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Even though women are finding ways to solve the unfairness between gender inequalities in the corporate world, there are still many issues chasing them from the past. In the legal profession, the most common obstacles female attorneys are facing are the “glass-ceiling”, stereotypes, gender equality, unequal pay, and discrimination among minorities.

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5 Ways High-Achieving Women Can Break Through the Glass Ceiling | Mr.SAM

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CA Gender Discrimination Law Explained by an Employment Lawyer

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A suspect who was being charged for lawyer Willy Kimani's murder on rejected a state female lawyer, citing incompetence.The accused felt that he was not being represented properly.The state counsel, however, opposed his request, citing discrimination.This is not the first time female lawyers have been disregarded in the country and abroad.Globally, female lawyers have confessed to facing gender bias in their profession - much higher than their male counterparts.

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Gender Inequality is not a Standalone Issue | Rachel Wang | TEDxYouth@Edmonton

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For decade’s men all over the world believed women were not able to lead. Although, there are issues women are facing in the work environment because of gender inequality, many women are choosing more leading careers, like for example becoming an attorney. Without a doubt, many invisible barriers can prevent female attorneys from reaching the next level and show their true potential.

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Even though women are finding ways to solve the unfairness between gender inequalities in the corporate world, there are still many issues chasing them from the past. In the legal profession, the most common obstacles female attorneys are facing are the “glass-ceiling”, stereotypes, gender equality, unequal pay, and discrimination among minorities.

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Women are still facing the old stereotypes and glass ceiling in their careers. According to Deborah Rhode, a professor at Standard Law School issued a report and states, "Women are still overrepresented at the bottom and underrepresented at the top”. There are many barriers women face at a workplace, such as a few networking opportunities, a shortage of child-friendly work schedules, as well as persistent stereotypes and cultural biases. The glass ceiling is higher than it was 20 years ago. Women are now deans of law schools, managing partners of law firms and federal judges, but the numbers remain remarkably small. Even though there are still a big amount of women facing discrimination and inequality, I believe is important to stay optimistic about the future.

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Women lawyers still hit the glass ceiling but that ceiling's a lot higher now

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Stereotyping and harassment in the workplace are some things that have been going on for several decades. People are being discriminated against for many different reasons, such as a woman being “too masculine” or a man being “too feminine”. An employee or employer should not be judged or seen as less for their gender, femininity, masculinity, sexual orientation or any further, other than the work they produce and the ethics they communicate within a professional setting. Because this is an issue that we experience to date, the court system requires a significant amount of evidence to determine whether your claim is legitimate. It becomes hard to supply evidence when a form of harassment can be verbal and have no witnesses.

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Attorneys, EEOC Discuss Stereotyping Claims for LGBT Workers

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Pursuant to the article by (Valente, 2007), Men are still dominating the justice system in Latin America, especially the highest-level positions. There are many investigations about legal conceptions and legal perceptions in six Latin American countries, such as Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. The study was based on a survey of equal numbers of men and women working in prosecutor's offices and courts at different levels, from legal assistants in law firms to Supreme Court magistrates in all six countries. The results showed "common problems, and also particular characteristics in each country," Caicedo said during the presentation. The studied shows that the majority of judges and prosecutors were men. In addition, In Bolivia, men make up 61 percent of judges and prosecutors; in Argentina, 64 percent; in Peru, 65 percent; in Ecuador, 83 percent; in Colombia, 52 percent; and in Chile, 56 percent. Overall, the study did not analyze if having more women employed in the justice system was going to improve the rights of women but it did not ensure changes in the way the law is applied in each country.

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LATIN AMERICA - GLASS CEILING LIMITS FEMALE LAWYERS AND JUDGES

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 The cultural bias that runs deep in courtroom 

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 The cultural bias that runs deep in courtroom 

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As reported by (Bazelon, 2018) a big issue that is being faced by women attorneys is the idea that because they are women, they are seen as very emotional people and can grant sympathy to a courtroom. Women are being seen as the weaker sex that can persuade a courtroom to their favor by just showing a few tears and giving the idea that one must pity her. Women are being told that because of their gender, it plays a huge role in your career because there are certain things that a woman can do, that a man can't. Those “things” seem to don’t be relevant to the work that is being applied or the knowledge but just simply because of their sex in the workplace.

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May It Please the Court
In September, Lara Bazelon drew on her experience as a trial lawyer to examine the cultural bias that runs deep in courtrooms, where, she argued, male attorneys rely on tactics that are off-limits to women.
I am one of the women quoted in Lara Bazelon's article about how gender affects courtroom trial work.

