Dyson Heydon, Credit: Shutterstock

Allegations of sexual harassment against former High Court of Australia Judge Dyson Heydon have been referred to the police to investigate whether he should face criminal charges.

In a case that some female lawyers say will encourage more lawyers to come forward about other senior judges and lawyers, a High Court-initiated investigation found six former judges' associates at Australia's highest court had been harassed by Heydon.

Shane Drumgold, SC, director of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Australian Capital Territory) said in a statement he had written to the Australian Federal Police "with a strong recommendation that both incidences be investigated to determine whether or not criminal charges should result."

The High Court and Heydon are already facing compensation claims from three of the women.

Heydon's lawyers, from the firm Speed & Stracey, have not responded to requests for comment but previously issued a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald denying the allegations.

A global survey of lawyers by the International Bar Association last year concluded that "bullying and sexual harassment are rife in Australian legal workplaces."

Some 73% of Australian female respondents had been bullied in connection with their employment, significantly higher than the global average. The survey also found 47% of female respondents indicated they had been sexually harassed, compared with 37% globally.

However, the survey also stated that policies targeting bullying and sexual harassment are more widely used in Australian legal workplaces than globally.

Fiona McLeod, SC, a senior barrister and a former head of the Law Council of Australia and Australian Women Lawyers, said the High Court's response in investigating the allegations against Heydon and making the findings public represented a "seismic shift."

"That will inevitably encourage women lawyers to come forward with the confidence that the system can protect them," she said.

"Unless you have this sort of institutional response that is focused on their well-being and their safety and puts their wellbeing at the center of the investigation, it is actually is very difficult for women, especially young women, to even consider bringing a complaint to get somebody who's so senior and so powerful."

McLeod said that for many women who have suffered sexual harassment it is easier to stay quiet, because of the fear of repercussions and that they won't be believed.

"There is a culture of victim-blaming and attended tendency to brush off the behavior of people who are otherwise seen as a great name or legends," she said.

"There are a number of judges or senior silks [barristers] about whom there are open secrets, if we can use that language, that they are repeat offenders and that women do tend to warn each other to stay away from them."

However, she said it was harder to understand why bystanders didn't report incidents and some of the onus of reporting sexual harassment should fall to them.

But leading human rights barrister Kate Eastman, SC, said the airing of the Heydon allegations could lead to a recognition that addressing and eliminating sexual harassment is not the responsibility of the victims of sexual harassment.

"As a profession we need to take responsibility to ensure lawyers conduct themselves to the highest standards, respect others and call out inappropriate workplace behavior," she said.

Eastman advocated compulsory training for lawyers in how to create an equitable workplace; recording and reporting of complaints in the legal profession; and enabling confidential complaints.

Heydon, a judicial conservative and a committed Christian, sat on the seven-member High Court bench from 2003-13. A former Rhodes scholar, he was appointed professor of law at Sydney University at age 30, the youngest ever to have achieved that post.

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