Do In-House Legal Departments Abet Sexual Harassment?

There’s evidence that sexual harassment was part of the culture in upper levels at Fox News for years, with former chief executive Roger Ailes a serial perpetrator. Moreover, according to a leading plaintiff attorney and two academic sources cited in this New York Times article by James B. Stewart, the Ailes case is an egregious example of a not uncommon scenario in many companies. Harassment cases are settled, often confidentially and under arbitration, with the alleged perpetrator generally remaining in place while the compensated accuser quietly leaves. The upshot is that men get away with sexual harassment, virtually without consequence, says law professor Catharine A. MacKinnon, who is widely credited for making sexual harassment a legal issue starting more than 30 years ago. The problem remains rampant today, according to MacKinnon, and she adds that in-house legal departments are frequently part of the problem. The obligation of the in-house lawyer is to protect the company, she observes, but “when you’re dealing with a high-level executive like Ailes, there’s a tendency to see protecting the company as the same as protecting him. They should be protecting the company from him.”