E ditorial
“
Too many women
lawyers are failing to
make partner
IBERIAN
LAWYER
May/June 2017
Customer dissatisfaction
Changing legal advisers
Flexible working
What’s your policy?
Firm re-engineering
Adapting to meet demand
Still in the shadows
Women lawyers in Iberian law firms
www.iberianlawyer.com
”
Though the proportion of women partners at Spain’s
leading law firms has increased slightly in the last three
years, progress on this issue is painfully slow. New
research conducted by Iberian Lawyer shows that 16 per
cent of the partners at Spain’s leading law firms are
women, up from 14 per cent in 2014. Female lawyers in
Portugal are experiencing more success than their Spanish
counterparts – one in four partners (26 per cent) at the
top Portuguese firms are women (see News Focus on page
16), though it means the proportion of women partners at
Lisbon’s leading firms has not increased for three years.
What makes this notable is the fact that the majority
of law graduates recruited by law firms each year are
women. As highlighted in our Madrid Annual Report
(page 26), the fact that a disproportionately large number
of women lawyers are failing to make partner is of
concern to law firm leaders. “A high number of incoming
associates at law firms are women, but we’re losing
them along the way,” says one Madrid-based managing
partner. “Law firms need to be better at retaining and
promoting them – clients are more diverse than law firms,
the question is ‘how do we better reflect our clients?’”
Elsewhere in this issue, a survey of in-house lawyers
at leading companies in Spain and Portugal reveals that
three-quarters of them have switched legal adviser in the
last two years. What should be of concern to law firms
is that the most common reason given for switching law
firms was “dissatisfaction with the legal adviser’s work”.
What can lawyers learn from this? The study showed that
minimising the delay when reacting to clients’ requests,
ensuring you have a detailed knowledge of your client’s
business, as well as showing a willingness to act as a
business partner, goes a long way to keeping clients
happy.
Ben Cook
Editor
Iberian Lawyer
[email protected]
Twitter: @BenCook_Iberian
www.iberianlawyer.com
May / June 2017 • IBERIAN LAWYER •
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