Member Article

Law firms have a lot more male than female partners, though the situation is changing

Business Plus

June 17, 2023

Gender pay gap reporting has highlighted that across the largest law firms there is a substantial pay gap between men and women when the earnings of equity partners are included. In general terms, commercial law firms have more female than male solicitors in their ranks, but there are much more men than women at the top table.

At A&L Goodbody, 64% of employees are female but at partner level the proportion of women is c.30%. "Gender representation at partner level has been a major focus for us over a number of years and this is starting to bear fruit," says managing partner David Widger. "Over the last four years half of our promotions to partner have been women, and we have introduced a range of new policies and practices aimed at supporting females in their careers."

Michael Jackson, who runs Matheson, makes the point that where pay gaps exist, they are the result of more men than women in senior positions and differing work patterns. "More female than male employees avail of part time arrangements and take more family leave, meaning less opportunity for example to earn bonus payments, which has a disproportionate impact on the GPG results," says Jackson.

"We do a significant amount of work to ensure that people in Matheson working in the same role with the same experience are paid equally. Each year we analyse the data from our annual pay and bonus review processes, and we are confident that men and women performing at the same level are paid equally for doing equivalent jobs across the firm."

William Carmody at Mason Hayes & Curran believes that a gender pay gap is not a satisfactory situation for any professional services firm. The firm's practical measures to facilitate female lawyers in senior roles include becoming more explicit about the experiential and financial benefits of remaining in private practice, and articulating the firm's preference for senior leaders who can maintain work/life balance whilst serving sophisticated clients and leading large teams.

Geoff Moore at Arthur Cox says the firm "is not where we want to be" in terms of its GPG. "In 2020 we set a goal of increasing the percentage of our women partners to 40% by 2028 and I'm pleased to say we managed to achieve this goal at the end of 2022," Moore adds.

At Beauchamps, 46% of the partners are female, and John White expects the firm's GPG to shrink as work patterns change. "We are placing more emphasis on flexible work, enhancing maternity leave supports, and ensuring that we field gender diverse teams in large client assignments and tenders," he explains. "Overall, there is greater emphasis on sustainable work life balance, which should result in more equity of opportunity over time."

At McCann FitzGerald, measures to improve gender balance at senior levels include initiatives relating to mentorship, family leave policies, recruitment strategies and career development, including alternative leadership paths such as the availability of part-time partnership, Of Counsel and senior business support roles within the firm.

According to managing partner Stephen Holst: "Expressly focusing on Equity as part of our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion goals, we offer tailored and personal support to all of our employees to provide equity rather than uniformity of opportunity."

At William Fry, 62% of promotions to the partnership over the past three years have been women. "However only 32% of our partners are female, which is something we are committed to addressing," says Owen O'Sullivan. His view is that supporting working parents is crucial to achieving gender equity in the workplace.

In addition, firm change drivers include anonymously surveying colleagues on how inclusive they think the Frys' culture actually is, creating more accessible pathways to senior partnership, and sponsoring, coaching and developing female talent for senior leadership roles. "Achieving gender balance will continue to be a priority focus area until our firm, at all levels and in all roles, reflects the diversity of our communities and clients," O'Sullivan adds.