91 years ago a Suffragette, a Yorkshire lass and a Cambridge graduate were among the first women in England to complete the Law Society’s exams. In January 2013 – 100 years after the Law Society forbade women from taking the exams – the president of the society, Lucy Scott-Moncrieff, said: “If career progression was based on pure merit, some male business leaders and law firm senior partners would never even have seen the paintings on the boardroom wall”.
Although statistics from the Solicitors Regulation Authority show women represent 48% of solicitors, the same cannot be said for the upper echelons. Only 22% of judges are women and the Law Society’s 2012 Annual Statistical Report shows that a lower proportion of women are partners. Lady Hale, deputy president of the Supreme Court, said in October 2013 that the reason no other women have been promoted to her level in ten years is because the decision process is dominated by men. Sharon Needle, managing partner of the Needle Partnership, agreed: “It’s still very much a male-dominated profession. At the top levels people making decisions about promotions tend to be men”.
A 2010 study commissioned by the Law Society found that whilst the modern world is moving towards equality, law firms are still seen as “traditional” and “conservative”. One participant in the study said: “Whilst girls generally don’t have to fight as hard for equality as their predecessors, this is not the case in the legal world”. This sentiment is echoed by Heidi Sandy, head of the Leeds branch of the Law Society, and Marilyn Stowe, senior partner of Stowe Family Law. They both agree that the glass ceiling does still exist, particularly for women with families. Ms Stowe reasons that big firms are not relationship or family friendly, stating: “I don’t think the two are compatible”.
In big firms, she says, the work/life balance is always weighted in favour of work. Ms Stowe – “one of the most formidable and sought-after divorce lawyers in the UK” according to The Times – moved into family law and was the first female lawyer in Leeds to set up an office on her own. Now the woman with clients in the Far East and America, who brought her baby to work with her, says that just wouldn’t have been possible at a big firm.
Women having families is a reason constantly cited for why they don’t progress in the sector. Heidi Sandy explains: “It’s not because having a family means that you can’t, it’s just that few firms accommodate the demands of having a family, and women being the primary carer, with balancing your career”. Marie Walsh, a partner and head of employment at Winston Solicitors, says women who are moving towards becoming partners are held back either because they take a break to have children, or because of the perception that that might happen.
Ms Sandy says that for a woman to succeed she needs to have “determination and drive” as well as an employer who allows flexible working hours and working remotely. One way of achieving that is the virtual law firm. Lucy Scott-Moncrieff’s firm, Scott-Moncrieff and Associates LLP, specialises in representing prisoners with life sentences, vulnerable children and young people. It also operates entirely from the laptops of its lawyers, with no bricks-and-mortar office.
Indeed there does seem to be a steady, if slow, advancement towards equality. In Leeds, Yorkshire’s only female criminal QC (Queen’s Counsel), Michelle Colborne, became the first female head of chambers at Broadway House. Marilyn Stowe claims the ethos is changing: “I think most firms do make an effort”. Marie Walsh also argues that law firms are improving. She maintains that women who take maternity leave at Winston Solicitors are trying to remain involved with the business and “there has been a significant shift towards split leave”. Her firm encourages “a flexible working environment to accommodate childcare requirements for both male and female members of staff, accepting that both parents have responsibility to their children”.
91 years since the first four women in England became lawyers, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Justice gave four women a licence to practise law. 100 years after the Law Society forbade women from taking their exams, DLA Piper, which originated in Leeds and is the world’s largest law firm, won several accolades for their work with female empowerment programmes in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom that forbids women from participating in sport, driving cars and having bank accounts has opened up one of the world’s most “conservative” professions. Women in Saudi Arabia can now start their own law firms, argue in court and be judged equal to their male counterparts.
Alice Booth
Image Source:
1) http://crazy-frankenstein.com/lady-justice-statue-wallpapers.html
2) http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/law/article3465928.ece