Work life balance remains the main obstacle to partnership

Although 7 in 10 lawyers aspire to partnership or a leadership role within their firm 43% of those turned off by the prospect cite work life balance as the main reason they are turning their back on the prospect.  

31% stated that they did not want the stress associated with the role, nearly 1 in 5 believed the glass ceiling had created a fait accompli and 9 % were not interested in partnership due to lack of opportunity for flexible working.

65% of female lawyers aspire to partnership compared to 78% of male. Work life balance was the main obstacle to progression for 43% of females working in the legal profession compared to 45% of male.

A third of female lawyers cited stress as their biggest partnership turn off with a quarter of men working in the profession citing the same.

Even in 2017 the glass ceiling is still an issue for 1 in 5 male lawyers and 16% of female. 8% of men working in the sector did not want to progress to a leadership role because of the lack of flexi-time with just 2% of women believing it was their biggest obstacle.

Work life balance was the biggest concern for 50% of legal professionals employed in high street firms and 38% of lawyers employed in the top 100 UK firms. 50% of In-House lawyers cited the same reason. 

Legal professionals working in UK200 enviromments booked the trend with glass ceiling cited as the biggest turn off with 33% ruling out progression to leadership role for that reason. 

3,000 legal professionals working across the sector responded to Douglas Scott Legal Recruitment's 2017 survey.