Law firm to redress gender imbalance

By flexibleboss on March 3, 2014 • ( 0 )

Law firm Pinsent Masons is to offer greater access to flexible working as part of an initiative to achieve gender balance in the firm’s leadership.

‘Project Sky’ aims to ensure that women comprise 25% of the firm’s partnership by 1 May 2018, rising to 30% after that. It plans to do this by removing barriers to female progression and “supporting talent across the entire business regardless irrespective of gender”.

The launch follows consultation with staff at the firm and input from consultancy Female Breadwinners. It will promote: more transparent career development; greater accessibility to flexible or agile working; more structured support around parental leave and training to help identify and address subconscious bias.

Linda Jones, a partner in the employment practice and leader of Project Sky, said: “Currently more than 20% of the Pinsent Masons partnership is female while two out of nine people on our board are women, benchmarking well against comparable firms in the professional services sector. However, around 70% of the lawyers coming into the business are female while the proportion of women in partnership is fairly static. If we are to properly utilise that talent changes are required. The steps we are taking are aimed at improving our gender balance at senior levels but will ultimately mean better working practices for all our staff.”

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