A strong case for women lawyers in the Corporate world

Good news for aspiring women lawyers. Seems like Corporate India is wavering more in favour of hiring women to handle their legalities. A Study conducted by search consultants reveals that there is a 15-30% increase in the recruitment of women in the in-house legal teams of big corporate houses. This does not just help in giving women that much-deserved attention in this arena, but also helps companies to bring in diversity at various levels in the organisations.

Some of the companies who are coming forward to hire more women lawyers are Crompton Greaves, Citi, Mondelez, Carlson Rezidor, Piramal and GE. The stricter regulations that call for diversity in a more serious and professional manner at all levels in the organisations have led to lthis increasing number of women. All the registered companies under The Companies Act are required to now have at least one woman director.

Micheal Page India is one of the search consultants who state that about two-third of all the placements they have made at middle or senior levels include women. “In 2015, for the first time, we had companies coming in with specific demands for suitable female legal candidates,” said Nicolas Dumoulin, regional director, Michael Page India. The hiring sky-rocketed from 20% in 2014 to 50% in 2015 because of the many studies revolving around women in the economic sector getting due media attention.

"Female lawyers, in general, have better empathy and social skills than their male counterparts," said Franck Courmont, Asia-Pacific general counsel, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. "Therefore, they handle relationships with colleagues better and have a more subtle approach during negotiations, where big egos of clients can easily be bruised."

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Another reason favouring women now is that companies understand that they are least prone to “job-hopping” which means they look for a long-term relationship with the company.

An inspiration for young female lawyers: Zia Mody ( Picture Credit: rediff.com)

“Today, not only are there large numbers of women in prestigious Indian law schools, women are actually outnumbering men. We already have a lot of eminent female lawyers in the corporate field like Dina Wadia, Sivpriya Nanda and Zia Mody, setting precedent for us young lawyers,” pointed out Ipshita Mukherjee, a corporate lawyer working in the Projects Team of J. Sagar Associates.

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She added, “Over the next few years, I believe we are going to see a lot of women not only emerge as excellent corporate lawyers, but also taking on leadership roles in corporate law firms. This is the time for us women lawyers to chase our dreams and ambitions, because in the sphere of corporate law, gender is fast becoming irrelevant, and the mantra to succeed is ingenuity, innovation and persistence.”

It is a great move forward in bringing more women to participate in the economy of the country and in different fields. Law is something that for most part used to be considered highly male-dominated is subtly becoming more gender-neutral.

Feature Image  Credit: Jezebel.com