Tales of Captain Queeg-like partners are as old as the profession itself. And the fight between Sullivan & Cromwell and an openly gay associate who claims that partners discriminated against him grabbed headlines recently. But is it really a common occurrence for associates to feel partners are abusive? Are they confronting major problems like sexual harassment, or even lesser crimes like public humiliation, on a regular basis?
The short answer: not really. Spurred on by the controversy at Sullivan, Law Tribunesister publication The American Lawyerasked associates, as part of its annual mid-level associate survey, several questions about whether they had experienced or even seen abuse by partners. Just 20 percent of the 7,100 associates who responded said that they had – and much of what they did report was on the less-extreme side. Eighty-seven percent of those who have dealt with abuse (liberally defined) said that it was verbal; 31 percent said that an associate had been publicly humiliated; and 38 percent said that planned time off had been canceled. Ten percent reported knowing of some form of sexual harassment, and less than 1 percent reported physical abuse. In terms of frequency, 92 percent of associates who saw or experienced abuse said that it occurred less than once a month.
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