trendz - our client newsletter

march 2006

Hundreds of feet above Wellington Harbour, the reception area of a large firm boasts all of the muscular, streamlined ornamentation that symbolises authority and power in a big city law firm – modern art, contemporary furniture, white marble floors, high ceilings. Background music and stunning views provide a special ambience, setting the stage for the new professional lives of talented, ambitious lawyers.

The scene feels and looks like the setting for Grisham’s book ‘The Firm’, where like the devil in the ‘Dr Faustus’ Legend’, the firm demands and devours body and soul.

We can picture a forty-year-old woman specialist in Employment law has spent more than two decades in the firm navigating the professional achievements and the intellectual and social cross currents of life in the firm, on her way to the legal world's most lucrative prize: a partnership.

Her corner office has evidence of hard work: stacks of legal documents scattered on her desk and floor. She wants a partnership in order to be recognised. However, if she achieves such recognition, she will be an anomaly. The fact is that only 18% of law firm partners in New Zealand are women.  Read more on Insights into how another profession is addressing the issue of retaining women in the workplace.

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Disclaimer: These articles are necessarily brief and general in nature. You should seek professional advice before taking any action in relation to the matters dealt with in this publication. Please refer to our Legal Notices.

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