Nobody asked me why I was leaving
“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
Nobody asked me why I was leaving.
Colleagues asked, plenty of them, out of real curiosity. But across six different law firms, over more than twenty years, after I’d announced I was leaving each firm, nobody ever sat me down properly - not once.
We already know women leave this profession in numbers that should worry every firm. Around a third of female solicitors leave between five and ten years after qualifying, and don't come back (Law Society, 2022). Women make up the majority of solicitors and a fraction of equity partners. None of that is news to anyone reading this.
Nobody has ever measured why, in any organised way, or asked senior female lawyers directly what the real barriers are, what their firm is already doing well, how valued they feel next to their male colleagues, or what would keep them from leaving. My own experience fits the pattern exactly: six firms, two decades, I was never once asked.
I'd like to close that gap, and I'd love your help doing it.
I've put together a short survey, with questions I feel senior female lawyers are never asked but should be. These include:
What do you think are the biggest barriers to women reaching partner level?
What is your firm already doing well, that doesn't get said enough?
How valued do you feel, compared with your male colleagues?
What would keep you from leaving, or bring you back if you'd already decided to go?
I ask that last one because my own honest answer complicates the tidy version of the stats. I've thought about leaving the law many times; after a particularly scathing time in front of a judge, after making a mistake, or realising that I was hugely underpaid compared with my male colleagues. And every time, I hit the same wall: leaving without something else lined up, financially, was never an option for me. I'd guess not for a lot of you either.
This questionnaire is very short and will take around two minutes to fill in. It’s also completely anonymous, with no firm name attached. You can access the survey here:
As a thank you, everyone who fills it in gets the Partner-Level Confidence Toolkit: the exact wording to use when a client pushes back on your fee, how to build a client base without another networking event you don't have time for, and how to know, in hard numbers, whether you're actually ready to make the case for partnership. I’d be enormously grateful for your help and hope the toolkit is a good swap for your valuable time.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
Rachel
P.S. It takes less than 2 minutes - and everyone who completes it receives a free copy of the Partner-Level Confidence Toolkit. Have your say here.