International Women’s Day: The lawyers putting trains back on track
Five train operators, five heads of legal: how this all-female team manages the legal functions for the likes of LNER, Northern and Southeastern railways.
Balancing work and parenting: what can we do?
We’ve just launched Partnerless, a new email specifically for associates. Sign up here for weekly career intelligence and market chatter. I snapped a picture last week, my little girl Sophie, decided she was now bored of me working, comes to sit on my knee and starts typing on my keyboard. She’s got her baby doll […]
Just let more women in the equity
Hurrah for Hogan Lovells. At the 2021/22 year-end it was just shy of its target of having 30 per cent female representation in the partnership – 26 per cent to be exact. And guess what, it bettered that figure this year by – hold onto your hats – 0.5 per cent. We’re not saying that […]
Black History Month: Women who shaped me
Born and raised in western Nigeria, I have always been fascinated by rock formations and geology. I spent the summer holiday before the start of my senior secondary school year absorbed in a geography textbook authored by Goh Cheng Leong, earning to uncover more about the earth, mountains, volcanoes, and other natural phenomenon. However, I […]
Black History Month: Let’s salute our sisters
It was Blair Underwood’s character Jonathan Rollins in LA Law who first inspired me to become a lawyer, cliched as this sounds. As a child aged 7, I had never seen a black man in a professional role before, and I was in awe – representation really does matter. My initial steps into the legal […]
City firms are way behind TLT
TLT’s family-friendly policies have created gender parity; others should follow suit
IWD: Juggling a legal career, a family and an Italian restaurant
It’s well documented that there’s a gender disparity in the legal profession, particularly within senior and leadership roles. However, since the early 1990s, 60 per cent of new entrants to law are women – so why aren’t there more women in partnership positions? Many stereotypes still exist about women in the workplace, not just within […]
Closing the gender gap at partner level – time to pick up the pace?
With International Women’s Day in mind, I was recently asked whether I thought law firms ought to be cutting ‘coasting’ male partners to create space for excellent female partners? A bold suggestion indeed! While I don’t think this is the solution, I do understand why the question was raised. Most law firms currently have a disproportionate […]
IWD: I want it all, and I want it… now?
I began my legal career in September 2000. From the second year of my law degree I knew that I wanted to be an employment lawyer and, having secured a training contract and started my first seat in the employment department, I made it very clear to my peers that if anyone was qualifying into […]
IWD: We can no longer blame lack of progress on the lack of pipeline
March 8th – International Women’s Day – is a moment to celebrate women’s achievements and a stark reminder of how far we still have to go. This year it sees the formal launch of SEEN in the City – the Sex Equality and Equity Network for professionals working in and with the financial services sector. […]
Why are we still celebrating International Women’s Day?
The organisers of International Women’s Day ask us to imagine a gender equal world, a world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. The origins of International Women’s Day arose from the fight for women’s suffrage, the right to hold public office and employment rights. Women now have the right to vote and hold public office […]
Simmons is fixing its women problem
Women in law still face very many challenges, but despite this it should be acknowledged that gender diversity within partnerships has come a long way, and the speed of change is accelerating. In The Lawyer’s UK Signal channel this month, we have looked at the firms that have done the best at moving towards gender parity in the […]