Moving on up

The first women solicitors began to practise in England and Wales more than a century ago. But in removing the absolute barrier to women entering the profession – the ‘sex disqualification’ bar – did the law do more than allow women into a world where men had set the rules? Arguably the price of long-term success for women has been the absence of other commitments, or a willingness to fulfil them in addition to professional duties, thus piling on the pressure.

Of course, there are male lawyers who fulfil caring and family responsibilities too, but, as became evident in pandemic lockdowns, the burden is unevenly shouldered.

Earlier this year, New Zealand’s former prime minister Jacinda Ardern and Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, resigned from high office. Both cited long hours and work pressures that meant they spent too much time away from family. While neither is a lawyer – though Sturgeon qualified as a solicitor – their reasons will resonate with many women in the legal profession.

In 2021, according to data from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), women accounted for 61% of solicitors and 52% of lawyers in law firms. Yet of the total number of partners in the solicitor profession, only around 35% are female.

‘We’d definitely like to see this figure being closer to 50%, which would be much more representative of the number of women coming into the profession,’ says Lubna Shuja, president of the Law Society.

In a 2017-18 survey carried out by the Society, 52% of respondents reported that perceived unconscious bias was a reason for the lack of women in senior positions in law firms.

Five years later, and attrition rates in the legal profession remain high among women, particularly around the three years’ post-qualification mark, and have increased post-pandemic, research by Thomson Reuters shows.

Nikki Alderson, a corporate and executive coach, believes the partnership model is not one that appeals to women. ‘I’ve seen women leave law firms and set up on their own, because they don’t want to be a partner,’ she says. ‘It’s just not a status they aspire to.

‘Traditionally masculine traits around status, money and power are the qualities that go hand-in-hand with rising up the career ladder,’ she explains. ‘While partnerships that can accommodate more flexibility are definitely more attractive to women, in terms of bigger law firms and the tradition of working through the night, women just don’t want that lifestyle. Partnerships are a male model, from a time when women weren’t even supposed to be solicitors, and it just doesn’t work for them.’

Alderson references the Women in the Workplace study carried out by Lean In and McKinsey & Co in 2022. This found women leaders in the United States were leaving their companies at the highest rate ever, while the gap between women and men in senior positions who were leaving their jobs was growing wider.

Laura Barrell, chair of the Women Solicitors Network committee and senior legal counsel at pharmaceutical company Norgine, adds that if women are to be encouraged to remain in the law, giving them the flexibility to choose a different path other than the traditional partnership model is key.

‘Different people want different things, and it’s about giving people that choice and saying: the legal sector is so much more – you don’t have to leave the profession if partnership isn’t for you,’ she says.

For those wishing to stay in private practice, a lack of clarity around pathways to promotion is also a barrier. Says Dana Denis-Smith, chief executive at legal services provider Obelisk Support: ‘The route to the top is not clearly set out at the start of women’s careers. Very little is demystified at the outset to be able to plan ahead and be strategic.’

Anna-Marie Slot, global ESG and sustainability partner at international firm Ashurst, argues that ongoing dialogue is vital if women are to see a clear path to progression.

‘People want to see a future in what they are doing,’ says Slot. ‘There’s still not enough in terms of communication around the pathway. At around the three-year mark you’re in the thick of transactional work and partnership seems far off, so it’s about having the right structures in place and constant communication.’

What makes a good leader?

Perceptions of women as leaders are a major stumbling block to their promotion. Research published in the Harvard Business Review in 2016 showed that female leaders are judged far more harshly than men on bad decisions.

‘I see language in business that makes me really uncomfortable around leadership and the culture that businesses accept and tolerate,’ says Alexandra Hatchman, chief executive at north-west solicitors Napthens. She acknowledges that there has been some gradual progress here: ‘Emotional intelligence now features more highly as a leadership quality. As women, this definitely plays to our strengths.’

Natasha Rees, senior partner at central London firm Forsters agrees: ‘Women have a very different style of people management and leadership. We bring a more sensitive and receptive approach.’

The business case for gender diversity in leadership positions is strong. Study after study has found firms with women in senior leadership perform better and are more socially responsible.

Barrell agrees that diversity is vital. ‘Everybody brings something to the table. It’s been proven that when you have diverse boards you create a much more productive workplace.’

Client expectations

While law firms have been slow to change, the real push for greater diversity may come from clients. General Counsel for Diversity & Inclusion is a group that represents the in-house legal functions of a growing number of large companies, including Shell, easyJet and Diageo. Members expect diversity and inclusion in law firms.

‘The real key is client demand,’ says Slot. ‘If the client says, “I don’t want to see a panel of all-white men. We want to know about the women in senior management in your organisation. We want a breakdown of that diversity,” that’s partially where the change is going to come from.’

But being client-facing can be a double-edged sword for women who juggle client demands with roles as caregivers in the home.

‘It’s about being clear with clients and being secure enough in your values to be able to set the boundaries,’ says Slot. ‘We’re not there to lie down in the street for our clients. We’ve had clients who tell us to push back when they are making unreasonable demands.’

