Ellie Dudley | Source: The Australian, Monday Sept 2, 2024 | ‘Fewer white males, and more women’

Data obtained through The Australian’s Legal Partnerships Survey shows the number of female partners in Australia law firms has risen by 10 per cent, as has the number of equity partners. Overall female fee-earners jumped by 18 per cent, the survey found.

Women now make up 31 per cent of all equity partners, the survey found, for the first time rising above the 30 per cent mark.

“It’s the biggest increase we’ve seen in a long time,” Eaton Strategy + Search partner Shaaron Dalton told The Australian.

“We’re certainly seeing a generational change; there weren’t many female partners 10 years ago. They were mainly, let’s face it, for want of a better term, white males.”

Mid-tier firm Addisons had a huge rise in female partners, with a 43 per cent increase over the past 12 months. Hamilton Locke was similar, with a 35 per cent lift, while McCullough Robertson lawyers saw a 38 per cent increase.

Firms with more than 50 per cent female partners include Lander & Rogers, Seyfarth Shaw and Russell Kennedy, while Allens, Ashurst, Addisons, Gilbert + Tobin, Sparke Helmore, Gilchrist Connell, White & Case, Pinsent Masons, Cooper Grace Ward and Moray & Agnew all have over 40 per cent.

Lander & Rogers chief executive Genevieve Collins told The Australian the firm’s equal gender split among senior staff was due to “our intentional efforts in building a workplace where there is equal opportunity for everyone”.

“This reflects our holistic approach to gender equality and is not the result of just one or two policies. We apply a gender-lens to all our decision-making,” she said.

“We have also implemented targeted initiatives in key areas: flexible working practices with no mandated office days, job-sharing and job-pairing options, career support and mentoring in our talent pipeline, gender equal pay and benefits and a focus on inclusive leadership across our firm. We conduct regular interactive sessions and surveys with our people, track our progress and celebrate our successes.”

Ms Dalton said the overall uptick in women in senior positions was the result of mentorship programs implemented over the past decade.

“It’s been shown that females need a bit more attention because they won’t push themselves forward as much as males. It’s starting to really look good in terms of balance,” she said.

“You’re seeing more females actually growing internally into partners. It’s been difficult to laterally recruit female partners – it does happen, but it certainly isn’t easy.”

Ms Dalton said firms required “laser-like concentration” to ensure they reached gender parity in the upper ranks.

“It means that you have to have mentors in place to keep your female associates and senior associates tracking through to partnership,” she said. “They have sponsors, they have mentors in their firms, and that’s the way you get them through.”

Firms Ms Dalton said “have work to do”, with a female equity partner count below 30 per cent, included Jones Day, Piper Adelman, Thomson Geer, HWL Ebsworth, Mills Oakley, K&L Gates, HFW, Clayton Utz, Arnold Bloch Leibler, CBP and Hopgood Ganim.

“I think those firms have had trouble retaining female partners, and so they haven’t been able to build on it enough,” she said. “They’re now in a situation where they are really going to have to try much harder.”

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