Is NZ The First Country Where Women Are To Outnumber Men In The Law

For AALE? this development can’t come soon enough.. although according to this report from NZ there’s still another 6 years to go until it becomes reality..

NZ’s Sunday Star Times? reports that the number of women in the legal profession in NZis growing so “rapidly” they may outnumber men by 2018. But as the article points out women? are still not reaching high levels in law.

Here’s what’s said ….

The New Zealand Law Society, which issues practising certificates, says 42% of lawyers are now female, compared to 21% in 1990.

Between 1980 and 2007, the percentage of women entering the profession rose from 26% to 62%. If admissions continue to grow at that rate, there will be more female than male lawyers in 2018.

But the society’s executive director, Christine Grice, says the number of women in high positions is lower than expected.

Men still dominate in law firms, senior counsel and barrister practices, and Grice says although the rate of female admissions is up, they are still not reaching the highest levels in law.

“What seems to be the pattern, evident for a few years, is an increasing number of young women graduates coming out of law school, but still not showing up in the numbers that you would expect in the partnership levels in firms.

“It is not entirely clear why not. Clearly there is often a break for children, and it is often hard to get back in at the higher levels.”

She said firms were putting policies in place to retain women.

“There are more firms that are becoming aware of the need to retain women because they are losing half of their talent pool.”

Grice said women had a lot to offer law through “diversity, the way we approach problems, our different thought processes, view of things and our different experiences of the world.

“All the research seems to indicate that boards with women on them, with diversity around the boardroom table, perform better.”

The culture of law firms has changed since Grice’s admission as a lawyer. “When I came through, it was very much a male-dominated culture and you had to do your hours, and if you didn’t work all night you wouldn’t make it.”

Criminal law has some excellent females but the demanding nature of the job means men still dominate the courtrooms.

Prominent criminal lawyer Lorraine Smith said her road to criminal law had to be fought for.

“There are not so many women in criminal law doing the homicides because males grab the high-profile stuff. How many women lawyers do you see doing homicides? Males working in a firm grab them because they are interesting, they are meaty, they make you feel like a lawyer. I happen to be working on my own.”

Smith questioned whether there would be more women lawyers than men in 2018 because her female colleagues were telling her the price of juggling families was too high.

“I talk to a lot of younger women lawyers and many have chosen not to have children, or to have children very late and put them in nurseries.

“They have told me it is such a high price to pay.

“There has been a rush of women doing that over the past 10 years but I think that’s going to change. There’s a great deal of stress in law,” she said, especially if a woman is trying to cope with looking after a husband and family, and “trying to cope with the guilt of having very young children in daycare”.

Smith believes though that women bring something special to the courtroom. “What women do bring is the female perspective and a gentleness to the court. We are robust in our own way. Often you get male lawyers coming into court, grandstanding, speaking loudly and laughing loudly, women don’t do that, women sit down and get on with the job.