denotes premium content | Feb 8 2012 Feature
posted 29 Jun 2010 in Volume 2 Issue 4
Driving diversity
across the globe
How Asian and Latina women lawyers are breaking down barriers
Asia
Throwing out the rulebook
Connie Carnabuci and Deborah Dalgleish of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer discuss achieving gender diversity in Asia.
The development of professional-services firms over the last 50 years has mirrored fundamental changes in society including increased globalisation and social mobility, changes in values as a result of generational shifts, and changing views about traditional gender roles. At Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Freshfields) we are undertaking various initiatives to address the issue of gender diversity across our international network. An essential element of our business strategy is the attraction, retention and development of talent. However, this challenges even our own stereotypes of what ‘talent’ looks like, and requires us to judge all people on their merit. Talent scarcity means that we need to be able to create an inclusive culture. We want to position ourselves as a high-performance meritocracy that rewards the delivery of results. For instance, we apply no absolute academic bar. While we would expect the majority of those we recruit to demonstrate strong academics, we acknowledge that there are good reasons why some people don’t obtain good ‘scores’. A compelling application will get an interview, irrespective of school and university results. It involves more work, as every form has to be read from start to finish, but we have made some great hires of people we know other firms didn’t even allow to get to first base.
To build a diverse workforce we also need to challenge some of our historical assumptions about straight line careers, which, while attractive to ‘baby boomers’, may not be of interest to Generation Y. We need to build diversity into our leadership to broaden and develop the capabilities of our people, both in terms of their own performance and how they manage others. We also need to build a supportive environment with authentic role models and practical support. To achieve this we are instituting a coaching programme for our women partners to ensure (among other things) that the importance of positive role models is understood. This in itself is based on the outcomes of research commissioned in 2009 with a mix of clients, partners and associates of both sexes. Women partners are also providing mentoring for junior associates as a follow-up to a gender-tailored skills development course. This was piloted in London in April 2010, and is currently being reviewed with a view to its being offered more widely in the network.
There are positives and negatives for women in Asia. For example, there is a cultural perception that displaying ambition equates to lacking femininity. The ‘one child’ policy in China has placed a considerable burden on the younger generation in terms of their parenting responsibilities and filial duties. This means that we need to make some adjustments in our expectations of how we project ourselves and our concept of what constitutes ‘good parenting’. In China we try to adopt as flexible an approach as possible to how we structure working arrangements for our lawyers. Examples of this include granting unpaid extended leave to lawyers who need to spend time with aging parents or would like to spend an extended period of time caring for their children. We have also moved lawyers between offices so they can be closer to their elderly parents and assist with their care.
Access to affordable and reliable domestic support provides women in Asia with the opportunity to perform a duality of roles more easily. The hierarchy in Asia tends to be flatter, so everyone has greater exposure to senior people in leadership roles. All the evidence shows that exposure to those at a more senior level in an organisation improves personal and professional development, so the flatter the hierarchy, the greater the exposure to a range of leaders with differing styles, and the more the opportunity for the widest range of talent to find a senior role model with whom to identify.
Here in Asia we have also invested in learning and development programmes that provide our people with a set of best-practice skills to enable them to step into transactions in other jurisdictions. This covers technical legal, business advisor, people, team and project management skills.
Having invested in our people, of course we also want to ensure we retain that talent. In spite of the downturn, Hong Kong and China continue to be real hot spots, which means that the war for talent continues to be incredibly fierce.
For law firms the answer is not about developing institutional solutions in a ‘one size fits all’ manner. It is about responding to the individual needs and drivers of our people to retain talent and deliver value to the business. A good example of this is our ‘Personal Development for Associates’ training course, which includes a one to one coaching session to ensure a totally tailored focus for that individual. We also ensure that feedback is provided to all members of a team by all members of a team at the end of the programme, so that the individual is gaining truly rounded and personal insights. Social structures have changed, stereotypes are being challenged, and it is up to us to write the new rules about how we want to operate our businesses. Almost a quarter of our top clients now have women general counsels who expect to see more senior women among their professional advisers. Clients increasingly come from new markets, with no classic preconceptions of what lawyers should look or sound like. Moreover, the new generation of lawyers joining us may well have no interest in partnership unless we change the partnership to deliver more flexibility and scope for other commitments. If we don’t stop and think about how to address these issues, there will not be much of the firm left in a generation’s time.
Equal employment — an Asian perspective
DLA Piper Asia lawyers Pattie Walsh and Alison Hern outline the equal employment initiatives on offer in law firms in Asia.