I agonized for years over whether to report the incident in which the judge assaulted me-mostly because I was, and still am, concerned that doing so would harm my clients. As a public defender, I take my role as a zealous advocate seriously, and am fully aware that the benefits and harms of reporting are more likely to fall on my clients rather than me. The stakes for my clients-oftentimes years of their life-are high. This makes deciding what is too much a profoundly difficult call.

Here's the other problematic part. It took me a very long time to decide to come forward. But I did, and I filed a formal complaint in 2016 with the group that is responsible for complaints against judges. My complaint detailed what happened, and who else was in the room. It was not a complicated factual scenario. More than a year and a half has passed since I filed the complaint, and it is still pending. The judge is still on the bench, still hearing cases. Still in a position to affect my clients.

Not only was there tremendous pressure to stay quiet in order to protect my clients, but when I decided that I needed to come forward, there was no one listening.

I am a trial attorney who has been with a public defenders' office for 23 years. I was downright gleeful when Lara Bazelon recounted her red-faced, angry, sarcastic, aggressive, and ultimately winning arguments before a judge. Her article was both therapeutic and provocative. I continue to yearn for a justice system where it will be almost a little boring and ho-hum to observe a racially, socially, and experientially diverse group of magistrates, judges, justices, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and civil litigators walking the back hallways of courthouses across the country.

I'm sure Lara Bazelon is correct that female attorneys have to alter their speech, dress, and mannerisms to be successful in the courtroom, but that's nothing compared with what people of color-male and female-are required to do on a daily basis. As a black man who is not slight of stature, I am aware that displays of emotion that might be construed as passion or overlooked altogether coming from my white counterparts may easily be interpreted as threatening coming from me, or get me branded as an "angry black man." Black women, including Michelle Obama, have been called angry when they dare project a temperament other than sweetness and sunshine. Race is at least as important as gender in business communications if you are not a white male.

Lara Bazelon's recent article relies on false premises to reach mistaken conclusions that, if accepted, might lead a reader to believe that female lawyers cannot be as effective in the courtroom as male lawyers are. Ms. Bazelon states as a fact that juries "will be more willing to listen to and be convinced by a traditionally feminine woman." This is an astonishingly broad statement that is belied by my own experience and that of many other female trial lawyers.

I became a criminal defense lawyer in 1979. Since then, I have been lead counsel on many high-profile cases all over the United States, taught trial practice at Berkeley Law, and lectured nationally on the subject of cross-examination. In 2010, I was inducted into the California Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame. I know what I'm talking about when it comes to litigating in a courtroom and conducting a trial.

Of course, I have encountered plenty of sexist attitudes during my career. I have heard many irritating comments about what I should wear and how I should act. Depending on the situation, I have either directly confronted the people expressing those ideas or I have shrugged them off and moved on. There is no doubt that it is unfair that I and other women have the extra burden of confronting those sexist attitudes-but one thing I have never done is capitulate to them. Yet that is what Ms. Bazelon's article advocates.

No doubt there are jurors and judges who don't like seeing a woman being aggressive. But qualities and tactics that irk some jurors may win others over. More important, even the jurors who don't like the aggression will get over it. If a juror tells me, as one once did, "I thought you were a bitch, but that witness was a liar," I have won.

Ms. Bazelon's premises and conclusions suggest that neither public defenders' offices nor private clients should ever hire a female lawyer. Why would you hire a woman to try your case if she can use only some of the tools that are available to a man?

Ms. Bazelon concludes that "women lawyers don't have access to the same 'means and expedients' that men do." She worries that she is "holding [her] students back" by teaching the "same unfair rules that were passed on" to her. I agree with the latter proposition and disagree with the first. Ms. Bazelon should teach her students to look to successful female trial lawyers who have not conformed to "traditional feminine woman" expectations. She and her students should learn from them and follow their example.

The Next Populist Revolution
Establishment Democrats believe a diversifying electorate will secure their party's future, Reihan Salam wrote in September. But second-generation Latinos won't willingly accept a deeply unequal society.
Reihan Salam's contention that the populist left will form an insurgency at odds with affluent white liberalism is almost certainly right. It's even possible that such a liberalism would strip away white voters from the Republican base. But in arguing that a "brown populism" would form an anti-immigration alliance with the hard right, Salam ignores 60 years of racial antagonism that buttress the Republican Party. He suggests that his "brown populism" might ally with a political force hostile to its very presence in the country. Salam is right to point out the blindness of affluent liberals, but he seems unaware of his own.

