Law firms ‘will fall behind if they fail to promote women’

 
Report: Skarbek Associates warns that attitudes and 'organisational culture' are still hindering female progression to the top with women accounting for fewer than one in five of full equity partners at the City’s top 10 law firms (Ian Nicholson/PA)
PA

The future of London law firms will be threatened unless they speed up efforts to help women progress to their senior ranks, a report warned today.

Business advisers said firms that fail to improve gender diversity risk becoming “out of step with the modern world” and will be in danger of “being overtaken” by competitors with more female leaders.

The report, by the London business advisory group Skarbek Associates, warns that attitudes and “organisational culture” are still hindering female progression to the top with women accounting for fewer than one in five of full equity partners at the City’s top 10 law firms.

It also highlights traditional practices such as hourly billing — which means that revenue earning is based on the time spent on work rather than its quality — and a failure to promote “flexible working practices in a genuine way” as further obstacles to female success.

The conclusions will prompt renewed debate about the relative lack of female representation in senior legal posts, despite figures showing that women account for nearly half of practising solicitors and more than 50 per cent of new entrants to the profession. A new organisation, Women in Law London, was set up last year by a group of young female lawyers in a bid to address the problem. It provides assistance and support to women in their twenties and thirties as they seek to reach partner status.

Warning that the traditional pattern of the male breadwinner and wife at home has become “out-dated”, the report adds that the law firms will need to “provide flexibility for both men and women” so that both can “develop their careers, be hands-on parents, take breaks without damaging their progression, and reskill when necessary”.

The report says that one way in which law firms will have to adapt is by phasing out the current “billable hours” method for charging clients.

It says that bills should instead be based on the quality of legal work, not the time spent carrying it out, in a change which will reduce the need for long hours in the office.

The report also points out that the increased use of technology to speed up routine legal work and growing international competition will require law firms to maximise the talents of staff of both sexes.

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