Linklaters features in The Times’ Top 50 Employers for Women List for 8th year running
Linklaters has been named by The Times as one of its Top 50 Employers for Women for the eighth consecutive year. This recognition is one of the most highly profiled and well-established listings of employers leading the way on workplace gender equality.
Linklaters has a longstanding commitment to creating a supportive environment in which women are able to realise their goals and where all genders feel supported in balancing their responsibilities inside and outside of the workplace. This achievement recognises the substantial policies and initiatives that the firm has in place that are focused on this objective.
The firm has an established and comprehensive gender action plan and is committed to the following priorities:
- Maintaining a consistent and sustainable pipeline of female talent, through providing support at all levels
We provide support to our women at junior levels to help them to achieve their goals and build their careers with us – from the Stepping Forward coaching programme for more junior senior female associates through to the Women's Leadership Programme (WLP).
In 2021, 79% of the women promoted to Partner and 71% of the women promoted to Counsel were alumna of the WLP. The firm has increased its target for new female partner elections to 40% so that it is challenged to keep up its progress and continues to move ultimately towards gender parity.
Work allocation and opportunities for development are also scrutinised through a gender lens.
- Requiring each practice within the firm to produce and implement 50/50 gender action plans
Every practice in the firm is required to produce a 50/50 gender action plan, identifying key steps to be taken to support female talent in individual teams.
- Helping to support working parents
Even outside of the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, we know that women are disproportionately affected by caring responsibilities, and so equalising these benefits will support the progression of women as well as giving male colleagues the opportunity to share parent and caring responsibilities.
Our New Parent Leave policy has had a positive uptake, and this year we’ve introduced two new interventions: a Buddy System so that women going on maternity leave are buddied with someone who’s already been through the process; and our Parents At Linklaters groups, which bring together parents who are due to welcome children at around the same time.
- Being agile in our approach to working patterns and career paths
Agile working is a key part of our gender strategy. Allowing everyone to achieve a greater balance in their lives through agile working means that we can move to a place where no gender bears a disproportionate burden for family commitments and other additional responsibilities. This ensures women and men at Linklaters are supported in a way that suits their individual circumstances whilst advancing in their careers.
- Implementing sponsorship programmes for underrepresented talent
We know that ensuring that women have the networks, sponsorship and tools that they need to progress, which (for various reasons) might be more easily available to men is key. The sponsorship programmes which have been established across our global network over the course of 2020 and 2021 are a great step forward.
Claudia Parzani, Managing Partner for Western Europe and Executive Champion for Gender Equality at Linklaters, comments:
"Although we are proud of this recognition, we are never complacent, and we know that there is still much more for us all to do to achieve greater gender balance.
In the past 18 months, women’s experiences across the world have been shaped by the pandemic and we are aware of how challenging that has been for our female colleagues across our global network. We will continue to react and adapt to the needs of our people and drive forward change.”