If the children of Latino immigrants resist immigration from Asia and Africa as Salam predicts they will, they'll be following a rut worn by the children of British and German immigrants who resisted Irish immigration in the first half of the 19th century; Irish Americans who resisted Italian, Portuguese, and Eastern European immigrants; and so on. And Salam omits mention of a key driver of the wage growth that provided past immigrants entrée to the middle class: a powerful labor movement.

The next generation of Latino Americans can do as Salam suggests and unite with working-class whites under a right-wing populist-that is, Republican-banner. If they do so, they'll ensure the continued dominance of the party dedicated to the extirpation of organized labor, and thus ensure a widening income and wealth gap and their own impoverishment.

Reihan Salam replies:
Eric Scigliano is right to say that I did not address organized labor in my article. Had I done so, I might have mentioned the work of the renowned historian Jefferson Cowie, who has described the New Deal era as "the great exception" in American history, when a number of interrelated factors, including immigration restriction, fostered a sense of working-class solidarity that contributed to the vitality of the labor movement. This isn't an argument for immigration restriction, of course. But it is important to remember that the more solidaristic politics of mid-century America did not emerge in a cultural vacuum. And as for Peter Amos's observation, I'll note that the Republican and Democratic coalitions have evolved considerably over the past several decades, to the point where consituencies that once belonged to one major party have long since abandoned it for the other. Sixty years ago, both parties were quite ideologically diverse-for example, both parties included arch-segregationists and committed integrationists. And though each major party has grown more ideologically unified in the years since, the Trump era has brought to the surface new intraparty ideological cleavages, which will surely lead to the further reshuffling of partisan allegiances. If the children and grandchildren of today's immigrants embrace a more restrictionist politics in the years to come, as has happened in the past, they'll be living in a world as far removed from our politics as we are from the politics of the 1990s, when restrictionist Democrats and open-border Republicans were far more common. So I wouldn't rule anything out.
How Poetry Came to Matter Again
Minority poets, queer poets, immigrant poets, refugee poets-a young generation of outsiders in America is exploring identity in new ways, Jesse Lichtenstein showed in September, and people are listening.
When the world is a tawdry reality-TV show that tries to steal our attention with every cheap trick in the book, it's hard to remember that there's more than cable-and-Twitter mudslinging, or escaping into fictions.

I didn't realize how much I was missing from poetry. The intellectual language-play and pastiche of modern poetry left me cold. I always sought the alternate voices that reflected deeper feelings and a yearning to be heard-Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde-but there was so much more in our current collective experience. After reading this article, I immediately bought a stack of works by the poets referenced-Chen Chen, Claudia Rankine (long overdue on my part), Fatimah Asghar, Aziza Barnes. And their poetry fed me, electrified me, angered me, soothed me, all at once. I'm beyond grateful for being introduced to a world of voices that I needed so badly.

What Really Killed the Dinosaurs?
The Princeton geologist Gerta Keller has endured decades of ridicule for arguing that the fifth extinction was caused not by an asteroid but by a series of colossal volcanic eruptions. Her fight with the asteroid camp, Bianca Bosker wrote in September, may be the nastiest feud in all of science.
In 1979, I gave the keynote speech to open a conference on "Life in the Universe," held at the University of California at Berkeley. That night, at the banquet head table with nasa's chief and some other science bigwigs, I had hoped to hear some discussion of my talk. But all anyone wanted to chat about was the sensational news, then circulating on campus, that Luis Alvarez and his team of Berkeley researchers had found a "smoking gun" for an asteroid having belted the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs.

Back at Harvard after the conference, I, an astrophysicist, felt enthused that astronomy had something to say about one of the outstanding puzzles in science. But my colleague, the biologist Stephen Jay Gould, ever the contrarian, initially balked at it. He invited me to his office in Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, where, as an expert on dead life, he trotted out reams of geological and paleontological data implying that the dinosaurs could not have died in one big bang.

This blast from the past was tailor-made for Gould, a catastrophist at heart who had an idiosyncratic theory that evolution works in fits and starts "punctuated" by sudden events. After I told him about the asteroid evidence, Gould still argued that a gradual series of intense volcanoes some 67 million years ago released megatons of hot lava and toxic gas, possibly sending the dinosaurs (and much other life) on their way toward extinction nearly 1 million years before the big rock ever arrived.

For years thereafter, Gould and I taught back-to-back courses in Harvard's largest lecture hall, his about biological evolution and mine about cosmic evolution, offering students broad surveys of life on Earth and maybe beyond-but often diverging accounts of the fate of the dinosaurs. He would lambaste those claiming that an asteroid was the sole culprit, while I would smugly relate how physics had solved what was perhaps biology's most celebrated problem.

