Women as a Game Changer in the Legal Industry: Relevance of Diversity and Inclusion

A bigger variety, in particular gender diversity, improves the working environment, delivers a higher and qualitative better output, and leads to a higher satisfaction of employees, employers, and customers. One may expect that an employer would automatically strive for more diversity to achieve these positive results. However, the legal market like most other industries, still lacks sufficient representation of women at top management levels, be it as partners in law firms or as general counsel in legal departments. The legal industry often claims this is due to lack of qualitative good and available talent. However, it is not (anymore) a pipeline issue but a structural problem which prevents diversity on all levels. Going forward, the legal industry can no longer afford to deliberately waste these precious resources. To the contrary, opening the working environment at all levels to a diverse team may position an employer at least as an early adopter of diversity in the legal industry. This will open the race to become the most attractive employer and win the best talent in the market. In the long run, an employer can secure the required human resources in a sustainable way.