50/50 Gender Project
50/50 by 2030 Gender in the Legal Profession Project IBA/LexisNexis RoLF
Sara Carnegie
S
ignificant progress has been made in recent years to pursue gender parity in the legal profession. More than half of all law school graduates and trainees are female, but a notable disparity endures when it comes to representation at the most senior levels of the profession. The role of the legal profession and lawyers is integral to every society. From law makers to law enforcers, from legal advisors to human rights defenders, it is critical that a gender balanced voice emerges at all levels. On 8 March 2021, International Women’s Day, the International Bar Association (IBA) launched ‘50/50 by 2030’ a groundbreaking, longitudinal study into gender disparity in the legal profession, in collaboration with LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation (LNROLF). This nine-year initiative seeks to facilitate an informed and effective gender policy blueprint to benefit all legal sectors globally. In support of the project launch, IBA President, Sternford Moyo, stated, ‘We need a global legal profession that not only understands and appreciates the need for diversity and gender equality but will take action to ensure their realisation. We cannot continue to have so few eminently qualified and capable women denied parity in senior roles.’ By providing empirical evidence of entrenched barriers and assessing measures being taken to correct the imbalance, we can draw up a blueprint of best practice across different legal sectors. The project will cover sixteen jurisdictions, chosen
Gender representation across the legal profession 24 | LegalWomen
to run alongside a decade of action for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, notably Goal 5 on Gender Equality. In 2021, a pilot study was carried out in England and Wales, seeking statistics and information about work being done to promote gender equality across four legal sectors. The following groups were asked to partake in the survey: 1. Private: Top 200 Law Firms1 and top 20 Barristers’ Chambers2 2. In-house: FTSE 100 Index Companies3 3. Public: Four departments employing legal professionals in the UK public sector: – Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) – Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) – Government Legal Department (GLD) – Serious Fraud Office (SFO) 4. Judiciary: Judicial Office Seniority in the four sectors was determined as follows: ■ L aw Firms: Partnership level and above (with specific information also sought about representation at executive level); ■ Barristers’ Chambers: QC level; ■ Corporate (in-house legal teams): Senior management level, GC, Board Members; ■ Public Sector: Senior Civil Servant level (SCS1 and above); ■ Judiciary: Senior members of the judiciary – High Court and Court of Appeal
Female lawyers overall
51%
Female lawyers in senior roles
32%
