Female lawyers have been subjected to "sexual objectification" for decades and new rules are needed to address unacceptable behaviour, a review has concluded.

The New Zealand Law Society is planning changes to reporting and is taking action on sexual harassment and bullying in the legal profession following the comprehensive report.

Law Society President Kathryn Beck told Tim Dower incidents of harassment are often not reported because the women feared it would negatively impact their work. 

"There are a lot of reasons people don't speak up. We know that under-reporting of this type of behaviour is endemic everywhere in our society [but] I suppose the important thing is we have learned why they didn't speak up through this survey."

"They didn't feel safe, they were concerned about victimisation, they were concerned about their careers, they were concerned it wouldn't make enough of a difference for it to be worth the hassle, all sorts of reasons that this working group has looked at."

"So their recommendations are designed to try to create a process that will meet those concerns and allow people to come forward."

She said they are trying to change the culture of the workplaces so this kind of behaviour doesn't happen. 

"It's not going to be easy. This area of work that has been done by the regulatory working group targets the regulatory areas, so that's the response when things have gone wrong, when we already have bad behaviour. What we are also looking to do...is prevent this behaviour, create a culture within the legal profession that is healthy, safe, respectful and inclusive." 

"We still know that no matter how hard we try some people will not come forward but the work of the regularity working group is going to be essential to making it really clear, to helping us make it really clear on what is completely unacceptable. That it is unprofessional conduct, not just criminal, not just bullying, not just harassment, it is unprofessional conduction and we will deal with it."

Beck said most people are proud to be part of the legal system and want to make sure its reputation isn't tarnished. 

"What it means to be a professional and to conduct yourself with the utmost integrity, to be a fit and proper person. Now, none of this conduct, sexual violence, sexual harassment, bullying, decimalisation, none of that is conducting yourself with the utmost integrity."

"What we really need is people to understand that but more importantly, we need to find out when it's happening and we need to be able to deal with it and this report gives us a great blueprint for improving that." 

The working group, chaired by Dame Silvia Cartwright, was set up to look at the processes for reporting and taking action on harassment and inappropriate behaviour in legal workplaces.

It considered if improvements could be made to enable better reporting to the Law Society of harassment in the legal profession.

The report also called for specific prohibition on victimisation of people who report unacceptable behaviour in good faith, and a specialised process for dealing with complaints of unacceptable behaviour.

The working group found sex discrimination and sexual objectification of women lawyers was not new, and had taken place in the New Zealand legal profession since at least the 1950s. In a national survey in 1992, 38 per cent of women lawyers reported sexual harassment.

The working group was established in mid-April following widespread allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination within the legal profession, combined with a culture of silence and under-reporting of such misconduct.