LawFuel.com – The image and working position of women in law has been something under the microscope in different jurisdictions for some time, however the NewLawyer in Australia reports that the perception about part time lady lawyers is incorrect.
The New Lawyer:
Women lawyers battle the perception that working part-time means working less hard than their full-time counterparts, an audience at the Women Legal 2013 conference heard last week (31 January).
In a panel discussion, Dianne Beer, special counsel at Herbert Geer, Kristen Lopes, a partner at Colin Biggers & Paisley, and Patricia Monemvasitis, a partner at Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers, shared their personal experiences and questioned societal and law firm attitudes to women who want to achieve career success and still have a family life.
Beer, formerly a practice group leader at KPMG Legal and Abbott Tout, described the hostility she experienced when returning to work as a partner after having her first child.
“I was told by one of my partners basically that he felt he was feeding my child,” she said.
“I was not given an office in spite of the fact that I was jointly liable on the lease. I had to engage in a whole lot of game play; sitting in one of the meeting rooms to maximise the inconvenience for other people for the situation to resolve.”
