The complacency that shines out from this week’s Big Question on the advancement of women in law firms is quite astonishing. A staggering 95% of the Big Question’s panel say they do not believe a glass ceiling exists for women in law firms. And yet 54% of the panel are working in firms in which less than 20% of the partnership are female.
As Berwin Leighton Paisner partner Claire Milton suggests, the situation is only likely to change when firms realise that it is in their economic interests to do something about it. Given the fact that firms have been wastefully haemorrhaging female talent for years, it is unlikely to be the attrition rate of female lawyers that causes such a sea change in attitudes.
