Despite experience advising some of the biggest global corporates, lawyers are still fighting the perception they are uncommercial and often struggle to gain places on boards. Anna Reynolds investigates whether there is any justification for this reticence
According to Oonagh Harpur, a non-executive director at HM Treasury Solicitors, the reason so few UK lawyers are found on boards goes back to the 1990s when most English law firms decided they didn’t want to risk conflicts of interest by having partners serving as non-execs on the boards of their clients.
