It is hard to introduce a column on female leaders without sounding trite or – as a woman – vaguely condescending to those featured. In a blatant attempt to side-step this quandary, I will start with an admission of guilt. In our haste to speak with the new wave of non-male leaders for our cover feature, we had all but neglected to speak to any men. ‘Well, I bet you’ve never had that problem before!’ correctly guessed more than one industry contact as we belatedly, and sheepishly, canvassed them for some token male views.
Meeting many of the new leaders over Zoom, some for the first time, has been an energising experience. Even allowing for the inevitable professional veneer, there is a sense of genuine dynamism among this new cadre of women at the upper echelons of law, and much enthusiasm about their impact on the future of the industry.
However, looking at the various manifestos offered up, traditionalists – and the usual cynics – will argue that there is little in the way of major shake-up on the horizon for any of these firms. Where are the promises of disruption, of brandishing the sledgehammer and bashing unwieldy partnerships into shape? That’s just it – there aren’t any. Instead of traditionally masculine tropes we see declarations around diversity and inclusion, culture, empathy, emotional intelligence, listening and consensus-building. Cue vigorous eye-rolling, head-shaking and tutting from all you coercive top-down leaders of yore out there at this ridiculous woke nonsense.
But here we are, slowly crawling out of a global health crisis of colossal proportions, with nary a top line or profit figure askew. If anything, the businesses of the world’s leading law firms have thrived like never before, ironically on the back of many lawyers having no commuting, business trips or leisure time to distract them from the continuous churn of working for ever-more demanding clients. The finances are far from broken, but the mental health of many working under unrelenting conditions may well be.
And, quite aside from the obvious business case for diversity – and the ever-increasing pressures from clients for firms to present varied teams for pitches and mandates – the value of inclusivity in all its forms should be ignored at the peril of the industry at large.
Here is a band of smart, ambitious, talented and confident women who have the nous to recognise that this is a people business and – as such – the days of overbearing, hierarchical leadership are behind us. That is not to say they are not tough with it. They will have to be.
The pandemic has wrought enough destruction. Now comes the real challenge for all law firm leaders, perhaps the hardest to date, of creating a working life that the talent strained through lockdown wants to return to, however many days a week that might entail. Ultimately, those firms that truly value humanity as an intrinsic part of the business of law will be the winners in the end. The leaders who manage not to drop the ball on gender diversity while also affecting real change in appealing to socially varied and sexuality-diverse backgrounds in five years’ time may well have cracked the code where predecessors have continually failed.
Law firms are not (yet, at least) populated by robots and the need for authenticity will be paramount. The sooner the eye-rollers realise this, the sooner we can all move on for good.
nathalie.tidman@legalease.co.uk
See our cover feature on women leaders, ‘Women of the revolution’.