Yet, much as evolution is the study of change in nature, both our views eventually changed. Before he died in 2002, Gould fully embraced the asteroid-impact idea, telling me that this rock of ages did, after all, best bolster his take on evolution. Meanwhile, as my students often challenged me to explain the devilish details of the world's biggest detective story, I reassessed old data and examined new data while becoming increasingly convinced that volcanoes were likely the main cause, with an asteroid perhaps providing a knockout blow that finished the dinosaurs off.

Hardly anything in science is for keeps. Ideas change as data accumulate. If future evidence causes me to change my mind again, that's okay. That's how the scientific method works, always revising what we thought we knew, eventually casting aside the emotional hoopla, and ultimately granting us not a measure of truth so much as a better approximation of reality.

Correction:

Due to an editing error, "What Really Killed the Dinosaurs?" (September) stated that in Gerta Keller's Deccan Traps theory of dinosaur extinction, the combination of carbon dioxide and methane would have raised temperatures on land by as much as 46 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, it would have raised land temperatures by 14.4 degrees Fahrenheit.

To contribute to The Conversation, please email letters@theatlantic.com. Include your full name, city, and state.

We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.

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In September, Lara Bazelon drew on her experience as a trial lawyer to examine the cultural bias that runs deep in courtrooms, where, she argued, male attorneys rely on tactics that are off-limits to women. I am one of the women quoted in Lara Bazelon's article about how gender affects courtroom trial work.

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The National Study on the Status of Latinas in the Legal Profession had analyzed the experiences and perceptions of Latinas in the legal work environment. The study identified key strategies for success in the profession. In the legal work environment Latinas are a relatively understudied population. The first research was to analyzed and explore the experiences within their personal, cultural, and career-related contexts. These findings indicate that Latinas have followed a variety of career paths. Yet they are not represented in leadership compare to others. In order to address these obstacles, corporations should fix the hiring, attrition, and promotion rates. In addition, they should identify and communicate best practices for recruiting, retaining, and advancing Latinas in the profession.

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling | Erika Buhler | TEDxYouth@Edmonton

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According to (Oliver, 2015), women lawyers are judged, criticized, in the corporate world for lacking physical attributes, such as weight, height, voice. For years most women are facing discrimination in the work environment because of the unprofessional strategies corporations used, for example, The Silicon Valley sex discrimination case is a great example where a female is claiming the discrimination and unfairness of promotion among employees. Another challenge women are dealing with is balancing between family and career. Most of the time women need to choose from career goals and family demands and they are often sacrificing one for others. Additionally, some corporations are providing “family-friendly” policies allowing employees to work part-time. However, most women lawyers are reporting this option can affect the duties and responsibilities of each case and the risk of getting a promotion in the future. Unfortunately, is hard to see how stereotypes are still shaping the legal work environment. For example one of the discrimination an attorney can face at a firm is the female attorney is misidentified as a non-lawyer by the client. This problem is even more accurate for colored and minority women lawyers. Overall, many female lawyers are still experienced unequal treatment and discrimination in the workplace and they are forcing them to leave the work profession or compromise with the inequality.

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Women in the legal profession today no longer face the challenges that were encountered 25-30 years back. However, there are still several unique, gender-based issues they have to face. Women lawyers, especially younger lawyers are judged and compared to their male counterparts almost always.

While aggressive women attorneys are often judged as harsh and unpleasant, the passive or those not aggressive enough are termed as weak and someone who lacks self-confidence to do the job. Women attorneys are also criticized for lacking physical attributes like weight, height and/or a deep voice, which are considered to convey experience and authority in the profession and our society as a whole.

Gender-Based Discrimination

Even though the Civil Rights Act of 1964, " outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin," it is really unfortunate to see that women legal practitioners have to face these issues even today. This discrimination is just unique to female lawyers. Minority attorneys such as African American, Hispanic and Asian American attorneys too face similar challenges.

According to the California Minority Counsel Program, although the percentages of minority and women associates have increased over the past few years, only a small percentage of these legal professionals became a partner at their firms.

If seen closely such issues are often faced by women working in aggressive, male dominant professions. The Silicon Valley sex discrimination case is one of the recent examples where a female venture capitalist claimed that her former employer passed " her over for the position of senior partner while her male colleagues were promoted."

Although the jury gave the verdict that decision of not promoting Kleiner Perkins was not gender-based, the incident once again brought the issues faced by women in the " boys' club culture of Silicon Valley."

