Busy Doing Nothing: An Exploration of the Disconnect Between Gender Equity Issues Faced by Large Law Firms in the United Kingdom and the Diversity Management Initiatives Devised to Address Them

There is little doubt that the large law firm has undergone huge transformation in the last three decades. This has been as a consequence of widespread change in practice realities, resulting in changing market dynamics, fiercer competition for clients, and alterations in career paths, where individuals have moved from a largely internal labor market structure to a “boundaryless” model. Further changes have come in the form of deregulation in respect of delivery of key lines of service and a trend toward globalization of legal practice. These changes taken together have meant that large law firms now demand more labor and have had to access sections of the labor market they previously did not. Key among these groups is women, and we have seen a massive rise in the number of women both studying and practicing law. However, this increase in diversity within law firms has not resulted in expected increased inclusion at the senior levels of the profession, where male partners continue to outnumber females by approximately four to one. To combat this issue, law firms have resorted to diversity management to signal their cognizance of the problem and that they are taking action. However, it is clear that these diversity policies have made little impact. This Article assesses why. The Article has three parts: the first reviews the data showing women’s increased participation in the legal sector and assesses why increased