NSW judge calls for flexibility for women in law - Women's Agenda

NSW judge calls for flexibility for women in law

The Australian National University’s first Judge-in-Residence, Justice Rachel Pepper, has called on the legal profession to do more to retain women lawyers at the top of the industry.

Justice Pepper, who served as a NSW barrister for 14 years before being appointed to the judiciary, has decades of experience watching the way women fare in the law. She says from what she has observed, it seems that law begins to lose women when they leave the workforce to have children, meaning women are underrepresented in senior ranks.

“The law needs to do more to retain women,” Justice Pepper told Women’s Agenda.

“My understanding is that just over 50% of law graduates are women, and yet when you track those numbers through you don’t see those numbers being transferred to senior positions in law – whether they be silks, equity partners, or female judges.”

“We see a variation in that trajectory that is much bigger than you would expect from normal levels of career change. Something else is happening to those women.”

Justice Pepper said that her observation from her many years as a barrister is that many women cannot stay in law after they have children because the profession is not sufficiently accommodating.

“Things get very difficult when family obligations come into play,” she said.

“Law demands long hours and high intensity, that’s just the way it is. It demands that you stay back late and work all hours, and that is antithetical to raising young children.”

She said this inflexibility in law is one of the most significant factors holding women back in law.

“Law is relatively inflexible. When you’re involved in a case, you’re involved in a case,” she said.

But Justice Pepper does not think the problem is intractable based on characteristics inherent to the profession – she says it just requires employees to be aware of these characteristics and be as accommodating as possible within this framework.

“As with everything, it starts with the recognition that there is a problem, then we need to ask ourselves what thebest way to deal with the problem is,” she said.

“Employers just need to recognise that women need to be offered flexible work and part time work, especially when they return from parental leave. And beyond this, when they are offered part time work, employers need to ensure that they are still being given equally important cases and clients as full time staff.”

Justice Pepper believes tangible change is already occurring in the recognition of the need for increased flexibility in law. She cites a recent initiative by the NSW Bar Association to provide childcare in close proximity to barristers’ chambers as an example of this.

The Bar Association has also contacted heads of jurisdictions across NSW to ask if anything can be done to make court hours more flexible. The Association is encouraging judges to be mindful not to allow cases to run overtime, for example, in case barristers or solicitors need to collect children from childcare.

“There is much better recognition of the importance of this in law firms than there ever has been in the past. Both employers and clients are now recognising that flexibility is crucial,” she said.

“At the bar we are seeing a record number of women being appointed as silks, we are seeing more women than ever beingappointed to the federal courts.”

“Things are certainly changing, but it does require a constant and conscious effort to recognise the competing demands on a woman lawyer’s time and to make allowances based on our understanding of those competing demands.”

She added she is heartened by the clear changes she sees occurring when it comes to women in law, but only wishes they could happen faster.

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