While women form a large part of the population in Asia, the statistics relating to their presence in senior professional positions within the legal sector remain somewhat discouraging, especially considering the increasing protection that women are obtaining in anti-discrimination legislation across Asia.
Law firms are often criticised for measuring success in terms of hours worked and billed. This makes it difficult for women to succeed if they want to balance work and personal life when they have a family to take care of. In Asia, however, there appears to be additional pressure on women to fulfil their traditional role of caregiver and home-keeper, which often makes a full-time career more difficult to achieve. However, there is encouraging evidence that law firms in Asia are gradually starting to review the investment their organisation makes in nurturing their female talent. There has been a steady move towards a relaxation of work practices in order to retain female lawyers. Many firms are beginning to look at the viability of flexible working practices, for example, particularly in the difficult economic climate.
China and Hong Kong are both dynamic and exciting places to work, with a growing economy providing a continuing demand for talent and opportunities in spite of the recent recession. This environment makes it easier for women to obtain jobs and succeed in the law firm environment. What’s more, the availability of affordable domestic help in Hong Kong and
China helps women to return to work after having families.
In Hong Kong there is also legislation that further assists women working in
the legal sector, and beyond. For example, the Sex Discrimination Ordinance, which was enacted in 1995, provides protection from discrimination on the grounds of sex, marital status and pregnancy, and the 1997 Family Status Discrimination Ordinance, provides protection for employees who are responsible for the care of another.
In China female workers are given special protection under the People’s Republic of China (PRC) labour law. While China’s constitution provides the principle of equality in all spheres, including among the sexes, the country’s Women’s Rights Law (which came into force in 1992 and was revised in 2005) goes as far as to state that it is a policy of the PRC state to achieve sexual equality. The recently enacted Employment Promotion Law (1 January 2008) also seeks to provide specific protection based on these general principles.
However, in spite of the broad protection against discrimination, there is still no right in Hong Kong and China to request flexible working and have it reasonably considered. Regardless of the legislation being similar in both Hong Kong and England, Hong Kong has not seen a significant increase in claims by women for indirect sex discrimination following a refusal by employers to permit them to work flexibly. It is open to debate whether this is based on sexist attitudes, or simply a manifestation of a very committed work culture that does not contemplate anything but full-time commitment to work.
While there are no published statistics, it is clear that there are considerably more women than men in Hong Kong at the graduate and newly-qualified levels. However, that balance shifts as seniority increases, and while women are starting to hold senior roles in law firms, the percentage of women in such roles is still very small in comparison to men. It is difficult to see how these figures will get better when the relatively short period of maternity leave in Hong Kong (currently only 10 weeks) forces women to make the difficult decision of whether to return to work at a very early stage.
Moving to India, the country’s recent major economic transformation has resulted in many opportunities for women (including in senior positions) and extended family assistance makes it easier for these women to balance their work and life. However, the culture of diversity and equality is in the very early stages of development and there is still an expectation among the extended family members of women in the workplace that a woman’s career should be less important that her husband’s.
In Korea, with the establishment of the Republic of Korea in 1948, women achieved constitutional rights for equal opportunities to pursue education, work, and public life.
As economic development proceeded and the living conditions of Koreans improved, the educational attainment level of women also increased. In terms of characteristics of the female labour force, in 1975 only two per cent of the female workforce worked in professional or managerial occupations. However, by 1998 this had risen to 12.6 per cent. The Korean Labour Standards Act now prohibits discrimination based on gender and the Gender Equality Employment and Work-Family Balance Support Act does the same.
In Japan, law firms are also focusing more on women, and there are definitely more opportunities for women. However, many believe Japan is still a male-orientated culture. Further, obtaining childcare is not as easy as in some other Asian countries, which hinders women returning to work in law firms.
In summary, the number of women working in law firms in Asia is significantly smaller than the number of men. This becomes increasingly apparent at the more senior levels in private practice. It appears that if women decide to return to work after having a family, many women opt out of private practice and seek employment as in-house legal counsel or in legal support roles, which are perceived as providing more stable working hours and income.
Looking forward at how to address the issue of gender diversity in Asia, the importance of positive female role models in law firms in Asia cannot be underestimated. Young women in law firms need career role models that have shown the delicate balancing act between work and home life can be achieved. A move towards a mentoring approach in law firms would also assist in this way. Mentors can assist management too - to encourage female leaders and to hold management accountable for the results that can be tracked through gender diversity figures. Law firms should consider reviewing appraisal processes to ensure managers and partners are not gender biased and provide diversity training to all leaders.
Alison Hern is a senior associate and Pattie Walsh is a partner and head of regional Asia employment practice in DLA Piper Asia LLP’s Hong Kong office. They can be contacted at alison.hern@dlapiper.com and patti.walsh@dlapiper.com respectively.
