Numerous challenges still hinder the advancement of women in the legal profession. With women lawyer groups across the country preparing for another year of action, Angela Priestley asks what their key priorities will be.

Women lawyer groups have long fought to overcome some of the numerous challenges facing women in the legal profession.

Over the decades, much progress has been made. However, in 2011 plenty of challenges remain. Although the data supporting such challenges is fairly limited, anecdotally women lawyer advocates maintain that pay discrepancies still exist between men and women, that sexism and harassment still occur in law firms, and that women are dropping out of the profession at a higher rate than their male counterparts.

Meanwhile, there's been little improvement regarding the number of briefs granted to female counsel across Australia. According to the Legal Services Expenditure Report 2009-2010, released at the end of last year, only 736 of the 2821 commonwealth briefs went to female counsel. That amounted to 26.1 per cent, a drop of 1.3 per cent from the previous reported timeframe.

As such, women advocacy groups such as Australian Women Lawyers and their state-based chapters are preparing for yet another year of seeking solutions and creating opportunities for women in the legal profession.

And they're not alone. This year, advancing women in the profession has also been slated as a key priority for the Law Council of Australia, with new president Alex Ward declaring in Januarythat during his tenure he will seek to enhance opportunities for women solicitors and barristers.

For Women Lawyers Association of NSW president and TressCox lawyer Rebecca Barry, her priorities in 2011 will be providing valuable networking opportunities for women, supporting an extensive awards program, and better recognising the achievements of senior women in-house.

Speaking to Lawyers Weekly, Barry says she's particularly concerned about the findings of the Legal Services Expenditure report, noting that although the reporting of such figures is a step forward, their findings reveal that little progress is being made.

"The increased transparency and accountability that has come with the mandatory reporting requirements for equitable briefing is only part of the solution," says Barry. "More needs to be done to ensure that the figures and percentages increase with every report that is released."

As a young lawyer, Barry says she is also determined to address some of the difficulties female graduates face in the first couple of years of practicing law. She believes that networking is key, because networks and contacts have helped her so much in her early career.

"I don't identify [with difficulties] because I work with a firm that is mid-tier and … the two partners that I work for have been extremely supportive," she says.

"But it can be a different experience in the top-tier. It's very hard when there are 50 summer clerks and you get a big discovery matter and you're sitting in a room putting documents in chronological order. You put 99.9 UAI-ers in that environment and they'll find it difficult."

Mary-Anne Ryan, president of Australian Women Lawyers, says her organisation will continue to develop its conference and networking activities in a bid to find more avenues for the profession to discuss and take action on some of the issues affecting women lawyers.

She says she's keen to liaise with the Law Council and follow up on the findings about gender in the profession that the organisation learned from the Gender Appearance Survey, and also to find out more about the fate of women law graduates.

Kate Ashmor, the convenor of Victorian Women Lawyers, is also keen to further develop networking opportunities for women, particularly via her personal goal of seeing the organisation reach out to one person at a time. "That's the approach that I think has worked beautifully with our mentoring program. We've had hundreds of female law students go through that over the last three years with proven results," says Ashmor.

"If we can get one-on-one with the key decisions makers, that's where we'll have the opportunity to really be influential."

Ashmor says she's also determined to "reach out" to those lawyers that may not have had much to do with the association - particularly those in rural, regional and suburban areas.

"There will be new events, things that haven't happened before and quite a celebratory atmosphere, but we're not resting on our laurels. We may have been around for 15 years, but we've got a long way to go."

Like Barry and Ryan, Ashmor hopes to be able to identify new means for obtaining better data on the plight of female lawyers in order to seek evidence to back a number of assumptions that are continually made about the challenges facing women in the profession.

While these women lawyer groups and others are determined to further assist the profession as a whole in 2011, it seems there's much that can be learned from more general organisations supporting women in business and the experience of women on boards.

According to a December 2010 study by Insync Surveys - in conjunction with Board Benchmarking and Gender Worx, and based on the views of 849 directors serving on 105 boards - boards comprising at least 33 per cent or more women are "meaningfully different" in a number of areas. This includes housing directors who act with more integrity, increased vigilance regarding management's remuneration and performance, better quality decision-making and better documentation regarding roles and responsibilities.