Legal Marketing & PR

Women Lawyers - What?s Happening Here?

By lawjobspipeline

We published a piece in LawFuel’s New Zealand edition which outlined a scenario that doubtless occurs elsewhere - that is, women are graduating in law in ever greater numbers but failing to achieve the top of their profession in terms of partnerships, in any event. 

While firms (in New Zealand and elsewhere) are making considerable strides towards accomodating the particular needs of their lawyers, be they men or women, and in particular so far as family concerns are concerned, the fact remains that far fewer women than men are making the cut to partner.

The figures for New Zealand show the shift in favour of women (in admission to the bar numbers) to have occurred in 1993 when 266 female admissions to the bar, compared with the male figure of 245. The split was 52%/48%.

Five years ago the figure was 456/370 (55%/45%). In 2006 it was 464/316 (61%/39%).  So far as partner numbers were concerned, the highest percentage of women partners in the country was 40% with the South Island-based Anderson Lloyd

The kiwi list:

 Total partners Women partners Percentage (women)

1. Anderson Lloyd 27 11 40
2. Brookfields 17 6 35
3. DLA Phillips Fox 25 7 28
4. Minter Ellison 34 9 26
5. Meredith Connell 22 5 22
6. Simpson Grierson 44 7 16
7. Chapman Tripp= 51 7 14
7. Kensington Swan = 35 5 14
8. Morrison Kent = 17 2 12
8. Martelli McKegg = 12 3 12
9. Buddle Findlay 35 4 11
10. Bell Gully 41 4 10

Full post as published by Lawyer Marketing Blog on March 11, 2008 (boomark / email).