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Legal profession needs to ‘maintain a focus’ on gender equality
The Law Society of NSW has developed a new resource tool to aid firms in achieving pay equity – something the organisation said needed a profession-wide commitment.
Lauren Croft
The Law Society of NSW has developed a resource to assist the legal profession in addressing persistent pay gaps between male and female solicitors across the whole career cycle, encouraging firms to analyse pay gaps, create gender action plans and prioritise intersectionality, as well as much more.
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The resource, launched by sex discrimination commissioner Anna Cody earlier this week, presents a 10-point plan for law firms to reduce and aim to eliminate pay gaps evident in the profession, according to Law Society president Cassandra Banks.
“The NSW profession struck gender balance in 2016, and since then, women have made up the majority of solicitors in the state. This numerical advantage hasn’t translated to equal pay, prompting the Law Society to work with signatories to our Charter for the Advancement of Women and other leading firms to develop the resource, Equitable Remuneration in the Legal Profession,” she said.
“I’m confident this resource will provide practice leaders with useful tools to enable them to develop and encourage their legal talent while taking advantage of the value and business imperative that gender-equal workplaces represent.”
This comes after recent WGEA data showed that in the private sector – including private practice law firms – the gender pay gap stands at 22.8 per cent.
Despite female solicitors continuing to outnumber their male counterparts and dominating in every area of the legal profession, the gender pay gap still exists in law, with many indications that women are leaving the profession earlier than men, who make up the majority of leaders within the profession.
The resource encourages firms to further examine their billing structures, increase pay transparency, have a lateral recruitment strategy, use sponsorship to support progression, ensure that flexible working doesn’t negatively impact women’s career advancements, and collaborate with clients to drive equality initiatives.
A number of firms have already introduced family-friendly policies and leading parental leave policies – yet earlier this year, Lawyers Weekly’s Legal Firm of Choice Survey showed that women and junior lawyers were among the most likely to leave their firms. This came after law firm leaders emphasised the importance of flexibility, particularly for working parents, as female lawyers are more likely to face the “motherhood penalty” and be disproportionately impacted by inflation, with some saying the traditional nine to five is “redundant” and “sexist”.
Further, the 2022 Annual Profile of Solicitors in NSW report, which showed that there were 40,000 practising solicitors in the state, revealed for the third year in a row that 9 per cent fewer women than men in the profession earn more than $150,000.
Ms Banks emphasised that many firms and legal practices across NSW have already been doing important work to embed diversity and inclusion in their operations.
“These practices know the benefits of supporting all their talent. However, it is clear that as a profession, we need to maintain a focus on this work, including gender equality, as a matter of priority. Equitable remuneration will not be achieved without commitment and deliberate actions across the profession,” she added.
“At the beginning of my term as president of the Law Society, I identified as one of my priorities the need to strengthen the legal profession, including gender equity for career advancement. I am thankful for the work of the Law Society’s diversity and inclusion committee for producing an excellent document that delivers on that priority.”