Latin America
Helping hands
Based in Los Angeles, Elena Baca is a partner in the employment practice at Paul Hastings. She believes Hispanic women need more professional mentors but is optimistic about the future.
Why, in your opinion, are there so few Latin American women represented in the legal profession?
First, it is important to point out that, although it is measured, we are making progress. In the early 1990s, when I was in the Hispanic American Law Students Association at the University of Notre Dame School of Law, there was one other Latina in my class. When I interviewed and began work there seemed to be very few Hispanic women in large law firms, let alone in the partner ranks. It remains true that there are only a handful of AmLaw Top-20 firms with Latina partners. This was painfully clear from an experience I had last winter. Imagine the hundreds of attorneys working in downtown Los Angeles. I participated in a lunch meeting that sought to include all of the Latina partners in downtown law firms. There were only 15 of us on the guest list and our ranks are certainly not swelling.
On the other hand, law schools report an increasing number of women in the pipeline. The percentage of these women that are Latina varies according to the report, but, the simple fact is that, absent Latinas entering the law schools and the legal profession, the Latina population in the legal profession will not even remotely reflect their numbers in the general community.
What barriers to success do Hispanic women face today?
There are a number of obstacles and some of them are cultural. There is not always an expectation within a family that a female should pursue an advanced degree or a particular professional career. Some of them, no doubt, are remnants of biases and more subtle forms of discrimination that have left Latinas and other minority groups less integrated and successful within the traditional roles in the legal profession. However, some obstacles also involve self differentiation – where individuals do not apply to law schools or for particular legal positions, and thus take themselves out of consideration. For example, at Paul Hastings, despite our combined diversity and recruiting efforts, we do not see the number of resumés from Latinas that you might expect.
What can be done to help the next generation realise its full potential?
Whatever the source of the barriers, we must remain committed to change. Not only do we need to find opportunities for ourselves, we also need to help others and assist as they work to achieve their dreams. We must be determined, self-confident, and dedicated. We need to study, apply to schools, interview for positions, and become leaders.
For those of us who have become leaders, whether within law firms, as in-house counsel or in the judiciary, it is our responsibility, in turn, to serve as mentors and role models to the next generation of Latina lawyers. We, and the organizations we lead, need to partner with colleges and universities to provide mentoring programs and opportunities that are available for students to pursue. We should start by encouraging our students to apply for law school. After law school we should help them to network and evaluate career opportunities. Once they begin practicing law we should help them to build their practices and professional reputation.
This is an exciting time for us. There are a number of opportunities if we work together.
We have an important place in the profession, and there is much promise for the next generation.
Q&A: Connie Carnabuci
What is your own experience of finding a satisfactory work/ life balance?
It is definitely a challenge. Personally I feel so much responsibility to my fellow partners, my staff, my husband and my kids (although not necessarily in that order!) that it is sometimes easiest to take myself off the agenda altogether. I have learnt, however, that you have to fight to make some time each day for yourself and try to have one special thing you do to celebrate each day, even if means going for a walk with a girlfriend at an ungodly hour of the morning. It is also important to plan and manage your holidays. Getting a complete psychological break and effectively ‘decompressing’ is important for anyone in a high performance role.
How have you benefited from diversity initiatives at your firm?
I am currently among a small group of female partners internationally piloting a coaching programme, which I am finding tremendously useful. But I also think I have benefited from the diversity attitude as much as any initiatives. Women are included in all levels of the firm’s management, and hold key strategic roles such as key client relationship partners. We are a firm that develops talent in all its forms.
What unique challenges do women in Asia face when trying to advance their careers?
One unique challenge of working in Asia is the time zone issue. This is also a big challenge, particularly when dealing with the US. Europe is a little better. The fact that much of the work done in Hong Kong is cross-border, and often multi-jurisdictional, means that you invariably need to take calls kicking off at 10pm. Obviously this cuts into family and rest time. Although this challenge is not unique to women, it can cause particular anxiety for women who may feel caught in a ‘conflict of interest’ between their duty to the office and their duty to their family.
I think the recession has caused business to look at a lot of the assumptions they had about how to run a successful legal services operation, and for us this has actually been the point at which the firm has decided to address some key issues on a global basis. So it’s really the case that the reverse is true — we have rethought our talent management programme overall.
What single thing would improve the lives of women lawyers in Asia?
The markets across Asia are not homogenous and the challenges facing women in Hong Kong are very different to those in mainland China, say, or in India. However, I am sure we would all surely benefit if there were more hours in the day!
