Female lawyers on the clock for 100 hours more than male peers annually
Unsurprisingly they are also among the least happy with the number of hours they work, according to a new report on law firms.
The recent report by Thomson Reuters found that women practicing law were, on average, putting in 100 hours more than their male colleagues every year.
One reason pointed out by Dana Denis-Smith, a former lawyer and the founder of the First 100 Years project that charts the history of women in law, was that “women end up running a lot of the initiatives that are about culture in firms and they take a lot of time to organise and drive.”
Amandeep Khasriya, a committee member of the Law Society’s women lawyers division, and a senior associate at Moore Barlow LLP, agreed.
The global study of over 1,000 lawyers, of which the UK cohort was the third largest, also found that only two per cent of lawyers were content with their non-billable responsibilities, with the most lawyers owning around 10 non-billable responsibilities.
Women need to be more strategic in where they invest their time in their firms, said Denis-Smith. But she acknowledged that this was “a double-edged sword as promotions aren’t only judged on billable hours but also on leadership and being involved with firm culture.”
“Knowing where to draw the line is important – so working smart, not just hard, is key,” she added.