PAST EVENTS

24 November 2010
CWN event on issues faced by women solicitors

On the 24 November, CWN partnered with the Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) to host a lively discussion on issues faced by women solicitors, kindly hosted by King's College London (KCL) in the Anatomy Museum.

Dr Clare McConnell, partner at law firm Stephenson Harwood and former Chair of the AWS, and Professor Janet Walsh from KCL talked through some of the key findings of a survey commissioned by the AWS.

The survey was sent out to 2000 lawyers and aimed to examine the attitudes of women solicitors to their careers, work/life balance and flexible working- the largest survey of its kind. KCL achieved a very high response rate (40%) and some repeating themes emerged on careers, work demands, work/life balance, working hours and flexible working.

Key among the findings were concerns about promotional opportunities, particularly at the associate level. While 41% of women wanted careers integrated with family life, there was a fear that working flexibly might impact negatively on careers. Two significant factors emerged: the perception that an organisation was supportive and the availability of flexible working. Another perhaps not surprising finding is that women are delaying parenthood until partnership and the perception that the 'boys club' is a significant barrier to change.

One of the most arresting features of the survey were the individual comments provided by women which read like a diary and a depressing one at that. Time and again women were saying that they felt that would not be able to make partnership and combine it with family life.

Moving on to what women wanted, the following themes emerged: that women wanted more female role models, and those with balanced lives. They wanted senior partners not to celebrate presenteeism and to move away from billable hours to a more qualitative measure. They wanted flexible working to be de-gendered and an attitudinal shift towards caregiving responsibilities. It also emerged that those working flexibly need to have a flexible attitude themselves and eg. clarifiy arrangements in advance.

There were many questions from the audience which touched on possible ways forward: for example, talking about attrition in business terms: it is expensive to lose and replace experienced professionals. And speaking with clients about how they like their advisers to work. Another suggestion was to show case studies about what competitors have done to address this issue. And that the pressure on costs may encourage more home working. The question and answer session ended with a positive role model (our own Jane Keir, Chair of the Marketing Committee and partner at Kingsley Napley) who stated that the partnership at Kingsley Napley was fully alive to and supportive of issues faced by its female solicitors.

Many thanks to Dr McConnell and Professor Walsh and the AWS, and to KCL for generously hosting such an interesting and lively debate.

(Please feel free to email CWN member Sian O'Neill on soneill@gbp.co.uk if you would like to raise any questions or issues with Dr McConnell or Professor Walsh in confidence).