LG welcomes one man in 12-strong trainee intake
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LG’s male-to-female trainee ratio has been skewed by its new intake as 11 of the 12-strong cohort are female.
The firm’s graduate recruitment partner Geoffrey Gouriet said that while the male to female split was not pre-planned, he believes it demonstrates the firm’s dedication to recruiting the best talent regardless of a candidate’s social and ethnic background or gender.
“My sense is that women are well represented at every level in the firm - there’s no better example of this than the fact that our senior partner is a woman,” he said.
Elsewhere, Baker & McKenzie has revealed that the male to female split of its next intake is 13 to seven respectively while Addleshaw Goddard confirmed that its current cohort contains more female trainees but its 2011 intake is more male dominated than usual.
Addleshaws’ graduate recruitment manager Brett Galloway said: “In recent years we’ve certainly seen more females than males apply and I think that’s reflected in the number of women studying law coming through the pipeline.”
CMS Cameron McKenna’s graduate recruitment officer Victoria Wisson said LG should be concerned how such a big divide could affect that intake in the future.
She said: “It’s inevitable that some women will want to go off and have children and the firm may face a gap in talent in years to come. But with more women coming into the profession many firms will have to review how they can be more flexible to accommodate women who want to have a career as well as maintain a family life.”
Figures show that in 2008, 11,558 students enrolled with the Law Society and of these students 63.7 per cent were women. There were also 6,303 new traineeships registered in 2008 and of the new trainees registered, 63.4 per cent were women.
Readers' comments (8)
Anonymous | 20-Nov-2009 12:38 pm
"CMS Cameron McKenna’s graduate recruitment officer Victoria Wisson said LG should be concerned how such a big divide could affect that intake in the future.
She said: “It’s inevitable that some women will want to go off and have children and the firm may face a gap in talent in years to come. But with more women coming into the profession many firms will have to review how they can be more flexible to accommodate women who want to have a career as well as maintain a family life.”
Oh please, someone give her a gag! Emmeline Pankhurst will be rolling in her grave to hear such out-dated drivel.
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Anonymous | 20-Nov-2009 12:52 pm
What's drivel about it? Acknowledging that women may want to have a career as well as a family life, and that employers may need to change their ethos to accommodate that, sounds to me like the kind of thing Emmeline Pankhurst would be delighted to see.
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Anonymous | 20-Nov-2009 1:07 pm
Emmeline Pankhurst never lived in the here and now. A very valid and balanced comment by Victoria Wisson. Or does equality, sexism, racism andy other ism only work one way??
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Anonymous | 20-Nov-2009 1:19 pm
Is Victoria Wisson proposing that firms should hire the lesser able male candidates so that they can be sure to have plenty of below par lawyers in the future rather than higher quality lawyers who may - or may not - require greater flexibility for a few years in a 30 year career? Women will not always be the majority of trainees, but in that year they were.
I would like to Victoria Wesson to answer whether it is CMS policy to deliberately pick worse male candidates above more able women ?
Perhaps firms should only hire men for graduate recruitment positions, and then they might achieve a policy based on talent rather than convenience.
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Anonymous | 20-Nov-2009 1:35 pm
Looks good in principle... however, from a man-management and business continuity viewpoint, they probably need to reverse those statistics next year. 3 colleagues in my current role are soon to be on maternity leave, its tough to plan for that sort of hospital pass...
Good luck to them though.
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Anonymous | 20-Nov-2009 1:58 pm
What about men who want flexible hours to 'accomodate a family life'...
Slight paternalistic approach from CMS. 'It's ok, we'll keep the women happy'...
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Anonymous | 20-Nov-2009 2:26 pm
Er...you may be missing something here. The women don't have to stay at home and look after the children. Their husbands can do that.
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Anonymous | 21-Nov-2009 8:37 am
The intake at my office when I start next year is 4 woman and 1 man. The only comment I've ever had on this from people I've told is 'lucky man'.
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