More Women Partners Break Through Glass Ceiling in UK
Despite a difficult economy, more women than ever before are becoming partners at the 100 largest firms in the United Kingdom.
“There are still far fewer female lawyers than male, but ratios at U.K. firms are improving, with 19.6 percent of partners in the top 100 firms now female. This is a slight increase on the previous two years, when the figure was around 19 percent,” reports the Lawyer. Its article also provides a chart of the numbers of female partners at each of the top 100 firms.
More important, perhaps, is a finding that the total number of female equity partners has risen by 4.5 percent, even as the number of partners, overall, among the top 100 firms has fallen, according to the legal publication.
The number of female partners ranges from a high of 47.8 percent, at Sacker & Partners, to a low of 5.9 percent at Dickson Minto, the Lawyer writes. It says women lawyers account for about 14 percent of the partnership ranks at London’s elite “magic circle” law firms, but are better represented at small competitors.
“As we all get better at flexible working arrangements and not expecting everybody to follow the same career path, the numbers will naturally improve,” says managing partner Nicky Paradise of Nabarro, one of the few women at the helm of a top 100 firm in the U.K. Among its partners, 22.8 percent are female, the article says.
