A career in law has long been regarded as male-dominated, yet we are proud to be different with our female-friendly approach – offering flexible working arrangements and support for women returners.
Over 85% of current Burnett Barker staff are female, 80% of practising lawyers are women. Plus 80% of our Partners are also women – something we believe has helped establish our reputation as an approachable, family-friendly business.
Whilst the gender gap across the UK law sector has reduced significantly in recent years (according to the Law Society’s 2016 annual survey, 51.2% of practising solicitors are male and 48.8% female), the percentage of females holding partner positions remains low.
We believe a key factor in the lack of female leaders within law firms can be attributed to a perception that it’s impossible to combine a career with caring for a family – an opinion shared in a joint study by Women in Law London (WILL) and King’s College London, which stated:
“Women do not perceive it easily possible to succeed in both their career and other important aspects of their lives (such as having a family or looking after dependant relatives) without some kind of sacrifice in the legal profession” (Law Gazette, 2017).
To combat this, we have developed a number of flexible working patterns for all staff – offering non-traditional working hours along with other arrangements including remote-working and job shares – enabling us to bring talent to clients that other, less progressive law firms cannot.
As part of celebrations for International Women’s Day (8 March) – a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women – we will be sharing success stories from our female solicitors…
To learn more about why they decided to pursue a career in law, how they got started and what it’s like working within a traditionally male-dominated field, follow @BurnettBarker on Twitter and Facebook (www.facebook.com/burnettbarker) or Linkedin.