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How firms are ‘choosing to challenge’ on International Women’s Day
From addressing the disparities at a leadership level through to examining the way salaries are distributed among male and female lawyers, Australia’s major firms have committed to reaching gender parity across the workplace in 2021.
Naomi Neilson
For our International Women’s Day (IWD) series, Lawyers Weekly reached out to the top Australian firms to ask them to reflect on the “choosing to challenge” 2021 theme and how that fits into their current workplace culture. We asked about their leadership quotas, pay gaps and how the firm has improved since IWD 2020.
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It comes after the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) named Employers of Choice for Gender Equality (EOCGE) citation holders, which pinpointed trends such as a focus towards entrenching flexible work across the organisation, having programs available to support women and a robust analysis of disadvantages. Many firms in this list were recognised as a citation holder.
At Allens, the firm said it is “well on its way” to achieving its goal of at least 35 per cent female partners by 2022. Already, the distribution of its partners is at 33 per cent, with 60 per cent female managing associates and with 59 per cent female senior associates. Across the board, the firm has valued female representation.
Its recent contributions into this space include introducing a parental leave package that removes the distinction between primary and secondary carers and allows people to take leave at the same time as their partner. Lawyers Weekly will be speaking to a partner about how this has worked for her next week.
Other achievements include empowering their people to “work in a way that honours their current settings” and balances their needs with those of clients and colleagues. The firm has also formalised its hybrid working principles “which recognise there is no one size fits all approach to flexible work” and instead promote “choice, balance, trust, accountability and change” across the legal workplace.
“As we look to the next horizon of gender equality, we’re focusing on equity: ensuring that all women from the moment they consider a career with Allens and right through their development and progression in the firm receive fair treatment and equitable access to opportunities,” a spokesperson for the firm said.
This includes building on its “already strong approach” to analysing and addressing pay equity as part of its annual remuneration processes.
On IWD, the Women@Allens network will encourage people to think about what they will “choose to challenge” to help “forge a gender equal world”. The firm will be inviting staff to share pictures and pledges via its internal social media channel.
Head of diversity and inclusion Kasey Zun said COVID-19 had disproportionately affected women and the firm is committed to creating a better workplace for them moving forward. They have done this by introducing a hybrid working model that provides greater flexibility to help people balance work and home life.
Looking into 2021, the firm will “take a stand and call out behaviours or language that can contribute to gender inequality”. Ms Zun said the firm had recently launched the Active Ally program, which helps staff recognise the signs of bias and discrimination and how it can impact individuals. The firm will also continue running its Bystander Intervention Workshops.
Ms Zun said the firm will continue to conduct its annual pay reviews and to act on the results by taking them to the executive team. In terms of leadership, Ashurst has exceeded its target of one-third of partnership being female.
“Ashurst offers a range of mentoring and networking programs to female staff across all our Australian offices,” Ms Zun said. “These are designed to support career development, encourage stronger connections and provide women with a clear voice within the firm.”
To mark the day, the firm will have its global managing partner discuss the IWD theme as part of a podcast series. Its Women’s Network will also run a panel event.
In 2020, Baker McKenzie launched a market-leading family and domestic violence policy that allowed staff to take unrestricted paid leave in addition to personal and annual leave entitlements for people experiencing violence in their homes. The firm also provides financial allowances to secure safe housing and other critical attention.
Looking into 2021, national managing partner Anthony Foley said that the offices remain “deeply committed to achieving the firm’s global gender targets” set at 40:40:20, applying to partners, senior professionals and candidate pools.
On the question of pay gaps, diversity and inclusion chair Anne-Marie Allgrove commented: “We are deeply committed to reducing the gender pay gap. We achieve this through the rigorous checking for gender pay gaps built into the formal salary and bonus review process, as well as holding sessions on pay transparency for all lawyers within our firm and encouraging conversations on pay.”
In terms of leadership, the firm has developed a robust evaluation process to ensure that women are recognised and considered for promotions. Ms Allgrove said that the firm consciously considers gender equity in all firm committee appointments and have set a requirement that there should “at all times be a representative of each gender on our management committees”.
“Our goal is to obviously increase that significantly,” Ms Allgrove said. “I am absolutely committed to ensuring our firm creates equal opportunity for both men and women, whilst preventing sex-based harassment and discrimination. Consistent with this, we have set clear targets for improving gender equality outcomes and we have publicly committed to achieving them.”
On IWD, the firm will host an afternoon tea across all its offices and will also communicate across all available channels an acknowledgement of the day.
At Clayton Utz (CU), the firm has continued to work hard to embed a culture of flexible working for men and women, “because we know it plays an important role in promoting gender equality”. Diversity and inclusion director Alison Woolsey said that the shift towards remote working in COVID-19 played a part.
