A job posting which advertised a volunteer legal assistant position under solicitor Robert Nixon was taken down by Sydney University Law Society (SULS) from its job board today after the SULS Executive were alerted to allegations against the solicitor. The allegations range from inappropriate behaviour to harassment.
The posting, which had been on the SULS website for the past week, was marketed to first year law students interested in working under Nixon’s supervision.
The advertisement stated that the unpaid volunteers will complete paralegal duties and promised them “valuable practical legal work experience.” Nixon came under scrutiny in 2017, when a post in the UNSW Law Society Discussion Group asking for advice about working for Nixon incited a firestorm of comments by students who had previously worked under him detailing their own experiences.
Several of the allegations put forth by the students included Nixon holding five hour long phone interviews, requesting hugs from female employees, and threatening those who wanted to quit that he would “tarnish your name within legal circles.”
In response to this, UNSW Law Society removed all job postings for Nixon.
When contacted by Honi, Nixon denied the allegations against him, and stated that he refused to speak any more on the matter.
Current SULS President Jeremy Chan said that they were not aware of the allegations surrounding Nixon, but removed the posting immediately in accordance with their zero tolerance policy for sexual harassment.
In addition to removal, Chan stated that SULS had notified the relevant bodies to ensure the listing would not be posted anywhere else, and indicated that SULS plans to develop a database of employers to ensure a continuity of information between executive years.
While Nixon’s posting has been removed from the SULS job board, it currently remains on other job boards, such as Indeed.
