This week, to mark the 2022 International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the 16 days of activism that follow, Australasia’s leading specialist insurance & risk law firm, Wotton Kearney, held a firm-wide event to raise awareness for all its staff on what they as a business and as individuals can do to contribute to this goal, particularly to end family and domestic violence.

W+K’s Chief Executive Partner, David Kearney, said:

“As the leader of a law firm focused on reducing inequalities, I am committed to making gender equality and women’s safety a priority goal for our people. I also recognise the influential role that our firm can play in changing community attitudes more broadly, and we want to do what we can to assist in eliminating violence against women. Our commitment to reducing inequalities is part of our 20 Actions for 20 Years project, and has a particular focus on the UN Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality. Our participation in today’s event is an important contribution to living up to this commitment. Our aim is to build a culture that supports women experiencing domestic and sexual abuse in all its forms, particularly financial abuse, which is less visible.”

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency’s gender equality scorecard from its 2020-21 employer census reported in February 2022 that “over 70% of employers now have a formal policy and/or strategy to support employees experiencing family or domestic violence – this has doubled over the last eight years. There has also been a substantial jump in employers offering paid domestic violence leave since 2018-19, up 20pp to nearly 51% of organisations”. However, the number of companies offering their staff training to enable them to effectively apply these policies is significantly less at close to 40%.

Speaking at the W+K event was Rebecca Glenn, Founder and CEO of the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety (CWES). CWES has recently released a report, the first in a Designed to Disrupt series, on what the banking industry can do to redesign their products to prevent them from being used as a vehicle for abuse, and instead contribute to stopping financial abuse. The next Designed to Disrupt report will be on insurance.

“The role of our legal and financial institutions is so important in tackling financial abuse which is so often a feature of all family and domestic violence. While it’s fantastic to see that companies are rapidly introducing formal policies to support employees experiencing family and domestic violence, these policies will only have a genuine impact once the staff of these companies are trained to respond in a way that encourages disclosures and breaks down the stigma and shame that is associated with being personally affected by abuse,” said Glenn.

W+K’s Community Footprint program has been supporting Lou’s Place, the only daytime refuge for women in Sydney, and is doing pro bono legal work to support community organisations advocating for law reform to improve support to victim-survivors. W+K’s Pro Bono Partner, Heidi Nash-Smith, who established the Community Footprint program and the relationship with Lou’s Place a decade ago, said:

“Working with our community partners who assist victim-survivors of family and domestic violence helps to raise awareness of the issue among our people, who can then become advocates for change. It was important to hear from a Lou’s Place social worker at our event today that women from all walks of life go to Lou’s for help, highlighting how family and domestic violence can impact anyone.”

“At W+K, we have an excellent domestic violence policy which encourages our broader team to speak up if they need support. To ensure the policy is working as intended, I know it will make a big difference if our people know that their colleagues understand the issues and know that we, as senior leaders, have been trained to respond,” said Kearney.