The issues related to gender inequality in legal profession has been an ongoing research and action. It is true that women's entrance into law fields has significantly increased over the past few decades. Women attorneys made up 32.9 percent of all lawyers in 2014 but they remained under-represented in leadership positions across sectors of this profession. According to 'Sex Discrimination in the Legal Profession: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives' by Audrey Wolfson Latourette, only 17 percent female lawyers account for the top U.S. law firms' equity partners.

Challenges Faced By Female Attorneys

Several female attorneys, including some of the successful female criminal defense attorneys were asked about the challenges they faced in their profession, especially during the first few years of practice. Most of them share some common experiences:

It Affected Their Career: Almost all of them were stunned to know that gender has strongly affected their career graph. While entering the profession these female lawyers believed that gender discrimination or sexism was a thing of the past. And they were disheartened to find out that it still lives in a more subtle form.

Intimidated by Male Colleagues: Women lawyers have largely been the target of several intimidation methods from their male colleagues at some point during their career. The male counterpart often use these "bully tactics" instead of arguing facts to gain a strategically advantage in his case.

It is not Unique to Female Lawyers: While it is true that women attorneys often have to face overly aggressive and antagonistic adversary in their workplace, these issues are not unique to women. As mentioned, other minority attorneys face them too. That being said, such behavior does pose special challenges for women attorneys.

For example, if the opposing counsel is a male and needlessly argumentative, a male client may often start doubting ability of a woman lawyer on his case. This happens mostly because the male client forms an opinion about the female lawyer solely by observing the way she interacts with the opposing counsel. Besides, a female associate is mostly judged by the tone of her response instead of the substance she presents.

Intertwining of Career and Gender Affects both Personal and Professional Life: Balancing family with work obligations is something that applies to both genders. However, women associates generally face a more significant challenge than their male counterparts. This issue, again, is not unique to legal profession.

Women from almost all professional field have faced such issues at some point of their life.
Women needs to reconcile career goals with family demands and often end-up (sometime forcefully/unwillingly) sacrificing one for other. Some female attorneys complained that the worst kind of gender discrimination offenders are the partners in their own firms. The problem is more acute where partners are "old school." They usually fail to recognize the volume of demands placed on female associates both at home and in the workplace.

Many would argue that most law firms today have official "family friendly" policies and allow associates part-time schedules, which is indeed beneficial for women (and men too) associates to meet family demands without sacrificing their career goals. However, most lawyers including female lawyers are reluctant to leverage this policy because of the fear of professional repercussions. A lot of female legal practitioners reported that selecting part-time option poses professional risks and can jeopardise their career and prospects for promotion.

Besides, lawyers (both male and female) opting for part-time schedules are perceived as less serious and less committed to their profession in comparison to their full-time counterparts. Another issue with part-time scheduling is that these lawyers are paid a part-time salary although work usually expands beyond their agreed-upon hours. Worst still, there is no corresponding increase in their compensation and as a result, they become victims of ' schedule creep'.

It is indeed unfortunate to see that such stereotypes are still shaping perception of legal professionals in our country. The worst blow of gender discrimination comes when a female attorney is 'misidentified' as a non-lawyer by clients. The problem is even more acute for colored and multicultural women lawyers who by far experience the worst kind of barriers to growth, advancements and career opportunities.

Conclusion

Although there are barriers facing female lawyers, no one can deny that women attorneys have achieved significant progress into this profession. The number of women entering law school is nearly equal to me now. Despite that, many female lawyers still experience unequal treatment and subtle discrimination in the workplace, forcing them to leave their law firms in search of more hospitable work environments or in worst cases, leave the profession altogether.

The good news is that law firms have started understanding the importance of retaining and promoting women associates and are now encouraging diversity in the workplace. Although this is just the beginning, there is tremendous hope for women associates in the future.
Author Bio: Rachel Oliver is a criminal defence lawyer with in-depth knowledge of the niche. She follows her passion by keeping a tab on the latest happenings in her niche and moonlights as a writer. You can read her write-ups on several websites. Feel free to get in touch with her on Google+.

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Issues affecting Women in the Legal Profession

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Women in the legal profession today no longer face the challenges that were encountered 25-30 years back. However, there are still several unique, gender-based issues they have to face. Women lawyers, especially younger lawyers are judged and compared to their male counterparts almost always.

