Women lawyers feel career is hampered by gender
It will take 64 years, at current rates of progress, for men and women to be equally represented in the legal profession.
That’s according to research conducted by legal recruitment firm Laurence Simons. The recruiter also found that 62% of women but only 16% of men feel their gender has been a barrier to progress in their legal career.
Women make up only one in five partners at Magic Circle and Silver Circle firms. However, most legal professionals opposed quotas for female partners. Some 47% of respondents viewed quotas as ineffective and preferred other techniques such as leadership development programmes. A further 19% believed quotas would be effective but opposed them nevertheless. Only one quarter were in favour of quotas—however that quarter was made up of 42% of women and 16% of men.
Clare Butler, global managing director at Laurence Simons, says gender quotas are “very much chicken before the egg” and the root causes of the issue needed to be tackled.
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