In its pursuit of gender equality, The Law Society of NSW hosted a round table discussion on ‘The Advancement of Women’ at Petersons Winery last Wednesday, for solicitors from the New England region.
This was the last in a series of statewide consultations conducted by the NSW Law Society aimed at exploring factors impacting on the advancement of women to senior positions in the legal profession.
According to NSW Law Society President Stuart Westgarth who hosted the discussion, the number of female solicitors practising in NSW has increased since 1988 by 452 per cent, compared with a 64 per cent increase in the number of male solicitors. Women now make up 46 per cent of the profession. Despite this, change has been slow in women reaching the ranks of partners and principals.
“If you look at the young ones currently entering the profession, about 56 per cent of first year solicitors are women and the men are in the minority,” said Mr Westgarth.
“If you look at the senior end at people who have been promoted to senior levels, looking at the number of partners in law firms, only 20 per cent are women and therefore 80 per cent are men.
“So women are not really getting to the top.
“Many women leave in large numbers after 10 or 15 years, no doubt to have children, but many of them want to come back or work part-time and what we are trying to do is help them develop techniques to maintain their links so they don’t have to fully retire.And for those that do leave, to help them come back and help them get to top levels,” said Mr Westgarth.
The NSW Law Society is looking to gather information and identify effective strategies that can be promoted across the profession. Some of the key issues discussed included flexible working hours, mentoring and coaching, team approaches, maternity and other leave, client expectation, workplace culture and facilitating return to work.
Local solicitor Penny Waters and current Councillor of the NSW Law Society believes that the country lifestyle, especially here in Armidale, is more conducive to women staying connected to their law careers as opposed to their city counterparts, although there is still a lot that can be done to improve the number of women at the top of her profession.
“In this particular area we have the University of New England where we are able to retain some young lawyers.
“As far as women are concerned, the availability of a lot of law students and graduates here in Armidale suits women because of the lifestyle they lead, they mature and get married and want to have children. So the flexibility with short distances to travel is huge.
“We recently had our AGM day. Wives who have had children are now working two days and it is so flexible with the employer, they are very available because they are so close by.“Although that flexibility is here
in the country, there is, however, still a disproportionate number of males as partners and heads of entities as opposed to women.
“One of the reasons would be, although we still have young ones coming into the firms, they still leave for the city, both male and female, and those who are left are an older generation.
“So the young ones are not wanting to take over, so there are business reason why there would be more males than females.
“Traditionally there were more males in law, who are still doing it and still running the practice.”
Mr Westgarth said the Law Society will use the ideas generated during the consultation process to develop strategies and promote best practice for the advancement and retention of women in the legal profession.
