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Written by Norman Clark
Published: 20 December 2017
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iStock image licensed by Walker Clark LLC - commercial reproduction prohibited

In most countries, women significantly outnumber men in law schools and as associates in law firms. Yet men continue to outnumber women -- often by substantial margins -- in most law firm partnerships and similar senior positions.

A new report by the Legal Policy and Research Unit of the International Bar Association, released today, examines this phenomenon and the steps that law firms should take to respond to this significant loss of legal talent and business leadership. Click here to download Women in Commercial Legal Practice,

It should be mandatory reading in every law firm.

The IBA's findings are not good news.

Women’s representation as partners in law firms remains very low -- less than 20% of equity partners. Discrimination against, and sexual harassment of, women continues to be a significant problem. Moreover, these situations are not confined to only a few countries, but appear in both common law and civil law jurisdictions.

Other points raised by the report include:

One of the most powerful insights in the report, however, is this implicit -- and on-target -- indictment of traditional approaches to diversity in law firms: 

Diversity policies have not significantly improved gender equity in law firms primarily because such policies are designed to address the problem of women, not the workplace.

As in so many other areas, many law firms tend to prefer to treat the superficial symptoms of a problem, rather investing the candor and intellectual discipline needed to dig down into the culture and paradigms of the firm to find its true causes. 

Norman Clark