Opinion: Diversity in a downturn

Lauren Stiller Rikleen, executive director of The Bowditch Institute for Women’s Success and Women Legal editorial advisory board member, reveals why a downturn is the perfect time for law firms to promote gender equality initiatives.

While listening to the outstanding group of speakers at the Massachusetts Equality Commission’s Conference: Gender Equality in a Time of Economic Stress, it struck me how troubling it is that, since women began graduating from law schools in significant numbers three decades ago, gender inequality has continued to plague the profession. There should be far more women serving as managing partners, executive and compensation committee members and filling additional critical leadership roles than there are today. Yet, with increasing frustration, we continue to bring attention to the institutional impediments to women’s success in the law.
When Judge Nancy Gertner addressed the conference, she framed the issue as being about the future of the legal profession and its leadership. She further noted that the women’s movement was not simply about whether women could choose to work or stay home. It was supposed to be about transforming the dynamics of the workplace and the family to support parents who work.
Instead, law firms comfortably hide behind the notion that the high rate of attrition among women is because they ‘choose’ to leave. There is never a recognition that perhaps they depart because the firm itself creates an environment in which women feel they cannot succeed.
Gender equality means more than the creation of family-friendly policies that can be published on a law firm’s website. Cynthia Thomas Calvert, co-director of the Project for Attorney Retention and deputy director and general counsel of WorkLife Law, emphasised that firms must create an environment where policies are utilised, and where women do not feel stigmatised if they seek a reduced-hours schedule, nor punished with less interesting assignments. Men, too, need to feel they can use their firm’s written paternity leave policies without retribution. With 83 per cent of the workforce now consisting of dual-income families, the need for change has never been more compelling. Nor can the weakened economy diminish the need to address these issues. If anything, the economic conditions make it even more important to find ways to retain and advance valued contributors.
Firms need to become aware of how their underlying assumptions about gender and competency affect advancement in the workplace. The ‘myth of meritocracy’ forms a protective fabric around internal evaluations that are steeped in unexamined biases. As Simmons College professor Deborah M. Kolb noted in her keynote address, it is critical to understand how this notion of meritocracy contributes to bias. She stated that meritocracy is often a euphemism for: ‘Who you know is where you go.’ The reality is that in most organisations that pride themselves on being a meritocracy, women fundamentally do not get credit for work they have done, nor do they have the advantage of the informal relationships that benefit their male colleagues.
The need for change could not have been clearer than in the panel consisting of ‘the best and the brightest’ – law students from Harvard Law School, Yale Law School and Boston College Law School. For firms to compete effectively in difficult economic times, they must still recruit today’s talented lawyers, the so-called millennial generation or ‘Generation Y’. The Generation Y panelists had a clear message: ‘We are watching. We are looking at how women are empowered in your firm. We want to see diversity as a fundamental part of who you are.’ This generation is sophisticated, technology savvy and well-travelled. They do not expect to work in an environment with an antiquated evaluation system, lack of feedback, limited opportunities for women and a lacklustre record of support for diversity. Nor will their clients hire lawyers from that environment. This was the message from the former vice president and general counsel of Shell Oil, Cathy Lambolay, and the associate general counsel at EMD Serono, Inc., Leigh-Ann Durant. Clients are not well-served by frequent turnover and changing teams. More frequently, clients are expecting diverse lawyers on their teams, not simply because it is the right thing to do, but because it also produces a better legal result. Clients are seeking accountability metrics and are understanding that, in a system in which business acumen is a critical key to success within law firms, perhaps the historic allocation of these credits has not been fair to women.
The Equality Commission’s conference reinforces the need for systemic change. The challenging economic climate should provide an incentive for law firms who want to recruit, retain and advance talent. And men must participate in creating the change we have been talking about for decades. The result will be an economically stronger law firm.

Lauren Stiller Rikleen is executive director of the Bowditch Institute for Women’s Success and a partner at Bowditch & Dewey LLP. She can be contacted at lrikleen@bowditch.com