When Lauri Rollings moved from San Francisco back to Milwaukee and accepted an associate position at a midsize law firm, she expected a certain amount of stress. She was, after all, a litigator.
But she was blindsided by the bullying she encountered. One partner, Rollings says, would summon Rollings to her office to berate her and complain about her failure to do specific parts of an assignment when the instructions hadn't been very clear.
"There was this one partner in particular who was hostile and aggressive and dressed me down," Rollings says. "It felt like she was setting me up to fail."
Even worse, Rollings says, was that other lawyers in the firm knew the partner was a bully, but "nobody did anything about it."
Rollings says she then went to another firm, where she experienced yet another partner with a reputation for bullying whom nobody seemed to confront. She ended up experiencing anxiety, depression, insomnia, heart pain and low self-esteem–all of which made it harder to do her work.
"People in law firms need to understand that bullying shouldn't be ignored or allowed," says Rollings, who now advises organizations about appropriate leadership and bullying prevention. Change "starts with an awareness that this is happening," she adds.
Rollings' experience with bullying at law firms is considered somewhat commonplace in the legal industry, and it can have serious consequences. A 2024 bullying study commissioned by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism surveyed 6,000 lawyers in the state and found that 24% had been bullied at work the preceding year. According to Bullying in the Legal Profession: A Study of Illinois Lawyers' Experiences and Recommendations for Change, 38% of female lawyers had been bullied at work in the past year, compared with 15% of male lawyers. The data was compiled by the Red Bee Group, a consulting firm.
Some consultants say the study reinvigorated the debate within the legal industry about what behavior is appropriate in the professional world, and both employers and bar associations are again discussing how best to encourage a healthy workplace culture.
"There's just such a long track record of law firms and the legal industry in general not taking bullying seriously," says Liane Davey, an organizational psychologist who consults with businesses and law firms about teamwork and effective management. "We know that legal employers need to address bullying, and the workers deserve to feel safe and be free from harm. We all know there's more work to be done."
Before workplace bullying can be addressed on a firmwide basis, Davey says, there must be a common definition of what it is and what it isn't. "We also know that legal work requires teamwork, so we also need to learn how to communicate criticism and disagreement, to have conflict and uncomfortable situations without it being labeled as bullying," she adds.
In working with law firms and businesses on conflict resolution and teamwork, Davey has noticed that some individuals are easily triggered and quick to interpret an uncomfortable conversation or behavior as a personal attack. But, she adds, teamwork and innovation require, at times, disagreement and different ways of communicating.
"We can hold two truths at once," Davey says. “There can be horrible behavior that needs to be addressed, and at the same time, there can also be people who are unwilling to tolerate any discomfort at all.”
What is bullying?
In the report, bullying is defined as "inappropriate behavior intended to intimidate, humiliate or control the actions of another person, including verbal, nonverbal or physical acts." It found that the most common types of bullying reported were verbal intimidation, such as insults; name-calling or shouting; harsh, belittling or excessive criticism of work; demeaning nonverbal behaviors; and imposing unrealistic work demands.
The Workplace Bullying Institute, an organization dedicated to the eradication of the problem, defines bullying as "repeated, health-harming mistreatment by one or more employees of an employee: abusive conduct that takes the form of verbal abuse; or behaviors perceived as threatening, intimidating, or humiliating; work sabotage; or in some combination of the above."
When creating law firm or business policies, everyone involved must be working with the same definition of bullying, says Anne Cortina Perry, a partner in the New York City office of Jenner & Block and co-chair of the firm's Culture Risk and Sensitive Investigations practice.
"It's important to have diverse perspectives in terms of what your firm or business culture is and should be," she says. "There may be people in your workplace who view their behavior as encouraging, whereas someone else would say that it is not encouraging, but bullying."
One issue is that lawyers aren't particularly good at examining their own behavior and whether they are hurting other people, says Tish Vincent, a clinical social worker and attorney.
"Their skill set for zealous advocacy can keep them arguing, even when they might be wrong," says Vincent, immediate past chair of the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs.
On the other hand, Davey says, it's important to remind lawyers that conflict is part of human nature.
"Having conflict, getting critical feedback, being challenged–all of that is part of a vibrant, innovative, high-quality law firm," Davey says. “We need to be able to have uncomfortable conversations without feeling unsafe.”