Part-time work in top legal firms not accessed by men or at partner level
Research shows women in the legal profession are increasingly able to work part-time to balance their work and caring responsibilities. The Australian newspaper this month published their second flexible legal work survey showing more than a quarter of female senior associates at the nation's largest law firms have negotiated part-time work arrangements, but that few men or people at partner level take advantage of them. The survey reported that DCA member Gilbert + Tobin, which consistently outperforms other firms in promoting females to partnership, had the highest proportion of its workforce working flexibly for the second year in a row at 13.3%. In addition, DCA member Blake Dawson recorded the highest percentage of female associates working part-time at 44%. Allens Arthur Robinson, also a DCA member, had the most male part-timers at one in four part-timers.
DCA is proud to be associated with these leading law firms in their efforts to maximise people talent and create workplaces that reflect their clients and the community.
According to the survey, unfortunately this flexibility does not extend to everyone at these top firms. Only 9.1% (compared with 8.5% in 2007) of all lawyers work part-time and the vast majority of lawyers, especially men, work five days a week. Moreover, the survey revealed only 5.1% of partners worked on a part-time basis. Across Australia, just 27 male partners work part-time out of hundreds at the 11 law firms surveyed.
Dianne Banks, Partner with Gilbert + Tobin said Australia is still largely conservative in its approach to people practices. "EOWA's 2008 Census of women holding senior leadership and board positions highlighted the fact that, as a nation, we had less women in these roles than the previous year's survey. This survey on flexibility appears to reinforce the fact that male employees are more reluctant to seek these arrangements.
"At Gilbert + Tobin, we are open to providing flexible work arrangements where possible, irrespective of gender or level. We have a substantial proportion of our workforce who take up flexibility but as reflected in the survey, most are female. We have an open culture which encourages people to speak up."
Working patterns the problem Recent University of Melbourne research (Campbell, Malone & Charlesworth, 2008) examined working time patterns of solicitors. It found the dominant working pattern is centred around long working hours and limited opportunities for flexibility. In particular, researchers found that with respect to part-time work, there was limited access to such roles, only a narrow range of schedules (usually 3.5 or 4 long working days/week), and the roles usually entailed less interesting and less responsible work.
The researchers attributed the prevalence of narrow, rigid working arrangements and long daily hours to the way the billable hours system had transformed from being a technique for billing clients to a tool for managing and controlling solicitors' work through the imposition of targets, close time recording and performance monitoring.
The researchers argued that prevailing inflexible working patterns was a key factor leading to many men and even more women exiting from law firms.
Part-time work growing but still undervalued As in the legal industry, part-time work (including permanent part-time and casual work) in the wider workforce in Australia has grown significantly. As a percentage of total employment, it has almost tripled over the last 40 years, from 10% in 1966 to 29% in 2007. Indeed of all OECD countries, only the Netherlands has a higher proportion of part-time employment.
However, part-time jobs tend to be located in lower skilled occupations, are less likely to involve complex tasks, problem solving or planning responsibilities, and less likely to receive training from their employers.
Nareen Young, DCA's CEO said there needs to be a fundamental change in community attitudes about part-time work. "Working part-time is still commonly viewed as being incompatible with being seen as a committed career-oriented worker. However, this is at odds with many employers' experience of part-time employees as being efficient, committed and making a very valuable contribution to the workplace. And this is at odds with the way many people want and indeed need to work."
Ms Young said offering part-time work is key to tapping into and engaging diverse talent pools: "The growth in part-time work has been driven by employee need. Women, older workers and young people still engaged in education are increasingly entering the labour market, and these groups typically prefer to work part-time. Employers need to be more flexible in order to attract and retain these important groups, and recognise, finally, that part-time does not mean less committed."