The future is female – women lawyers outnumber men in UK as the in-house boom continues

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The future is female – women lawyers outnumber men in UK as the in-house boom continues

In a landmark for the legal industry that nevertheless raises some uncomfortable truths, the number of working female solicitors in England and Wales has exceeded men for the first time according to new figures.

Reflecting the decades-long influx of junior women to the profession, the total number of women lawyers in the world’s second largest legal market is now 50.1% of the UK’s 139,624 practising certificate (PC) holders, and 48% of the 93,155 solicitors in private practice. Continue reading “The future is female – women lawyers outnumber men in UK as the in-house boom continues”

Comment: The answer to law firms’ social ills is not another league table

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Comment: The answer to law firms’ social ills is not another league table

Have we reached peak aspirational employer league table yet? From the perspective of the legal industry we certainly should have, given the trend in recent years for the profession to turn up with improbably high rankings in a proliferating range of ‘best employers for…’ tables.

Were an alien to descend to earth and judge the industry on the basis of these rankings they would conclude that the profession had cracked social mobility, gender diversity, gay-empowerment and quality of life… all the while generating a tonne of money. Continue reading “Comment: The answer to law firms’ social ills is not another league table”

Answer to law firms’ social ills is not another league table

Posted on |
Answer to law firms’ social ills is not another league table

Have we reached peak aspirational employer league table yet? From the perspective of the legal industry we certainly should have, given the trend in recent years for the profession to turn up with improbably high rankings in a proliferating range of ‘best employers for…’ tables.

Were an alien to descend to earth and judge the industry on the basis of these rankings they would conclude that the profession had cracked social mobility, gender diversity, gay-empowerment and quality of life… all the while generating a tonne of money.

Continue reading “Answer to law firms’ social ills is not another league table”

Legal profession lacks diversity in partnership despite changing demographic of profession

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Legal profession lacks diversity in partnership despite changing demographic of profession

The number of female practice certificate (PC) holders increased yet again by 3% to 67,393 from 65,147 as at July 2016, yet number of female partners remained relatively stagnant increasing only by seven to 8,105, according to the latest Annual Statistics Report from the Law Society, a trend echoing last year’s report. 

Continue reading “Legal profession lacks diversity in partnership despite changing demographic of profession”

Comment: Fieldfisher’s Chissick on why real change on diversity needs leadership in law

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Comment: Fieldfisher’s Chissick on why real change on diversity needs leadership in law

‘Did you see the game at the weekend?’ is the type of question I am often asked at events. I know my answer, ‘no, I don’t really follow sport’ – will kill the conversation dead, and I don’t have the skills or required knowledge to blag my way through the small talk of the weekend’s fixture list.

Continue reading “Comment: Fieldfisher’s Chissick on why real change on diversity needs leadership in law”

Myths and Millennials – the facts, fiction and hard realities of leading junior lawyers

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Myths and Millennials – the facts, fiction and hard realities of leading junior lawyers

Law firms are increasingly obsessed with the challenge of engaging their Millennial associates. Legal Business separates buzzword from BS


Just what is it that you want to do?

We wanna be free.

We wanna be free to do what we wanna do.

 LOADED, PRIMAL SCREAM

 

It was a very different legal market in 2007 when Simon Harper and a group of colleagues at Berwin Leighton Paisner geared up for the launch of Lawyers On Demand (LOD). Amid boom time for legal services, few knew what to make of a flexi-lawyering business. Working on initial marketing, the idea was hit upon to draw on the famous freedom refrain from Primal Scream’s 1990 song Loaded (actually a sample from the cult film The Wild Angels). The intent was to reach a new generation of lawyers: a generation that in law and in other industries would increasingly be known as Millennials. The impact was immediate, recalls Harper. ‘What made LOD fly was the changing attitudes to work. Some of the CVs we got were amazing.’

Continue reading “Myths and Millennials – the facts, fiction and hard realities of leading junior lawyers”

Barclays to offer 80 work experience places as high street bank mulls apprenticeship scheme

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Barclays to offer 80 work experience places as high street bank mulls apprenticeship scheme

Barclays’ in-house legal team is to offer around 80 work experience placements to students from socio-economic groups under-represented in the legal profession in partnership with its panel law firms this summer. Continue reading “Barclays to offer 80 work experience places as high street bank mulls apprenticeship scheme”