Diversity is as elusive as ever

A senior female QC confided to me the other day that she did not believe she could have achieved the equivalent status she now enjoyed – as well as having a family - if she had been a solicitor.

 This is because she was able to step back from practice at certain times in her career before returning to it on a full-time basis.

If the responses to previous Career Clinic questions about maternity leave at law firms are anything to go by, life at the leading firms does not afford such flexibility - although the challenges of  picking up where you left off after a period of absence at the Bar, where competition for work gets ever fiercer, should not be underestimated.

The Law Society’s annual statistical report (see story) provides a timely reminder of the massive obstacles law firms face if they are to live up to their professed desire to foster a more diverse workforce.

The 6% decline in the number of women making partner, against the background of a growing female intake in the junior ranks of the profession, is a worrying statistic. But it is hardly surprising.

Over the last six months, there has been an ongoing and heated debate on legalweek.com about the price City lawyers are paying in terms of their lifestyle for the rich financial rewards on offer in the City. If you combine this with the relentless drive by the leading firms to increase their profitability by sequeezing out partners in all but the most profitable practice area, the finding is hardly surprising.

But the picture is hardly more rosy at the Bar, if the latest silk application figures are anything to go by. Just 15% of the applicants for this year’s silk round are women.

If there is a chink of light, it is in the latest judicial statistics, which show that the proportion of women being appointed judges has risen from 24% to 41% since 1999. Even here, though, the Government is guilty of putting the stats in their most positive light. In the past, I have noticed a concentration of female and ethnic minority appointments in the judiciary’s lower ranks.

The press release announcing the latest statistics is strangely quiet about this, although an accompanying report shows that just 10% of High Court judges are women, while just one of the current tally of 107 High Court judges is from an ethnic minority.

john.malpas@legalweek.com