Moving forward, CU will look into ensuring there is gender pay equity, promoting equitable briefing of barristers, preventing gender-based harassment and discrimination, and support LGBTQI+ women.
In leadership roles, Ms Woolsey said it has taken a multipronged approach through “development training, unconscious bias training, reverse mentoring and supporting our senior women when they are on parental leave and when they return”.
To mark the occasion, the firm will be holding a morning tea fundraiser for Dress for Success and hosting a lunch where they will live stream an IWD UN event.
At Corrs, the firm’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was of “particular benefit to our women” and ensured they could continue their career development. Looking ahead, partner of diversity and inclusion Heidi Roberts commented: “Our vision is for all our people to feel connected, valued and empowered to succeed.”
Ms Roberts said the gender pay equity is a “key priority” with gender pay objectives embedded into its remuneration strategy and processes. As for leadership, the firm’s strategy is designed to promote gender balance in development and retention.
“Our focus on collaboratively building sustainable practices across the firm is key to ensuring that partners with caring responsibilities can continue to advance,” Ms Roberts said.
“We have numerous initiatives to support our women, including executive coaching, mentoring and networking opportunities. We also ensure that when our women return from parental leave they are successfully reintegrated into practice and client relationships.”
For IWD, the firm has planned a firm-wide virtual event on Tuesday, 9 March that will feature an international panel of women partners.
As part of its commitment to better understanding the barriers for female talent at a partnership level – where they find a loss of female talent among senior lawyers – the firm said it has revamped its culture to address long hours, high workloads, utilisation targets, expected attendance after hours and stigma to working parents.
“Through addressing behaviours that create inequality in opportunity, as well as putting support structures and processes in place to create a level playing field, we will aim to increase our female partner representation and create a level playing field for all,” a spokesperson for the firm told Lawyers Weekly.
The firm said it is committed to continued reviewing and monitoring of the gender pay gap through “robust processes surrounding annual pay review and lateral recruitment salary offers”. It added that the firm is working to improve the gender balance in lower-paid roles through targeted recruitment of talent.
“We understand that the support and initiatives we put into place won’t shift gender equality on their own. The firm is committed to having bold and transparent conversations about what lies beneath gender equality and how our social conditioning impacts workplace behaviour,” the spokesperson said.
On IWD, the firm will mark the occasion with a number of internal and external client events. Its Leadership Alliance for Women network will be running virtual events that align with the Choose to Challenge theme.
Reflecting on the theme, Gilbert + Tobin (G+T) will improve the workplace for women by implementing a formal working parents’ program with a third-party provider, as well as continuing office-specific meet-ups. Chief people officer Anna Sparkes said the firm will also be continuing its support of the hybrid working environment and providing relevant and up-to-date information on its Grow + Thrive platform.
Looking back at the last few years, it’s achievements in the space include developing and launching an internal health and wellbeing portal and framing questions in performance reviews around how it could support flexible working.
In the space of gender pay gaps, Ms Sparkes said that it has a full-time organisational gender pay gap of 6.5 per cent, compared to figures in the Legal Services Industry data that found a 25.1 per cent gap. On a role’s like-for-like basis, Ms Sparkes said that “G+T does not have a gender pay gap”.
“Our organisational pay gap is driven by gender imbalance in administrative roles, with 95 per cent of permanent support roles (like executive assistants and administrators) being occupied by women,” Ms Sparkes said. “In order to reduce the gender pay gap, broader structural change needs to occur.”
Either way, the firm will take these factors into account as it plans to reduce its gender pay gap down to 5 per cent by 2022.
As for leadership roles, the firm has created a specific diversity stream named “Women in Leadership”, which comprises partners, special counsel, lawyers and operation team members to “review and assess the potential barriers for women being promoted to leadership positions” at the firm.
For IWD, the firm will be hosting an event on Wednesday, 10 March to feature partner Janet Whiting and Dress for Success chief executive Leisa Sadler on a panel. It will also be asking for contributions toward a donation to Dress for Success.
In 2021, K&L Gates said it will be using its Australian diversity and women in profession committee to continue listening to its people and focusing on the needs across “various cultures and generations represented by women at the firm”.
Its remuneration analysis will continue in the same stead it has been for nine years, while its leadership strategy will continue to aim for 30 per cent of leadership roles held by women. The strategy includes hosting events to mentor women and expand networking opportunities, as well as supporting their flexible working.
“K&L Gates promotes candidates by developing business plans, promoting activities that profile women among clients and internally and actively nominates women for senior roles. Most importantly, active sponsorship and tailored one-on-one coaching programs are available to women with leadership aspirations,” the firm said.
