Law firm achieves female partner target two years ahead of target

Bristol law firm TLT has achieved 33 per cent female partner representation two years ahead of its 2025 target.

One third of partner roles have been held by women since the start of the financial year.

Since implementing its gender equality strategy in 2019 in collaboration with the firm’s Women’s Equality Network, TLT has significantly improved gender balance in its partner hiring and promotions, with women accounting for just over 50 per cent of partner promotions and hires in the past three years – double what it was three years ago.

This progress has, in part, been achieved as a result of TLT’s robust governance, which has seen the establishment of an internal taskforce that monitors progress in diversity.

The taskforce is made up of head of real estate and future energy Maria Connolly, chief people officer Helen Hodgkinson and managing partner John Wood – all members of the executive board – senior partner Sasha Butterworth, partner and equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) champion Esther Smith and senior ED&I manager Lucy Norman-Wells.

The taskforce reviews critical datasets relating to diversity and is responsible for implementing key decisions such as gender balanced shortlists and hiring panels.

The taskforce complements the steps the firm has taken elsewhere, including the introduction of several market-leading initiatives that offer support for critical life stages. These have been instrumental in helping drive improvements.

Helen Hodgkinson said: “Gender equality is a given for our firm; fixing the system and not our women has been a fundamental part of our success.  Whilst our current position is promising and things are improving, we still have a way to go.

“We know it is still mostly women who take the predominant amount of caring responsibilities and, with women representing 70 per cent of our business, this is a significant barrier to improving gender diversity in our top roles. We are tackling this head-on by introducing measures centred on parents and carers (as listed above), alongside our ground- breaking approach to new ways of working “TLT World” – all of which are already starting to show results.”

Esther Smith, inclusion champion and employment partner at TLT said: “Gender equality is one of my top priorities as the ED&I champion at TLT and I’m exceptionally proud that we have reached this milestone target in 2023.

“But the work doesn’t stop here. It’s imperative we keep the momentum going on ED&I and continue to diversify further to support both women and working parents, irrespective of gender. I look forward to continuing this important work at TLT, working closely with the Women’s Equality Network to support and empower our women to reach for the top.”

Nina Searle, co-chair of TLT Women’s Equality Network added: “On behalf of all our network members we are delighted to see that the female partner target has been achieved two years early and we look forward to working alongside the targets taskforce as we focus on the next steps on our journey to gender equality.”