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Judge Who Bullied Me Resigns After Investigation Finds He Sexually Harassed Women
I wrote recently about how I was bullied by judges when I was working as a litigation lawyer. This morning I heard on the news that an independent investigation has substantiated two women’s complaints of sexually inappropriate behaviour by one of those judges, Joe Harman.
One of the women was a junior court employee, the other a former law student of Harman. The conduct, including sexually suggestive emails and unwanted physical contact occurred over a 5 year period.
I appeared in front of Harman when I was representing clients in family law matters. I’m not suggesting that my experience is equivalent to what those women have gone through. But his conduct towards me was part of a broader problem of male judges abusing their power.
I had found Harman to be unpredictable and erratic, with a tendency to inflict his mood swings on lawyers appearing before him. He seemed to take a dislike to some (male and female) while treating others as favourites. The way in which he lavished praise on selected young female lawyers was creepy.
One day I was representing a client seeking to protect her children from their violent and abusive…