On the day, K&L Gates will continue with its Australian Women’s Achievement Awards and will host a series of events, including a movie night, a group mentoring session and a series of lunches with a virtual woman on business panel.
CEO partner Genevieve Collins told Lawyers Weekly that the firm has made a number of improvements to ensure that the workplace is a “safe and healthy working environment” that consists of strong foundational policies. In 2020, this meant introducing policy changes to support a contemporary operating environment.
These policies target consensual relationships, parental leave and sexual harassment. For the latter, the firm made “simple but powerful changes” that included mandatory reporting for anyone who experiences, witnesses or becomes aware of sexual harassment within the firm. The language has also been shifted.
“We know that mandatory reporting is not a complete answer to the problem but it’s an important step in addressing the systemic silence that allows it to go unchecked,” she said.
Moving forward, the firm is focusing on four key areas: inclusive leadership, flexibility, talent and pay equity. Ms Collins said the firm “sees these as some of the biggest barriers facing women in the workplace today”.
As part of its commitment to addressing gender-based pay inequality, the firm will continue to conduct in-depth analysis of remuneration and pay equity with findings reported to the board to keep “the firm accountable”.
Importantly, the firm has also removed the obligation for staff members to keep the details of their pay confidential, allowing for a “more candid conversation about salaries and is a further measure to minimise gender pay disparity”.
In terms of leadership, the firm’s development program has been co-designed with its people to “understand the barriers to leadership and better prepare our lawyers of all genders for senior roles and partnership”. Through the development program, the firm achieved a 50/50 ratio of men and women in its promotion pipeline during 2020.
The firm also has strong female representation across the board, including 60 per cent at the board level, a female CEO partner and chair, and “one of the highest female partner ratios at 43 per cent”. Ms Collins said while it is evidence of success, “we continue to stay vigilant in addressing barriers to leadership”.
To mark the occasion, the firm will be inviting Human Rights Law Centre legal director Meena Singh to speak at the firm. They are also inviting people to share photos with their hands held high along with stories of how they chose to challenge.
Macpherson Kelley
As the COVID-19 pandemic eases and lawyers return to work, a spokesperson for Macpherson Kelley (MK) said it would be encouraging its people to maintain the practices that they felt worked for them in the “new normal”. It will also continue to challenge perceptions that time in the office is reflective of commitment.
In terms of pay gap, the firm said that it has a “long-held commitment” to paying market rates for all staff regardless of gender. It also ensures that it promotes based on merit regardless of gender and has seen an even 50 per cent split at the managing principal lawyers level. Among principal lawyers it is sitting at 40 per cent.
On IWD, MK is holding a national, internal online panel discussion on 10 March which will feature female lawyers speaking about their experiences, achievements, ambitions and objectives in regard to being leaders in the workplace.
Maddocks
At Maddocks, director of people and culture Deborah Stonley said the firm is proud of its “long-term, ongoing commitment to gender equality” which has seen the firm increase the number of women in partnership to 40 per cent of all partners. The firm is in the process of resetting its targets for women on the board.
Moving forward, the gender pay gap will be a key focus at the firm with it continuing to report to the board on an annual basis. Through measuring the gap and developing strategies, the firm has reduced the pay gap over five years and its analysis “year on year shows we do not have a systemic issue at any staff level”.
As for leadership, the firm has invested in development programs across all levels. Its program for senior associates and special counsel focuses on empowering senior lawyers to maximise potential as leaders.
ON IWD, members of its Maddocks’ women’s committee will attend the UN event and will also be holding a client and staff event on Thursday, 11 March.
In 2020, Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) achieved a 50 per cent split of genders on its Australian governing board. Managing partner Alison Deitz said the fact that she secured her position and that the new global chair is a woman “demonstrates the path to partnership and global leadership roles can be a reality for all”.
Reflecting on the Choose to Challenge theme, Ms Deitz said the NRF will focus on promoting workplace practices that are inclusive for all and it is determined to achieve gender parity throughout the organisation. She said the COVID-19 pandemic allowed the firm an opportunity to build a more flexible workplace.
As for pay gaps, the firm said it will continue conducting audits for both staff and partners and will improve the way that it conducts this analysis to “ensure we have a sophisticated process, including a line-by-line review of each individual”.
“We are committed to continuing to invest in this process and ensuring that each year remuneration outcomes are fair and equitable for all our people,” she said.
To mark the date, the firm will be planning a webinar for staff where Ms Deitz will be sharing her experiences and offer advice on how everyone can choose to challenge.
More from this IWD series:
