Lean In movement: Tipping the balance - Annual Review 2015

This article was produced by Olswang LLP, which joined with CMS on 1 May 2017.

This article is an extract from our Annual Review 2015.

First there was the best-selling book by Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook - Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead - along with the Lean In Foundation and an online community, LeanIn.org, which in its own words is dedicated to "encouraging women to pursue their ambitions". Now, Lean In circles are springing up in all kinds of places across the world - including at Olswang. What might Lean In mean for females, the firm and the future?

By Jo Dooley, Diversity & Inclusion Specialist and Natasha Kaye, Partner

Learning from each other

Natasha Kaye: Lean In is partly a support network for women in the firm, and partly a way for women to learn from each other and get to know their peers. They can share experiences, develop leadership skills and overcome some of the challenges that many women face. It is about how we support women within the firm and ensure that they can fulfil their potential.

Jo Dooley: It all started with the book Lean In, which a number of people here were reading and, love or hate it, they were talking about it. This led to us forming Lean In circles inside the firm - three groups originally, among partners, associates and business services/PA staff. And it's grown from there. Olswang has always had a reputation for being just a bit different from a cultural perspective - I think women who have joined us from other firms have said that they find the culture here very supportive. But no one would claim that we're perfect - which is why we need to do things like Lean In.

NK: It's hard to measure the effect that the circles are having, but I don't think there's much doubt that Lean In helps to demonstrate that Olswang wants to support female progression through the firm, and it goes into the mix to encourage women to stay here rather than move to other firms.

We are also starting to have some tangible outputs. We've organised our first women's networking event, for instance, with one of our clients coming in as a speaker, and have initiated networking training for our female associates. And there are other initiatives going on, such as a very informal working mums' group where lawyers who are mums - from trainees to partners - can meet for lunch and have the sort of informal chats that other mums probably get at the school gates.

JD: We're really digging deep on the issues and trying to change things. The circles themselves are closed, confidential, safe environments, and when women are dealing with professional problems and challenges I think it's quite empowering for them to hear how someone else has been through the same thing, and how she coped with it. The groups often comprise women from a number of our offices, so they also serve to help us better understand common themes and jurisdictional differences. I hear that they're now starting to cross-refer work to each other. So on a networking level they are getting to know colleagues and really understanding what they do and how they work. And they're becoming trusted referrers to each other of work. I think we need to take pride in the fact that we have a relatively high number of female partners at Olswang - 25% this year, up from 22% in 2013. But we are far from complacent. I don't think anyone believes that the women are less talented than the men - so if that's not the case, then we need to keep challenging ourselves to create a firm and a profession that make the most of female potential.

New generation, new attitudes

NK: I think you can feel the changes in attitude that are happening inside the firm as a result of the circles. They are empowering - we are definitely seeing a group of women who are more confident and more ready to step up to seize the opportunities that are there. The support network helps them develop themselves and become leaders. But Lean In goes much wider than that. There are new challenges to the structure of law firms that are coming not just from women, but from younger professionals generally. They have very different expectations about flexibility and work-life balance than the generations before them.

JD: That's right. They're ambitious, they understand the reality of working in a law firm, but they want more autonomy in how they deliver. Olswang has always been pretty good at flexibility, but the challenges we're all facing are changing, and we're going to have to see more trust and more understanding that just because you can't see somebody working, that doesn't mean that they're not working. And, increasingly, this applies equally to men and women.

NK: Those attitudes are really important when it comes to attracting graduates. I do a lot of trainee interviews, and it's remarkable how much the people I speak to focus on these issues: flexible working, the corporate social responsibility commitments that we make, or the support groups we have for women. And clients are interested, too - 'Lean In' is a bit of a buzzword at the moment, so everybody's intrigued.

JD: Clearly, there's a way to go yet. But you can feel the debate opening up everywhere - in the press, in companies, in government - and it's taking on a new momentum. I am delighted that Olswang is part of this movement and I am very excited to see the changes it's bringing.

Click here to view an electronic copy of our Annual Review 2015.