Strategy and management in Latin Lawyer June 2010
Tuesday, 15th June 2010 by Amy Stillman
Amy Stillman investigates what leading law firms in Latin America are doing to make partnerships more accessible to women
′It′s a demanding job,′ says Carey y Cía attorney Jessica Power over the phone, describing her responsibilities as a tax partner in a leading Chilean law firm. Power is not just talking about the long hours, tiring marketing conferences and being on call for clients. She is talking about being a partner and a mother in a country whose legal community has one of, if not the, lowest percentages of female partners in Latin America.
Shortly before the interview with LatinLawyer is scheduled to start, Power shoots off an e-mail asking if it can be pushed back by half an hour. She is celebrating Mother′s Day at the school of her five-year-old son.
′The best solution I can think of is having two very good partners – my tax partner, Alex Fisher, who can be there when I′m not, and my husband,′ she says, when asked how she manages the responsibilities of having a family and being a partner. ′You also have to focus on the things that are most relevant at work and at home – you can′t do everything.′
Power shrugs off the suggestion that she has superwoman-like strength, but the reality is that for most women lawyers in Latin America, building a high-flying career as a partner of a major law firm is incompatible with having a family. Law firms in countries like Argentina, Brazil and Colombia are slowly bringing more women into the partnership, but the trend in the region is still low for female partners.
In Latin America up to half of today′s law-school students and graduates are women and more than half of associates are women, but in the partnership that proportion declines. Women make up only 10 to 20 per cent of partners, according to Roxana Kahale, a managing partner at Kahale Abogados in Argentina and the co-chair of the IBA′s Women Lawyers Interest Group.
Research conducted by LatinLawyer in the latter part of 2009 shows that in the partnerships of the top 10 largest firms in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, the firms with the least number of women partners are in Chile and Mexico, at 3.3 and 4.5 per cent respectively. Brazil and Colombia have the highest percentage of female partners, at 25 and 23 per cent.
Those percentages do not differ widely from those in more sophisticated legal markets; women make up 14.5 per cent of partners among the top five ′magic circle′ firms in the UK, according to a study conducted by The Lawyer in January, while last year American Lawyer found that just 23 per cent of female lawyers in US firms were partners.
As more women are at associate level, representing 40 to 60 per cent of first-year associates, some firms in the region are facing up to the issue of why the ratio is not higher.
LatinLawyer spoke with leading firms across the region and found that a number of them have taken positive steps to break the proverbial glass ceiling. Policies differ widely from firm to firm, but some of the key concepts that have taken hold, and which are making a difference, include personal mentoring, encouraging women lawyers′ inclusion in management committees and what can only be described as bringing the partnership structure into the 21st century, with more flexible hours, remote work options and greater emphasis on internal management.
According to Power, Carey y Cía is one of the firms in Chile that is working to tackle this issue by providing extensive maternity leave and flexi-time or part-time hours for female lawyers that want to have children. Power took maternity leave for each of her two children, and she says that the firm allows six weeks′ leave before pregnancy and 12 weeks afterwards – though she only took three months off in total. The transition was made easier she says, because she was able to work from home.
′During my maternity leave I was connected to the computer the whole time,′ explains Power. ′Maternity leave is well respected at my firm, and women are also entitled to negotiate using their holiday time.′
Chile′s legal market as a whole is particularly short on female partners. Power became Carey y Cía′s first in 2008, with two more women promoted at the start of this year – bringing the firm ahead of its competitors.
Of Carey y Cía′s three women partners, two of them – including Power – have children. She says that the firm has improved its gender policy because of the addition of women to the partnership in recent years.
′We [women partners] told other partners at the firm how we felt guilty about leaving our children all the time to work, and now the partners understand this problem because we discuss it, but before there were women partners it never came up,′ says Power. ′The women issue has only become an issue since women were brought into the partnership.′
Peru′s Miranda & Amado Abogados may soon face similar changes – one female attorney was made partner this June, and two others are eligible for partner positions in the coming months.
′Some of the best talent in the legal profession are women,′ says Miranda & Amado partner Jose Daniel Amado. ′But the problem is that women in this part of the world have a tendency to devote a lot of time to their family life, more than a male attorney.′
Modern model
In a profession that demands a major time commitment, firms are often up against a wall when it comes to comprising on this issue. But Amado says that Miranda & Amado is getting around it by changing its partnership structure to meet the firm′s modern outlook and retain more women lawyers.