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There are many obstacles women lawyers are facing in their careers. Having bad management, inequality, and not promoting them to a higher level. However, as Ms. Berkner states, “If all the clients of law firms said, ‘you’d better be diverse or we won’t hire you’, the next day the numbers would double”. The client could definitely be the most effective pressure to change the inequality among men and women in the work environment. According to Roberta Liebenberg, a senior partner at Philadelphia firm Fine, Kaplan and Black, agrees. “Clients are where the impetus will come from. If clients demand that law firms reflect the diversity they require because it is important to their shareholders and customers, that will really move the needle.”

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For his summing up, Lord Justice Phillimore was in little doubt: "There has never been a suggestion that the office of attorney was one which was open to a woman," he wrote.

More than a century has passed since the case of Bebb v Law Society in 1913, when the UK's Court of Appeal upheld the Law Society's ban on women working as lawyers.

Gwyneth Bebb, who gave her name to the case, and three other women who brought the challenge were not deemed to qualify as "people" under the 1843 Solicitors Act. After the first world war, however, attitudes had changed: the barrier to women becoming lawyers was removed in 1919 with the passing of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act.

Neither Phillimore nor Bebb would recognise the legal sector today, in Britain or elsewhere. According to figures from the Law Society, which promotes and supports solicitors in England and Wales, women account for 60 per cent of newly qualified and nearly half of all solicitors. More than two-thirds of law students are female.

Other statistics paint a less positive picture. They depict a profession that welcomes women as pupils and trainees and gives them opportunities to progress, but only so far.

The proportion of female partners in the top 10 UK law firms is 18 per cent, according to a 2017 survey by professional services firm PwC - and only 19 per cent in the next 15 firms.

The story is not much better among barristers and judges. Data for 2017 from the Bar Council, the professional association for barristers in England and Wales, show there were 1,409 male self-employed silks - top barristers - and only 254 female equivalents. As for judges, 22 per cent in the High Court are women, a figure that rises to 24 per cent in the Court of Appeal.

The situation is mirrored in the US, the world's biggest legal market. Only 18 per cent of equity partners in private practice are women, according to the American Bar Association. In the Fortune 500 - the largest US industrial corporations, listed by revenue - women make up only a quarter of general counsel.

Bebb might not have used the phrase "glass ceiling" but she would certainly have recognised the phenomenon. The question for the legal profession is how to break it.

Ask any law firm if it has a diversity programme or an inclusive culture and the answer is invariably "yes". There is a difference, however, between "tick-the-box" diversity and "impact" diversity, says Michal Berkner, a partner at the US firm Cooley, based in London.

"What moves the needle? Having role models - actually promoting the women who do stay on, to partners, management and leadership roles," she says.

"It is about recognising their talent and making them visible. For that, you need senior attorneys sponsoring junior women and making sure the talented ones progress up the career ladder."

If all the clients of law firms said, 'you'd better be diverse or we won't hire you', the next day the numbers would double

Michal Berkner

One possible solution in organisations across the globe has been to set targets and quotas. Not all female lawyers support this, because they do not want to be regarded as token female partners - the ones who made it to partner level on the strength of their chromosomes. Others say targets are the main reason behind the gains of the past few decades and that some form of compulsion is necessary if law firms are to improve their record.

"Without positive action - a defined goal and a number within a timeframe - nothing happens," says Funke Abimbola, general counsel and head of financial compliance at pharmaceutical company Roche UK, and an equality and diversity campaigner. "I've seen a notable shift [in numbers] since targets and quotas were being set by law firms."

A big part of the problem in private practice is the career structure. Having to rise through the ranks, from trainee to newly qualified lawyer to associate, means that for many women the leap into partnership coincides with the prospect of starting a family. Along with the punishing hours - and the occasional all-nighter - the thought of prolonging one's career and having children at the same time can seem daunting.

Ms Abimbola puts the case differently, by listing the obstacles to career progression one by one.

We hear a lot about what drives the long-hours culture . . . Yes, there are deadlines with hard targets but they are few and far between

Funke Abimbola, general counsel, Roche UK

They are the result, she says, of: bad management on the part of senior lawyers; cultural aversion to agile working; reluctance on the part of women to promote themselves; fear among male lawyers of leaving the office early to pick up children from school; a combination of all of the above.

"We hear a lot about what drives the long-hours culture, the deadlines, and so on," she notes. "Yes, there are deadlines with hard targets but they are few and far between."

Ms Abimbola also dismisses a tendency among senior partners to blame the client. "A partner said to me, 'well, clients are very demanding, it's all the clients' fault'. I fundamentally disagree. When I worked in private practice, I saw poor project management on the part of the partner and the fear they would lose a client. But it takes a lot to move a client - and one who leaves on a whim is not worth having anyway."

