Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, Ms Collins spoke about the firm’s gender equality and inclusivity initiatives and emphasised that flexible working is the way forward – and especially in a post-pandemic work, hybrid working is “here to stay”.

“[The pandemic] has inspired us to rethink our people’s experience of the workplace and demonstrated the ways in which new working models can make us more productive and efficient,” she said.

“While we’ve always been accommodating as a firm, our people are enjoying new-found flexibility as a result of our clients and the industry also adapting to new ways of working.”

Lander & Rogers has supported flexible working for a number of years – giving staff access to mobile tools and platforms to allow them to work remotely and having senior leaders at the firm take part in “flex” training to manage remote and diverse teams. Because of this, when COVID-19 struck, Ms Collins said the firm transitioned to working full-time from home with no troubles whatsoever.

“Flexible working has been embraced equally across the firm – more than 95 per cent of us are now working flexibly, and most of our people are attending the office two or three days per week. People enjoy the lack of commute, which gives them more time in their day and reduces their travel expenses,” she said.

“They appreciate having flexibility to structure their day around work and personal commitments; and being able to dedicate uninterrupted time to tasks that require more focus. A number of our people have also reported feelings of improved wellbeing since they began working remotely. Hybrid working is very much here to stay.”

Lander & Rogers currently has flexible working arrangements in place for those who need it, with some employees having been on three days a week since before the pandemic. Ms Collins added that the firm had recently promoted two women currently on a flexible working arrangement, which has further increased the firm’s gender equality at the partner level.

VIEW ALL

“Flexible working paves the way for everyone – we have male and female partners at Lander & Rogers on flexible or part-time work arrangements, and these have been available to all our people for a number of years,” she said.

“We recently promoted to partner two talented lawyers, Emma Purdue and Amie Frydenberg, who have been in a part-time job-share arrangement since 2018.”

These recent appointments bring the number of Lander & Rogers female partners up to 45 per cent compared to male and the firm has a 60 per cent female board as well as a female chief executive partner and a female chair.

Unfortunately, this kind of parity isn’t the norm – while 65 per cent of law graduates are female, numbers significantly drop at the partner level. In 2019, only 16 per cent of those at equity partnership level were female. This is something that Ms Collins argued should be a “priority” for firms everywhere, of every size.

“Increasing gender parity at senior levels should be a priority for all law firms and all industries where women haven’t traditionally been equally represented in the upper ranks,” she said.

“Diversity has a huge impact on culture and performance. As a profession we are constantly being presented with new challenges, which are best solved by dynamic, diverse and adaptable teams.

“It’s important that law firm leaders lead by example. Meaningful change begins at board-level and trickles down to all levels of an organisation.”

Lander & Rogers has several initiatives in place to make sure men and women at the firm receive equal opportunities and promotions into senior leadership roles, including education and mentorship programs.

“We place a strong focus on learning and development, with online learning programs that can be accessed by new parents and people with caring responsibilities in their own time,” Ms Collins said. 

“We prioritise work-life integration and understand that everyone has different working styles and priorities.”

The firm also has one of the Australian law industry’s best parental leave policies, allowing access to paid parental leave anytime within the first year of a child’s birth or adoption, which Ms Collins said encouraged more male staff to take advantage of the benefit. The firm also pays superannuation on all periods of unpaid parental leave within the first 12 months, which helps address the financial gap experienced by women as they take more time out from the workforce.

“We are genuinely committed to changing preconceptions around parental leave and part-time or flexible work, and make it clear that we provide equal opportunities for career progression. In the last few years, several of our female and male partners have been promoted while on parental leave, or taken parental leave immediately after making partner,” Ms Collins said.

Most importantly, Lander & Rogers has created an open and transparent culture to “empower” their people. The firm recently removed the obligation to keep pay confidential, which Ms Collins said assists in addressing barriers to openness about gender-based pay disparity.

“To improve inclusivity and psychological safety, we’ve also introduced policies relating to sexual harassment and consensual personal relationships in the workplace, including mandatory reporting for anyone who experiences, witnesses or becomes aware of sexual harassment within our firm,” she added.

“A diverse and inclusive workplace is one where everyone feels safe and supported.”

The firm also recently launched Flex@Landers to further strengthen its flexible working arrangements.

“The framework specifically addresses the changing role of leadership in a hybrid working environment; the need for adaptive learning and mentorship models; and new processes for managing and developing human connection,” Ms Collins said. 

“Flex@Landers was developed in response to ongoing feedback from our people, and we continue to conduct surveys and listen to our people so that we can adapt to evolving needs and circumstances.”

But looking to the future, Ms Collins said that although she’s extremely proud of the initiatives in place at the firm, “there is always more to be done.”

“Our responsibility as a firm is to keep challenging ourselves and asking how we can continue to create a culture that provides an exceptional experience for all our people and that inspires everyone to be their best,” she said.