Since Miranda & Amado has developed in the last few years the firm has grown rapidly, forcing partners to take on many responsibilities and devote more hours to client work. Amado believes that this has been particularly difficult for female attorneys. But now, he says, ′the firm is maturing, and we know that as partners we need to change the way we do things′.
′We have developed a new role for partners; they are supposed to be leaders of the firm, so they are not only focusing on clients but on internal organisational issues. We′re trying to appoint female attorneys as coordinators or heads of specific initiatives and heads of practices, which allows female attorneys to have a different way to contribute to the normal work of a partner, on top of billing hours,′ he says.
Amado believes that this new initiative will help women in a way that remote work and flexible time – practices that are also utilised at the firm – cannot.
′Remote work and flexible time have been good in many ways. But at the same time you need to have people in the office, and partners have certain responsibilities, so it′s a very difficult balance,′ he says. ′And its not just the hours, it′s also the type of responsibilities assigned to each person. Our new structure is working not only for women but also partners that have a different focus in life and no longer want to spend every day on client work.′
Of course, not every firm in the region shares this view. Mexico is still one of the countries with the highest ratio of male to female partners, meaning some firms, like Creel, García-Cuéllar, Aiza y Enríquez, SC do not have any women partners.
′We have a very detailed career path, and it requires a huge effort by anybody going down that route and it means devoting practically all of their available time,′ explains Creel García-Cuéllar partner Samuel García-Cuéllar. ′We have ladies who are associates, but they are not willing to devote that much time to the firm.′
García-Cuéllar says that his firm allows flexi-time for its female associates, who constitute 30 per cent of the attorneys at the firm. However, his firm does not provide flexible hours for partners.
′I don′t see it as a problem that we have no women partners, it is a decision made by them,′ says García-Cuéllar. ′We don′t have a different path for ladies becoming partners because they′re not willing to devote 100 per cent of their efforts to the firm – we are not going to have a different type of partner.′
Part of the problem is the culture in Latin America, according to the lawyers who spoke with LatinLawyer. Women have traditionally stayed at home while men have gone out to work, and while this is changing, the problem now is that women are tasked with both family responsibilities and work obligations.
Taking the lead
If anyone knows about balancing the multiple responsibilities of being a partner and a mother, it′s Macleod Dixon SC partner Elisabeth Eljuri. Until last year she was managing partner of the Canadian firm′s Caracas branch, having transformed the office from its oil and gas origins into one of Venezuela′s most successful, aggressive, full-service law firms. She also has two children.
Eljuri says that the way to increase the number of women partners is to lead by example: ′You cannot say it′s a good firm for women if there are no women in power in the partnership positions – no one is going to believe you.′
Eljuri joined Macleod Dixon from Baker & McKenzie LLP when the firm opened up its Caracas office in 1997. She was the first partner brought into the firm, which has now incorporated 16 partners – four of which, including Eljuri, are women.
Eljuri says that having 25 per cent of the partnership comprised of women is ′probably the best percentage in Caracas′ and ranks highly in the region – an achievement she attributes to the firm incorporating women partners from the outset.
′The reality is that we try to hire the best talent, and if you look at law schools over the past 10 years, women have tended to be excellent students and they are very responsible. In terms of the recruiting process, it′s almost a slam-dunk.′ Currently Macleod Dixon has more women associates than men, with a ratio of 22:14.
′I think we have attracted more women to the firm because everyone is clear here that women can have great careers,′ she adds. ′They see that the partnership includes women with successful careers, and they see that many of the associates are women and they are happy in their jobs.′
Macleod Dixon has also taken steps to facilitate a more equal life-work balance, including a written policy that allows staff to take time off to attend their child′s extra-curricular activities or visit the paediatrician. The firm provides paternity leave as well, in addition to a flexible maternity leave structure.
