IWD 2019 and City law firms: the changing landscape

It’s International Women’s Day 2019, with the day now becoming a publicised and notable calendar event (having previously ranked only marginally higher than National Grandparents Day). In this era of #MeToo, it seems that finally the demand for women’s equality may at least be getting more traction - or at least visibility - even if many law firms have an awfully long way to go to even reach even the 30% mark for female partners.

With many firms now putting in place different initiatives designed to promote more female diversity within the partnerships, I have witnessed at first hand both as a lawyer and a headhunter, the changes (albeit painfully slowly in some cases) as the legal profession at last tries to address the imbalance of gender diversity within its partnership ranks despite the equal numbers of male/female lawyers coming through at associate level.

Even in the 20+years that I’ve been working in the City, the landscape for female lawyers has changed a lot:

• it’s now acceptable for female lawyers to wear trousers in the office (when I was a trainee, the expected work attire was skirt suits only);
• Clients events aren’t all golf days and drinks in men’s clubs; there are female focused events (and not just choosing your colours) and mainstream hospitality events;
• There is such a thing as a Partner who works part-time (incidentally, this is now women and men) - I can remember a female partner I knew being demoted to “consultant” status when she needed to reduce her full time status;
• There is a requirement on firms to publish their diversity statistics and gender pay figures: pressure from clients and from society with an expectation of equality can only be a good thing to encourage firms to better their gender balance;
• With the constant war on talent, City law firms have finally come to the realisation that losing a high proportion of talented female lawyers - either in-house or not returning from maternity leave - is bad for business. Agile working, return to work programmes, mentorship and coaching for females to attain partnership are all schemes being rolled out to challenge the status quo of male dominated partnerships.

And with all the leaps and bounds, there’s still a lot to be done. Many law firms have not reached their stated aim of 30% female partners (I’m still astounded that this means over 70% male partners! 70%!). Hiring lateral partners is still dominated by the promise of clients and portable practice, which is understandable but there remains a generalisation (certainly in my experience, this often bears true) that female partners underestimate their contribution or are less positive about future business, even if this flies in the face of all of the facts. Female partners then enter the partnership at a lower level, leading to a wider gap in pay.

The rising prominence of IWD and expectation that issues will be addressed going forward can only be a good (and long overdue) thing. But the focus should now be on translating that stated commitment by law firms to diversity into meaningful change.