I joined Stevens & Bolton LLP as a trainee solicitor in 2002 and since beginning my career I have progressed to partner, alongside raising a young family. While rewarding, it hasn’t all been plain sailing and I owe much of my success to having an understanding and flexible employer who understands that sometimes, female success is not linear.
The first rung
Joining statistics across the UK legal profession typically have a greater female to male ratio – and this was no different in my trainee intake. I was lucky that my training contract was a nurturing and confidence-building experience, where I was encouraged to develop and grow a firm-wide network. The consistency of this support network has been key to my staying with the firm - many of the original peer group are partners I work alongside now. Stevens & Bolton is an ‘all equity’ model and there’s a unique cohesion and sense of common purpose between us.
Moving on up
After qualifying, I was encouraged to take up fresh opportunities alongside ‘day to day’ client work, to stay motivated and avoid stagnating. One of the downsides of sticking with the same employer is a fear that you have passed over potential fresh opportunities. This hasn’t been my experience– for example as a senior associate I was encouraged to interview for a nine-month client secondment working at a global media group. This was outside of my comfort zone and phasing. I recall the head of our team championing me to ‘go for it’ – her belief in me was motivating and the secondment ultimately proved career changing in terms of confidence and client relationship handling. Throughout my career I have been encouraged to build a strong profile through press engagement, external speaking and panel spots. I feel a responsibility to ensure my teammates have similar opportunities and seize them when they arrive.
I can think of many occasions during my career when colleagues have ‘shown up’ at testing times - figuratively and literally. For example the senior partner who would ‘check in’ by text during the pandemic when I was my wits-end, home-schooling the boys whilst tooling up on a raft of employment legal changes and delivering back to back ‘crisis advice’. I also remember speaking at a panel event at which I mentioned in passing that I was intimidated by my impressive co-panellists – a tribe of female partners unexpectedly rocked up to cheer the loudest. These moments mattered and they drive me. Unwavering support for women, from women, is a powerful motivator.
The final hurdle
As a senior associate, I took two periods of maternity leave in quick succession, returning to work part time and slowly increasing back to full time as my children grew up.
Returning from maternity leave is typically a pressure point at which many female lawyers leave the profession, and it would be untrue to say that this didn’t cross my mind at points. The baby/toddler years were exhausting and weekends provided little break or leisure. I can recall feeling utterly depleted at times and barely ‘breaking even’ after factoring in child care costs, having reduced my working hours. As many working families know, the UK childcare system is one of the most expensive in the world and this has to change to enable more female talent to remain in their chosen careers.
The support network I’d built as a junior lawyer really kicked in here and being able to draw on a group of female lawyers who had walked a similar walk and were honest and non-judgemental was invaluable. I also benefitted from an informal mentoring systems which took the form of a senior lawyer from a different specialism meeting with me regularly to discuss challenges and ambitions. As the firm has grown so too have the policies developed to support female talent; we now deliver tailored maternity coaching to help with the transition to parenting. That said, there’s obviously no 'right' path here – how, when and if women return from maternity leave is a hugely personal decision. Stevens & Bolton is ahead of the curve in recognising that successful career trajectories are not always linear and has tapped into a fantastic talent pool of female lawyers returning from a career hiatus.
Business as usual
I was made partner soon after returning from my second period of maternity leave, when my boys were both nursery age. Having trained with the firm there was a sense of affection and collective celebration at the point of promotion, and the ability to celebrate the successes of others, especially long-standing employees, is in my view, the mark of a good firm.
Returning from maternity leave can be daunting and it’s critical to set a positive and empathetic tone to return to work meetings at which flexibility is discussed. For me, these were framed as my employer saying, 'what do you need and we’ll start the discussion from there' not 'these are the minimum hours we need, you find a way to make it work'.
I have no doubt that my two sons, now 9 and 11, benefitted from having a mum who is hugely and unapologetically fulfilled by her career, something that may not have been possible if the support from my employer was lacking. I’ve never regretted the decision to climb the ladder while raising children – I only wish my experience is one that is shared collectively across the legal industry.
Hannah Ford is partner at Stevens & Bolton LLP
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