′If lawyers want to come in earlier and leave earlier to spend time at home, we try to accommodate that. In my case I always want to go home and have dinner with my kids,′ says Eljuri. ′Then I work from home after they′re asleep.′
Business basics
However, Eljuri says that lawyers also have to ′be realistic′. ′We′re not going to look the other way when we have a female associate working 60 per cent of the time that her male counterpart does and treat her the same because she′s a woman. She will have an opportunity here, she will have a job, but her partnership track has to be delayed if she is not making the same level of commitment,′ she explains.
Kahale, who also came from Baker & McKenzie and started her own firm in Argentina, agrees: ′We are not running NGOs – it′s a business.′
But she argues that flexible hours should be part of the long-term strategy for retention of women partners. ′You need to retain your talent, and a rigid approach may mean that you do not retain people that are valuable, and that in the end will hurt your resources,′ she explains.
Also in Argentina Marval, O′Farrell & Mairal partner Cecilia Mairal points out that a further obstacle to women finishing the partnership track has been the toll taken by the financial crisis. ′Since the recession there has not been a lot of investment in Argentina, which in turn makes it harder to promote people, and it is taking longer for lawyers to become partners. Careers are getting longer and longer, so by the time we are promoting for partners we tend to have less women, as many have already left,′ she says.
′When the economy is huge it is easier to make female partners,′ adds Mairal, pointing out that this is why Brazil, the economic powerhouse of Latin America, has one of the best rates of women partners in the region.
Renata Correia Cubas, a partner at one of Brazil′s top firms, Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr e Quiroga Advogados, attests to this fact. ′We are starting to have more diversity policies in Brazil,′ says Cubas. ′And the leading firms have managing partners that support this. Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados, Pinheiro Neto Advogados, and Mattos Filho are all involved, and the partners have come to the meetings organised by women lawyers on this issue.′
Cubas is part of a group of women partners from leading firms that have launched a committee to promote women in the industry, spurred on by the 2006 New York City ′Best Practices′ report for the advancement of women attorneys. She says that bringing women partners, associates and general counsel together has helped women cope with the pressures of the job, as well as providing new avenues for networking opportunities.
Alternatives to the golf course
Mairal has also been active in organising women lawyers′ networking events in Argentina, which she says is crucial to providing more women lawyers with a leg up the ladder. ′We as women tend to spend too much time behind our desks; we have to get out there,′ she says enthusiastically.
Women lawyers are often at a disadvantage when it comes to networking because there is still an ′old boys′ club′ mentality in the profession and women are less likely to take their clients out for drinks or play golf on the weekends.
But Mairal suggests other ways of networking that do not involve late nights. ′You can do breakfast and lunch meetings, and provide clients with great tips so they remember you,′ she says. ′You don′t have to go for drinks after work; you just have to make yourself available.′
In Latin America there are several firms created and managed by women. Chile has two: FerradaNehme and Núñez, Muñoz y Cía Ltda, Argentina has Kahale Abogados and Heredia, Oneto Gaona, Lede Pizzurno Terrel; Mexico has Bufete Quijano. A few women-only law firms have also sprung up in the region. However, the attorneys LATINLAWYER spoke with rejected this approach.
′I am not a firm believer in having one or the other gender, I think you should have the most talented people for the job,′ explains Kahale. ′I wouldn′t want to create reverse discrimination.′
′We have to learn how to feel comfortable among men,′ adds Mairal, commenting on the need for women to integrate with their often male-only teams. ′You have to go for lunch with your team, and if they happen to be all men, so what, they have to know what you are working on. You are not going to go play football with them, but at least go and have lunch with them.′
According to Mairal, women lawyers need to make themselves more visible, and senior female attorneys have a duty to hammer this point home for junior associates: ′We have to coach more of our female associates, and get them to understand that what they′ve done for the last five or six years is not what they have to do in their seventh year,′ she says. ′It′s not only about putting in millions of hours of work – they have to sit up, look up, and raise their eyes.′
But as Power and Mairal point out, perhaps the most important step is for women partners to have good partners themselves. ′If you think that you are going to be able to do everything by yourself, and that your partner will never have to go grocery shopping or stay at home because your baby has a fever, then you′re in trouble,′ says Mairal.
′You have to have supportive partners at your law firm and a partner at home that supports your career – and in order to get that, you have to be clear about what you need from the start,′ she explains. ′If you don′t ask, you won′t get.′
(Latin Lawyer 15.06.2010)
(Notícia na Íntegra)