CBA Record September-October 2025

THE YOUNG LAWYERS SECTION

YLS Continues to Tackle Bullying in the Legal Profession By J. Kopczyk, Co-Editor of the YLS Journal I n June of this year, the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professional ism (also known as 2Civility) pre

a significant majority felt less productive at work. Of those rare bystanders who attempted to address bullying, the efforts of judges were the most impactful. For example, Judge Sonni Choi Williams shared her experiences of being targeted based on her race and ethnicity as a young attorney in court and how the presiding judge’s sanction of the bully’s inappro priate behavior affirmed to her that she belonged in this profession. The report’s results echo her experiences: many law yers reported that it was highly impactful when judges addressed bullying immedi ately after it occurred. When done, the atmosphere of the entire courtroom and, most importantly, the bully’s inappro priate behavior, changed for the better. Other speakers also shared their experi ences as bystanders and as targets of bul lying. For those of us searching for action able steps to take, speaker Dorothy Sus kind, PhD., outlined the typical bullying behavior and patterns of exclusion that are most likely to lead to workplace chaos. She applied the results of her academic research in a book , Workplace Bullying: Finding Your Way to Big Tent Belonging, and briefly applied those global lessons to the legal profession. In short, attorneys thrive when they are included in a team. Professor Suskind encouraged leaders of professional legal organizations to heed complaints of bullying and investigate further, because often—according to her reports—targets of bullying are the same people who are likely to bring the most value and growth to an organization.

sented the findings of a landmark survey about bullying in the legal profession and fielded questions on what the results indi cate about the state of intimidation and harassment of legal professionals today. The report, titled “Bullying in the Legal Profession: A Study of Illinois Lawyers’ Experiences and Recommendations for Change” was thoroughly discussed in the virtual summit “Standing Up to Intimi dation: Confronting Bullying in the Legal Profession.” The YLS and the Illinois State Bar Asso ciation planned the summit, and they also co-sponsored the event along with several other organizations from across Illinois. Speakers included powerful personal tes timony that added color and context to the survey results. The types of bullying experienced by lawyers outlined in the report included those based on gender identity, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, disability, and age. Generally, the report indicated that targets of bullying tend to be people who found themselves outside of the nor mative stereotypes of “attorney,” accord ing to our current cultural understanding. Bullying tended to decrease with the tar geted person’s experience and perceived age, except there was a marked increase once the target was perceived to be older than 60. The results of the self-reported survey also tracked lawyers and bystanders’ myriad reactions to bullying. Symposium speakers noted that although lawyers had a

wide range of immediate responses when they were bullied, the two most common were ignoring the bullying and walking away. With respect to direct responses, the most common ones were attempts to defuse the situation or to defend oneself. Perhaps unsurprisingly for those who have found themselves at the receiving end of intimidation, the survey results also indi cated that two-thirds of bullying occurred in the presence of others. Bystanders, by an overwhelming majority, often ignored or did not react to the bully’s behavior. Only 20% of bystanders attempted to defuse the situation, and only 12% defended the bul lying target. Legal human resource depart ments were no better. Many lawyers gave their employers very low ratings regarding their reactions after receiving a report of workplace bullying. As a result, most lawyers felt isolated and demoralized after being targeted. Over half of bullied lawyers received a nega tive change in emotional well-being, and

36 September/October 2025