Flexible working may increasingly be the answer. And it seems City law firms are listening.
Allen & Overy’s announcement in January that it was looking to retain more women equity partners, by introducing part-time partnership, could be a sign of things to come.
As senior partner David Morley said at the time: “It's no longer realistic to provide just one option and say ‘take it or leave it’”.
Morley believes that the changes will offer options to people at all stages of their careers to help balance their professional and personal aspirations.
And the evidence is growing that, increasingly, there is a direct link between flexible working take-up and female partner retention.
Research carried out by The Lawyer revealed a high correlation between the take-up of flexible working schemes and the number of female partners – although this did not feed through to equity representation.
Nonetheless, firms like Berrymans Lace Mawer and Norton Rose are addressing the issue with schemes like the benchmark one offered by Allen & Overy.
The move was supported by then Chair of the Association of Women Solicitors, Clare McConnell – who pointed out the cost to partners, saying: “About 40% of women leave the profession by nine years’ PQE, at a cost not just to themselves, but also…to their employers”.
McConnell quoted figures from one firm that it costs £125,000 each time a senior lawyer leaves. So the debate has financial resonance as well as media appeal, and personal attraction.
Where does this leave the debate? The support given to the issue by The Lawyer’s influential editor, Catrin Griffith suggests that the legal media will continue to focus on the issue.
And so will the AWS, which has been driving this debate for some time.
The Association commissioned an extensive study in association with Kings College London on the issue. The findings make stark reading for lawyers.
The survey showed that partnership was very much an aspiration for a significant minority; 42% of respondents said it was their main measure of career success.
However, there was dissatisfaction among women solicitors regarding perceived negative career consequences associated with using work-family/life policies.
One in two women solicitors believed that lawyers who made use of such policies were viewed as less serious about their careers, and 44 per cent felt that working flexibly had a negative impact on lawyers’ promotion prospects.
Professor Janet Walsh, author of the survey, suggested that some women solicitors felt “law firms pay lip service to work-life policies and to flexible working and are not fully committed to their implementation”.
Walsh said the issue of women’s career progression, particularly at senior associate/associate level needed to be addressed.
For the outgoing AWS Chair, McConnell, said, the need is still there: “Firms need to develop their business structures and adopt clear career paths and promotion opportunities that are genuinely open to all”.
What Morley has started – and Norton Rose has followed, (for which it has been recognised) – could be just the beginning.
Ben Rigby
Ben Rigby is a freelance legal journalist, having previously worked as a staff reporter on 'Legal Business' and 'In-House Lawyer' magazines, as well as Bar Editor of the Legal 500 UK. A non-practicing solicitor, he has worked in general practice in Essex and Kent, as well as at the Law Society of England & Wales and the Ministry of Defence.
He is a Past President of the European Young Bar Association and a Past Chairman of the London Young Solicitors Group. Ben has written regularly about issues that affect young lawyers in the EYBA’s magazine, Eurolawyer, as well as for TSG Life, London Lawyer, and YSG Magazine.
And the evidence is growing that, increasingly, there is a direct link between flexible working take-up and female partner retention.
Research carried out by The Lawyer revealed a high correlation between the take-up of flexible working schemes and the number of female partners – although this did not feed through to equity representation.
Nonetheless, firms like Berrymans Lace Mawer and Norton Rose are addressing the issue with schemes like the benchmark one offered by Allen & Overy.
The move was supported by then Chair of the Association of Women Solicitors, Clare McConnell – who pointed out the cost to partners, saying: “About 40% of women leave the profession by nine years’ PQE, at a cost not just to themselves, but also…to their employers”.
McConnell quoted figures from one firm that it costs £125,000 each time a senior lawyer leaves. So the debate has financial resonance as well as media appeal, and personal attraction.
Where does this leave the debate? The support given to the issue by The Lawyer’s influential editor, Catrin Griffith suggests that the legal media will continue to focus on the issue.
And so will the AWS, which has been driving this debate for some time.
The Association commissioned an extensive study in association with Kings College London on the issue. The findings make stark reading for lawyers.
The survey showed that partnership was very much an aspiration for a significant minority; 42% of respondents said it was their main measure of career success.
However, there was dissatisfaction among women solicitors regarding perceived negative career consequences associated with using work-family/life policies.
One in two women solicitors believed that lawyers who made use of such policies were viewed as less serious about their careers, and 44 per cent felt that working flexibly had a negative impact on lawyers’ promotion prospects.
Professor Janet Walsh, author of the survey, suggested that some women solicitors felt “law firms pay lip service to work-life policies and to flexible working and are not fully committed to their implementation”.
Walsh said the issue of women’s career progression, particularly at senior associate/associate level needed to be addressed.
For the outgoing AWS Chair, McConnell, said, the need is still there: “Firms need to develop their business structures and adopt clear career paths and promotion opportunities that are genuinely open to all”.
What Morley has started – and Norton Rose has followed, (for which it has been recognised) – could be just the beginning.
Ben Rigby
Ben Rigby is a freelance legal journalist, having previously worked as a staff reporter on 'Legal Business' and 'In-House Lawyer' magazines, as well as Bar Editor of the Legal 500 UK. A non-practicing solicitor, he has worked in general practice in Essex and Kent, as well as at the Law Society of England & Wales and the Ministry of Defence.
He is a Past President of the European Young Bar Association and a Past Chairman of the London Young Solicitors Group. Ben has written regularly about issues that affect young lawyers in the EYBA’s magazine, Eurolawyer, as well as for TSG Life, London Lawyer, and YSG Magazine.
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