Celebrating our women in law for International Women’s Day

Today is International Women’s Day – so we’re taking the opportunity to celebrate the contribution and achievements of our female staff.

We strive to ensure our firm is a welcoming environment and make sure we nurture and reward all talent, regardless of gender. We listen to our women employees and take action accordingly – for example, through flexible working arrangements, childcare vouchers and our career development pathway.

All in all, we believe our firm is a great place for women to start, build and grow their careers in law. The proof is in the numbers: At the top level half of our board are women, as are three quarters of our business support management. 94% of senior associates at the firm are women, along with all of the associates.

In terms of development and the future of the firm, three quarters of current trainees and four fifths of our paralegals are female. Across all our staff, the gender split is 83% – 17% women to men.

The only level at which women don’t have equal or greater representation is within the partnership – 30% of our partners are women. We’ve considered carefully why this might be, although we still perform better on this measure than the legal industry average (24%).

We’ve identified some historical reasons within the sector. Our partners each average over 20 years of practice. It’s reasonable to say that, two decades ago, the legal profession wasn’t as hospitable to women qualifying and pursuing a career as it is now.

Promotions to partnership are also rare in high street law firms, meaning that the gender splits at this level can be slow to catch up. The good news is that in the past ten years, half the promotions to our partnership have gone to women – and we imagine this trend will continue in years to come.

We’re also keen to get more women involved in law across the industry, so we asked our women employees what advice they’d give someone who wanted their job.

Here’s what they advise. “Hard work” is a common theme!

“Work hard, have confidence in your own ability and be open to advice or support from others.”

Anna Wilson | Executive Partner

“You need to be prepared to work hard and give 100% to your clients and to go the very best you can for them, whilst also appreciating that you often cannot make them better which can be difficult.”

Amie Prowle | Associate

Further information

To find out more about career and development opportunities at Barcan+Kirby, as well as our commitment to building a modern and inclusive workplace, call us on 0117 325 2929 or complete our online contact form.