Dechert partner says she doesn't want to 'have it all'; she just wants what men have
Miriam Gonzalez Durantez is the wife of U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and a partner with Dechert. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
If you’re a woman who wants a family and a fulfilling career, choosing the right spouse is key, says Miriam Gonzalez Durantez, a Dechert partner married Nick Clegg, the United Kingdom’s deputy prime minister.
The London lawyer, who co-chairs Dechert’s international trade and government regulation practice, splits parenting and household responsibilities with Clegg equally, the Independent reports.
For her male colleagues, Gonzalez notes, having a family and a fulfilling career is often a given.
“I am being asked all the time ‘Do you want to have it all,’ and, I don’t want to have it all—I want to have what men have,” she recently told the BBC. “So if many men have children and a job, and that’s what they choose, I do not know why I cannot have that, if that’s what I choose.”
Gonzalez, who has also worked for DLA Piper, was the lead European Union negotiator for the World Trade Organization’s telecoms agreement, according to her Dechert profile. She has also been a trade law advisor for the EU and for the British government. She and Clegg were married in 2000, and have three sons.
“I tell young women that the most career important decision you’ll make is who your life partner is,” Gonzalez said. “It’s more important than anything else you’ll decide because everything else is much more easily changeable.”
