal Cheek .

This week’s podcast guest: Catriona Wolfenden

If you have 25 minutes today and you want to listen to something calm and professionally relevant, then you could do a lot worse than the latest episode of But, Is It Legal? which features Dr Catriona Wolfenden , Partner and innovation guru at Weightmans .

It's on YouTube here ; and

Spotify here .

I hope you have enjoyed this week’s edition.

Thanks,

Si Marshall

[email protected]