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31 March 2017 / Matthew Kay
Issue: 7740 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Women in law

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Matthew Kay explores the steps being taken to support women within the legal profession

It is not news to anyone in the legal profession that when it comes to the more senior roles, men still dominate. Statistics from PwC show that on average; just 17% of partners in the top 25 law firms are female and in 2016, recruiter Laurence Simons found that 62% of female lawyers felt their gender had hampered their ability to reach senior legal roles.

However, it is not just that women are not being promoted, but leaving the profession altogether. At the start of this year, the International Bar Association (IBA) Legal Policy & Research Unit (LRPU) launched a global investigation into the reasons behind why women are leaving the legal profession. The IBA LRPU is keen to find out the barriers experienced by female lawyers and how the trend could be reversed.

Gender diversity is being talked about like never before, with stories about equal pay and discrimination in the news daily. Just recently it was reported that the

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Secondments, disciplinary procedures and appeal chaos all feature in a quartet of recent rulings. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Smith, barrister and emeritus professor of employment law at UEA, examines how established principles are being tested in modern disputes
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The AI revolution is no longer a distant murmur—it’s at the client’s desk. Writing in NLJ this week, Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership and Legalito, warns that the ‘AI chickens’ have ‘come home to roost’, transforming not just legal practice but the lawyer–client relationship itself
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A High Court ruling involving the Longleat estate has exposed the fault line between modern family building and historic trust drafting. Writing in NLJ this week, Charlotte Coyle, director and family law expert at Freeths, examines Cator v Thynn [2026] EWHC 209 (Ch), where trustees sought approval to modernise trusts that retain pre-1970 definitions of ‘child’, ‘grandchild’ and ‘issue’
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