Sustainable Law in Action: Non-disclosure agreements – an interview with Zelda Perkins and Professor Julie Macfarlane

The International Bar Association (IBA) Legal Policy & Research Unit (LPRU) has published a new episode on the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), as part of their series of podcasts on business and sustainability.

In this episode, Sara Carnegie, IBA Legal Projects Director, speaks to Zelda Perkins and Professor Julie Macfarlane about their experience with NDAs and the ‘Can’t Buy My Silence’ campaign which they launched in September 2021.

Zelda Perkins was the former personal assistant of disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein and spoke out about her experience in 2017, breaching the NDA by doing so. Julie Macfarlane is a Canadian law professor and world expert on NDAs.

In recent years, the IBA has carried out extensive work on bullying and sexual harassment in the legal profession, launching a groundbreaking report in 2019, followed by a global campaign to highlight the findings and recommendations.

The work has included discussion about the use of NDAs and the moral concerns about their prevalence in sexual harassment cases. Zelda and Julie shed light on this dark and complex area of law, where victims often feel cheated and intimidated by the process, and talk about their campaign to bring about legislative change on a global scale.

Listen on Spotify