Ms Berkner believes that clients could be the most effective pressure point. "If all the clients of law firms said, 'you'd better be diverse or we won't hire you', the next day the numbers would double," she says.

Roberta Liebenberg, a senior partner at Philadelphia firm Fine, Kaplan and Black, agrees. "Clients are where the impetus will come from. If clients demand that law firms reflect the diversity they require because it is important to their shareholders and customers, that will really move the needle."

A former chair of the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession, Ms Liebenberg adds: "We don't need tokens - we need a critical mass. We need women as first-chair trial lawyers, leading deals, leading firms, and getting compensation that is commensurate with male colleagues' ".

Yet almost everyone sees change - in the US, the UK and elsewhere. Jennie Gubbins, senior partner at Trowers & Hamlins, and one of nine women to hold such a position across the UK's leading 200 law firms, says: "There has been real progress over my career and it is accelerating and will continue. When I took over as senior partner I was one of the few . . . Now it has become more normal, even in the [five years] since then."

Ms Liebenberg also points to a big opportunity on the horizon for female lawyers in the US if firms get their succession planning right: "There are 400,000 baby boomer lawyers set to retire in the next 10 years. This will open up a tremendous amount of business women could inherit, which would catapult them forward in their careers."

What would Bebb's assessment have been? "She would be incredibly proud of the women who followed her," says Christina Blacklaws, incoming president of the Law Society.

"Women are thriving and breaking new ground in all areas of our profession," Ms Blacklaws adds. "What we want is for ordinary hard-working women to do as well as ordinary hard-working men, not just the stellar women. Then we'll have true equality."

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Legal profession must break its glass ceiling

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For his summing up, Lord Justice Phillimore was in little doubt: "There has never been a suggestion that the office of attorney was one which was open to a woman," he wrote. More than a century has passed since the case of Bebb v Law Society in 1913, when the UK's Court of Appeal upheld the Law Society's ban on women working as lawyers.

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As demonstrated in the Wall Street Journal by (Waller, 2016), Even though men and women work side by side, there is still a very different work environment. Data shows that men win better promotions, challenging assignments, and more access to top leadership. A significant amount of women are saying that gender has been a big factor in missed raises and promotions. “These are the conclusions of a major new study of working women conducted by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Co. In one of the largest studies to date on this topic, researchers during the first half of this year gathered data on promotions, attrition and career outcomes at 132 global companies, and they surveyed 34,000 men and women at those companies on their experiences at work. The disparity begins at entry-level, where men are 30% more likely than women to be promoted to management roles”.

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Women in the Workplace (A Special Report)

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As stated by (Markley, 2014), “It seems unfair to see that women are still a minority in the leadership of the private practice of law or that a female equity partner is still a rarity. No matter the reason, the bottom line is that we still have some significant ground to cover when it comes to women having a truly meaningful presence in our profession. How do we overcome this extreme discrepancy and grab our place at the shareholder table? The answer is to bring in new business. However, women can make more changes if she’s at the top of the pole. They should look for new strategies to bring new businesses. This strategy can allow women to hire, run a business, and implement the changes at a firm.

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Approximately 34% of attorneys in private law firm practice are females, according to the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Legal Profession.

Of these women, only 17% percent are equity partners and 3% are in a management partnership at the largest 200 law firms.

Women at the top are even subject to a gender-based income discrepancy, with female shareholders at the largest 200 firms making 89% less compared to their male colleagues.

Chicago-based attorney, Lyndsay Markley has dedicated her legal practice to fighting on behalf of persons who suffered injuries or death as the result of the wrongful or careless conduct of others.Her awards include selection to the Top 100 Trial Attorneys in Illinois and a Top 40 Under 40 Trial Attorney for 2012-2014 by the National Association of Trial Lawyers.

She is the Principal of The Law Office of Lyndsay A. Markley, Ltd. in Chicago.

Previously she was a partner at Harman, Fedick, & Markley, Ltd. from 2011 to 2014 in Chicago, an associate at Harman & Fedick, Ltd. from 2006 to 2011, and an associate at Querrey & Harrow, Ltd. from 2005 to 2006.

It seems unfathomable that in 2014, women are still a minority in the leadership of the private practice of law or that a female equity partner is still a rarity. No matter the reason, the bottom line is that we still have some significant ground to cover when it comes to women having a truly meaningful presence in our profession. How do we overcome this extreme discrepancy and grab our place at the shareholder table (and our piece of the financial pie)?

