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Freshfields mulls female partnership targets in diversity push

Engineering the number of female candidates to go forward to partnership is a disastrous methodology to work from - why not just look after associates along the way, support them, don’t overwork them month-in month-out, and then be able to choose the best candidates for the job!! The turnover of associates at this firm is absolutely ridiculous, and one of the biggest reasons is that, women especially, feel that they are not supported in their long term aspirations, and if they have kids, that is basically partnership out the window, regardless of whether they even wanted it in the first place. The Law Firm model as we know is also not helping put more women on the legal map. Partnership is such a hard title to get your hands on, (anywhere in the City), and there is a big “up or out” mentality. The really unfortunate part about it, is that when women are at the senior associate stage, just when they are at the point of really building out a business case, building out a reputation, and a contact list that they can then use to try to get into partnership, is also just at the point when (speaking frankly), it’s having kids time. They (women) then, quite often end up missing out on partnership opportunities, which they would have wanted just as much as men. My guess is that most women in firms like Freshfields, can’t get excited about partnership because they know that having kids (or even just having a life between the ages of 25-35), means that getting to the holy grail of partnership is an even harder slough than their male colleagues will have to go through. If we want to see more female partners in law firms, change the business model under which they operate…

25-May-2012

3:35 pm