Rethinking productivity

Research, often confirmed by anecdotal evidence, suggests that productivity has increased as a result of hybrid working practices. A report from the University of Birmingham and the University of York published earlier this year, Flexible Working and the Future of Work, found 76.5% of managers believe flexible working and home working improve productivity.

‘Covid definitely changed assumptions around home working,’ Slot says. ‘Everyone was working remotely and we could see that. That experience enables us to combat the impression that not being in the office means not working.’

‘We’re one of the few industries where we can see exactly what employees are doing, thanks to timesheets,’ Barrell points out.

But are billable hours actually part of the problem? Is meeting hourly targets the enemy of those now working more efficiently, flexibly and remotely? When it comes to promotions, while firms are increasingly trying to move to a more holistic approach to measuring performance, financial targets still play a key role.

‘Lawyers chose hours as their metric in the 1970s,’ says Slot, ‘and that is now the placeholder of productivity. But hours are not productivity.’

‘It’s a very traditional way of measuring productivity, which needs to be revisited in light of our new ways of working,’ Barrell says. ‘If you want to retain that model, you need to make sure it can bend to empower people to work as efficiently as possible, or otherwise you need to scrap the model completely.’

Beyond the pandemic

Opinions differ as to what the future holds for women in practice.

‘The world of work is getting more difficult not less,’ says Hatchman. ‘The lower-skilled jobs are going to be automated. These are the jobs that tend to be done by women. Added to this, women spend considerably more time on unpaid care work, leaving them less opportunity to upskill or retrain in order to stay “relevant”.’

Describing it as the ‘pandemic penalty’, Alderson says the latter was clearly seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, as female solicitors disproportionately accepted furlough in order to help with home-schooling. This had a knock-on effect on their visibility at work and, potentially, their career progression.

Conversely, in the post-Covid era, more flexible ways of working could increase opportunities for women who, in the past, may have left the profession.

‘Historically, we weren’t very good at having flexible and dynamic opportunities for people. That’s changed,’ says Nicole Williams, counsel and global co-head of inclusion, diversity and belonging at Ashurst.

Alderson agrees that the change in working practices has led to a more inclusive and diverse office life, making full-time or flexible working more accessible, especially for working mothers.

‘Partnerships that can accommodate flexibility are definitely more attractive to women,’ she says.

'Women spend considerably more time on unpaid care work, leaving them less opportunity to upskill or retrain in order to stay “relevant”'

Alexandra Hatchman, CEO, Napthens

But working remotely may affect promotion chances. As employers strive to get staff back into the office the issue of presenteeism is raising its head again.

‘I’m seeing some of my clients going into the office more, even if they do have the option to work flexibly,’ says Alderson. ‘Culturally, they feel they must be present to be considered for promotion. With a lot of magic circle firms, there’s still a tradition of being seen and working through the night.

‘I’m trying to coach leaders in law firms on this issue. It’s a cultural issue. They just don’t see the benefits of working in a hybrid or flexible way. What more do you need than a global pandemic to show that it is possible to work flexibly?’

Offering flexibility and embracing change is vital, says Barrell. ‘People need to decide for themselves what hybrid means for them – it’s about choice and trust. We need to stop micromanaging. We know that hybrid working can be productive. We need to be bold and embrace innovation. It should be employee-led.’

Barrell admits that fear around asking to work differently remains an issue: ‘There’s definitely the concern of being judged, and firms really need to embrace a culture of encouraging people to come and talk to them.’

This is something that Forsters is putting into practice through its inclusion and diversity initiatives, Rees says. ‘We have support networks, which meet on a monthly basis, and we encourage people to come along to these drop-in sessions and discuss things like part-time working.’

Forsters is unusual in having a near 50:50 split between female and male partners, although she admits that this is partly because the areas the firm practises in, which include family and private client work, tend to attract more women solicitors. But she also credits an ‘incredibly inclusive environment. We support people in what they are trying to achieve. Women can see the pathways are the same for them as for the men at the firm’.

Irwin Mitchell too has a gender split at partner level that is slightly weighted in favour of women. Half of the firm’s regional managing partners are now female. Thanks to measures such as unconscious bias training, mentoring and sharing success stories to encourage greater equality, the firm is consistently ranked as one of the best places for women to work.

There are still many laggard firms out there though.

‘About 65% of our support contacts are women,’ says Elizabeth Rimmer, chief executive at LawCare, a charity which supports the mental wellbeing of lawyers. ‘Through our support channels we hear from women questioning their career progression. So, although we have more women than men qualifying into the profession, we still have work to do on the culture in the law to create an environment that enables everyone to have equality of opportunity.’

‘The issue we have is that as a profession we are very slow to react, and very rigid. We don’t like change,’ Barrell concludes. ‘The trouble is that we just aren’t moving fast enough, and we’re losing women. I meet the most amazing women in my role. Their empathy and ability to think about everyone else but themselves is vital to the sector. We need that female perspective.’

 

Maria Shahid is a freelance journalist