The answer: bring in new business

As a trial attorney, I have experienced the constraints of the glass ceiling and learned my own way of shattering it. In 2006, I became the first female hired by a 60-year old personal injury law firm in Chicago. I made a little bit of history again in 2011 when I was offered a position as a named shareholder based on my performance as a trial attorney and the significant amount of business I brought into the firm. After nearly three years in this role, my relationship with my firm ended and I set up my own law firm in February 2014.

In the course of my nine years as a professional, I have been told repeatedly by colleagues to "leave the business ( of my business) to the businessman," and that that my value is bringing in 'female' business.

Men rarely receive "compliments" like, "You're the best darn male attorney I know, but up against those ladies you just don't stand a chance! Keep up the work that is good enough for you based on your gender."

Becoming a shareholder is not easy for anyone. However, it seems that as women we have to prove ourselves in ways that our male contemporaries do not - and some of it is related to our ability to bring children into this world. In private practice, women are often excluded from the partnership track due to a belief that once they have children, their attention will be diverted and, therefore, they're not worth the financial investment. This old-school way of thinking is pervasive in our industry: that a women cannot be a valued worker and have a child, take a maternity leave and be actively involved in her child's life (as all parents should be free to do).

Female shareholders shortchanged too

Even as equity shareholders, women still are not compensated equal to their value. A female shareholder at a well-known firm confided in me that she was told at a meeting she wouldn't be receiving a bonus because she was going on "vacation" (that is, taking six weeks off after giving birth). She responded to her partners that her book of business already paid both her and her assistant's work for the year. Yet one of her male colleagues countered, "Yes, but I do not see why this is my problem. I did not get you pregnant." She left and took her (substantial) business with her - amen, sister! That approach was not only insensitive, it was bad business and cost the firm a great attorney and a solid, consistent income.

Without bringing in new business, I would never have been promoted to the role of shareholder or been able to control my destiny.

Although I cannot tell you on a societal basis how women can gain an equal standing in the private practice of law, I can share my personal experience. After observing how many amazing women were being sidelined for promotions, I recognized that the most important aspect of any individual to any business - including a law firm - is what kind of long-term financial gain the firm stood to gain from me. In other words, she who holds the purse strings holds the power.

Most female attorneys underestimate the power of bringing in business and over-estimate its difficulty. They put their heads down, do the work and go home. Or worse yet, they meet a client and allow a partner to take control of it. As a result, when lay-offs or promotions come around, these 'worker bees' are passed over for the person who can bring in the money. I was not going to let this happen to me. And I did not.

New business as an associate

Accordingly, my goal as an associate attorney was to create a book of business (referring attorneys) and develop marketing strategies that solidified my professional value to my law firm. I knew that this was the only way I could be secure professionally and gain freedom to make whatever choices I want with respect to my personal and professional life. Without bringing in new business, I would never have been promoted to the role of shareholder or been able to control my destiny - making my own schedule, taking time off and working to lead the law firm in a modern direction and, eventually transitioning into my own law firm.

It isn't up to women to change the fact that we're not recognized in the leadership of private practice commensurate with our presence or with our skills. Our male counterparts can assist by knowing that:

Not all women want to bear children.

Even those who do can still be excellent attorneys.

Embrace a women's need to physically recover after having a child and delight in the fact that a woman wants to emotionally-bond with a child for its health - something every man would want for their own children.

However, we can make more changes from the top than we can from the bottom of the totem pole. Women attorneys should position themselves as a good attorneys, but also look at how they can make yourself indispensable by bringing in new business. This will allow you to hire other attorneys and run a business that is good for your pocketbook, but also implements the changes that all attorneys - not just females - need to lead healthier, well-rounded lives.

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How to Overcome the Challenges Facing Female Plaintiff Attorneys - The National Trial Lawyers

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Approximately 34% of attorneys in private law firm practice are females, according to the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Legal Profession. Of these women, only 17% percent are equity partners and 3% are in a management partnership at the largest 200 law firms. Women at the top...

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As stated in (Sadowski, 2009), Partners are stating that corporations are not retaining and supporting enough female lawyers. One reason that can affect the partnership of women lawyers and firms is the struggle to combine family commitments with the demands firms are requesting. Law firms should be able to do flexible schedules to accommodate childcare and to ensure that the profession remains the same or better. Furthermore, there are many employees stating that law firms should make more effort to improve the representation of women. Thirty-eight percent of respondents thought commercial firms ‘could do better’ at improving female representation, while a further 12% thought their efforts were ‘poor’.

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Women failing to crack law's glass ceiling