Partners believe firms are failing to retain enough female lawyers in senior positions, while many believe law firms should be doing more to support women in the profession. Emma Sadowski reports

Women are still substantially underrepresented at senior level in City firms, according to new research with more than half of partners believing the profession has a poor record at retaining female lawyers.

The latest Legal Week Big Question survey found more than two thirds of respondents (67%) felt representation of women at a senior level was either 'poor' or 'could be better'.

In contrast, only 5% thought the level of women making it to senior roles was 'excellent'. Thirteen percent thought it was 'good' and 15% judged it to be 'OK'.

General representation of women in the legal profession was felt to be improving, however, according to 65% of the 216 partners responding to the survey, including 31% who thought it was 'good' and 10% who judged it as 'excellent'.

The finding reflects the fact that more woman than men are now entering the profession, though partnerships at major City law firms remain dominated by men.

Allen & Overy (A&O), Herbert Smith, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Hammonds were the only firms among the UK's top 25 to this year make up a substantial amount of new female partners.

The lack of attainability of partnership as women struggle to combine family commitments with the demands made of senior lawyers is underlined by recent Legal Week research, which found only a third of female lawyers aspired to partnership at their own firm, compared to 58% of men.

Many partners thought law firms need to make more effort to improve the representation of women. Thirty-eight per cent of respondents thought commercial firms 'could do better' at improving female representation, while a further 12% thought their efforts were 'poor'.

Norton Rose London managing partner Deirdre Walker said: "There aren't enough female partners in the profession. One barrier is that the 'anytime, anywhere, any place' performance model is difficult to reconcile with women's double burden – the combination of work and domestic responsibilities – which, in the main, women take the lead responsibility for.

"We can do more to facilitate women in the workplace and to provide the kind of environment that will facilitate success coming through to the partnership."

BLP real estate partner David Battiscombe commented: "We have benefited enormously from introducing flexible arrangements for women with children. We want to attract and retain talented lawyers whatever their gender, but recognise that family commitments can pose particular challenges for women lawyers."

Opinions remain divided on the practicality of combining family life with a senior role in the City.

Sixty-eight percent of the survey's respondents said it was 'challenging' to combine the two, while 10% said a City career and the family aspirations of women were 'not at all' compatible.

However, on the whole respondents believed that the onus was on law firms to be flexible with work schedules to accommodate childcare responsibilities to ensure that the profession retains talented lawyers.

A&O senior partner David Morley commented: "Our biggest challenge is reconciling the demands of our clients for 24/7 service on high-end deals with accommodating the understandable desire of some of our people, not just women, for more flexible work patterns. We think there will need to be some give and take on all sides and our clients should be a part of the discussion."

Opinions were divided, however, on the role of women's networks. While 8% thought they helped 'a great deal', 38% said they help only 'a little' and 23% thought that they were either of 'no use' or 'counter-productive'.

Ashurst finance partner and chair of the firm's diversity committee Helen Burton said: "Our women's network aims to bring awareness to and promote women's issues not only by giving junior and senior female lawyers a chance to meet each other, but also to promote and educate men."

Clare McConnell, head of projects at Stephenson Harwood and chair of the Association of Women Solicitors, said: "Women's networks are hugely helpful in giving women solicitors a chance to discuss a variety of issues, including ways to improve the working environment generally. But we should never exclude the male population from any benefits in working practices."

Partners on women in the profession

• 9% believe firms should make little or no effort to accommodate child-rearing responsibilities
• 10% think the demands of City law firms are 'not compatible' with family aspirations of women
• 23% think the efforts of law firms to improve female representation is 'good' or 'excellent'
• 67% believe representation of women at senior level is 'poor' or 'could be better'.