Like many ‘traditional’ professions such as accountancy and finance, the legal sector is stepping up its efforts on diversity. But how can it achieve true inclusion, asks James Lavan?
Diversity is a perennial discussion topic for employers and a paramount concern for law firm leaders. One of the challenges is that diversity and inclusion can mean different things to different employers. Beyond rejecting discrimination and embracing the benefits of a more diverse workforce, there is no uniform or unifying consensus of its precise meaning.
For law firms who like certainty, that can be a challenge as they battle to increase their diversity through recruitment, targets, retention, and benchmarking against each other.
On the benchmark of gender, for example, law firms seem to be doing quite well. Recent data published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority shows that the proportion of women in UK law firms rose from 48% in 2015 to 53% last year. In fact, women have comprised the majority of newly qualified solicitors for more than two decades.
But the real problem is what happens in the 15 years after qualification, when the drop-out rate for women at big law firms is nearly twice that of their male counterparts. A smaller percentage of women stay on to become partners – typically in the 25-35% range. At law firms with more than 50 partners, only 28% are female.
Causes of this gender gap are many and complex. Beyond bias – unconscious or otherwise – family and a better work-life balance are the primary reasons given by women themselves to explain why they leave.
In a profession where long hours are a cultural norm, some of them choose to move elsewhere by their early thirties because they want to start a family. A number of so-called Magic Circle firms have recently bucked the trend, appointing women to senior partnerships.
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