Female articling students are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment in law firms, yet their stories are mostly untold. Fierce competition, crushing debt, and power imbalances expose students to bullying, harassment, and mistreatment. Various national surveys describe abuse, discrimination, and sexual harassment throughout a students’ articling year.

In this paper, Courtney Chrusch, a 2022 graduate of the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University, reviews professional codes of conduct and considers the decision in Butterfield (Re), to argue that legislation and law societies have more work to do in protecting female articling students, and women in the law more broadly, from sexual harassment.

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