Gender Diversity Survey

Diversity & Inclusion is an important issue for law firms. There have been some improvements, yet the statistics show that most talented women are still choosing to leave firms and make alternative career choices. Overall, still only about 20% of partners are women.

Are firms really committed to change or are they just ticking boxes? These and other relevant questions are addressed in this short survey.

As an incentive to fill it in (it only takes a couple of minutes), we will send you a copy of the results so you can benchmark your firm against other leading firms. No replies will be attributed so tell us how it really is.

Tony Reiss and Ann Collier, Sherwood PSF Consulting

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* 1. Title

Partner

Associate

Trainee

Business Support/PSL/Knowledge

In-House

Email address (if requiring a summary of the findings)

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* 2. Where are you based?

United Kingdom

United States of America

Rest of Europe

Rest of World

Rest of World (please specify)

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* 3. How frequently do you have opportunities to discuss your career aspirations with your line manager?

Whenever I want to

Monthly

Annually

Infrequently

Never

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* 4. Do you get sufficient developmental feedback on your performance?

Yes

Quite a lot, but could do with more

Hardly any

None

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* 5. Do you have access to a mentor if you want one?

Yes, I feel actively supported

Occasionally

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* 6. Do you have someone who acts as a sponsor for you, i.e. someone who knows what you want to achieve in your career and helps to create opportunities for you?

Yes

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* 7. Does your firm offer any female only training programmes or other personal development opportunities?

Yes

Don't know

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* 8. Does your firm offer maternity / paternity coaching support?

Yes

Don't know

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* 9. Does your firm have an “up or out” policy whether officially or unofficially?

Yes

Not sure

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* 10. Does your firm offer clearly understood alternative career paths?

Yes

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* 11. If yes, how is the alternative career path regarded?

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* 12. Does your firm’s approach to agile and flexible working enable you to work from home as and when you want / need to?

Yes

To some extent

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* 13. Is your firm’s approach to work allocation fair and transparent?

Yes

To some extent

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* 14. Are opportunities to participate in pitches for new work or new clients allocated in a way that is fair and transparent?

Yes

To some extent

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* 15. Is your firm taking enough positive steps to encourage more women through to partnership?

Yes

To some extent

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* 16. What do you think are the main reasons for the current gender balance at partnership and senior leadership levels in your firm?

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* 17. If your firm could make one change that would help encourage more women through to partnership what would that be?

Thanks for completing this survey. You'll get the full results if you provided your email address in Q1. Otherwise highlights will be provided at http://sherwoodpsfconsulting.com