International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality. Here, we talk to Vandana Dass, founder of Davenport Solicitors about her view on the impact of women in law.
Vandana Dass, Managing Director, and Senior Solicitor at Davenport Solicitors, specialises in corporate immigration and HR/employment law. Davenport Solicitors was set up in 2013. Clients come to her because she makes HR/employment law accessible. Vandana’s strong leadership skills and business ethics drive her and her team to provide a highly personal, first-class service to all the firm’s clients. She chose to qualify as a solicitor and set up a law firm because she has always been passionate about making a difference and providing SME clients with a service that was personal as well as commercially focused.
Currently, women make up 52% of lawyers in law firms, up from 51% in 2019. Men made up 46% of lawyers, down from 47% in 2019 and 0.1% preferred another description (no change since 2019). Government employment figures for 2019 show that women made up 48% of the workforce in England, Scotland and Wales (www.sra.org.uk).
There are 21,806 male partners (66% of all partners) in contrast to 10,664 female partners (33%). However, there are 70,321 male solicitors, which means 21,806 of them (31%) are partners. There are 76,933 female solicitors of whom just 10,664 are partners, which means just 13.8% of female solicitors are partners (www.globallegalpost.com).
When asked what difference women are making in law, Vandana told us that ‘Women are definitely breaking barriers! It’s great to see that more women are entering the legal world and qualifying as lawyers. Women are ambitious and they can bring a whole host of skills to assist the growth of law firms.’
‘Women can have a successful career in law, whilst having a family. However, more needs to be done to ensure that women are getting to partner level – as that is where the problem lies and I consider that this will change when men change their mindset and realise that women are capable and have the ability to become successful Partners/Directors within law firms. I would love to see more women setting up their law firms and being promoted to Partners at law firms.’
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this post on the impact of women in law and we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy International Women’s Day.
We’d also like to invite you to join us to celebrate IWD with us on Wednesday 16th March as we host an evening of chocolate making with Hotel Chocolat. Find out more about the event and register here: https://bit.ly/3CqglG3
