Law firms are losing out on talent by not harnessing the potential of their female workforce. Elizabeth Anderson writes that firms need to start making law a more woman-friendly career choice

While people will be unanimous in their congratulation of an older single mother, Rachida Dati, the French Justice Minister, on the birth of a daughter, women may find themselves reluctant to rejoice in the example she has set in returning to work just five days after the birth by caesarean section. As the world economic downturn continues to deepen, the headlines did not highlight the dedication of a woman to work and duty in troubled times, nor even the reason that lay behind her decision to attend the meeting called by her boss, President Nicholas Sarkozy. Instead, they focused on how attractive she looked and how well she walked in her high heels.

This says it all; that even in such extraordinary times, the focus is not on the vital role that high-performing and high ability women can play, but on how women can best detract from their inadequacies.

When so many women are choosing law as a career, firms concerned about utilisation need to start at the most obvious place, and look at what they are doing to nurture women – who make up nearly half of their talent – towards success. Like their corporate commercial counterparts (who are addressing the debate through mentoring programmes and leadership coaching courses) firms need to grasp the nettle and take the first small step towards grooming the next generation of legal leaders, as well as signalling to the markets that gender is no longer an issue.

According to a survey published by the Association of Women Lawyers in the US in November 2008, just 8% of leaders of law practices in the US are women lawyers. In parallel with the UK, about 50% of the entrants to law firms are women. If utilisation is a key driver for 2009, then examination of why half a firm's intellectual capital has been underutilised would seem critical.

The answer might be to begin by asking some core questions:

• How should female lawyers be supported differently from their male counterparts?
• How could sustainable development and leadership support programmes be put into places that are women-friendly, and how could they be used to encourage more women to step forward and step up?
• Are the barriers to partnership more difficult for women than for men and, if so, in what ways?
• What are the factors preventing so few women partners from being promoted to equity partnership? What could be done to address this?
• What is it that women need to do for themselves to create a different future and new sustainability and profitability for their firms?
• What barriers need to be overcome and frontiers crossed to get full participation by women in new development programmes and support by the whole partnership?

There is evidence to suggest that law firms can make effective visible changes for the benefit of their high potential women quickly, provided that care is taken to examine the most effective level for change, identify where the real supporters and stakeholders are, and consider the most effective vehicle for change.

One client was widely recognised in her firm for her specialised knowledge, and her ability to communicate it in a way that indirectly increased the firm's abilities to generate added value.

Yet since the role she held was in a support capacity she felt, and was, completely undervalued because of her non-direct fee earning capacity. Coaching was used to improve her capability to network internally and to communicate with clarity the value of her role to the organisation. She went on to gain the promotion to which she had never dared aspire.

Another client was promoted to partnership in a group that was almost entirely made up of men. She was stressed and had little public or firm profile. The advice that she had been given as to how to get on was to work harder and take care not to display particularly feminine characteristics. She thought it unlikely she would stay in the partnership in the long term, was working obsessively and stress had begun to take its toll. Through coaching she now has the confidence to implement practical steps towards creating her own 'brand' and marketing it, as well as being prepared to communicate her needs more clearly to the partnership and working out how to manage stress. During her coaching she was headhunted. She had no problem in turning down the role since she now sees her future as mirroring the senior women partners she uses as role models.

If law firms are serious about reviewing utilisation, and want to move more women into leadership positions then this is the time to consider:

• creating specific development and support plans for women;
• putting into place a well-structured mentoring scheme specific to women, perhaps based on the FTSE 100 cross-company mentoring programme, in conjunction with a women's leadership programme; and
• having specific individual interventions for female high fliers, like coaching, that achieve measurable focused results speedily and help those individuals identify their vision and values and align them with those of the firm.

Elizabeth Anderson is executive coach at Praesta Partners.