Work, Family and the Practice of Law - Essay Example

Work, Family and the Practice of Law By going global, UK law firms are becoming very powerful entities. The legal services provided by the British legal firms are considered to be some of the best in the world. This is because UK law firms can compete with any other service providers in the world. There should be more women lawyers and judges. In a period of two years only one woman had been appointed to the High Court, whereas twenty men had been appointed in the same period (Goswami, 2007). Lawyers have to face unnecessary criticism, and this has been going on from several centuries, and it cannot be stopped immediately. However, lawyers should not take such criticism to heart, and they should justify the fees collected from their clients. They must retain the trust of their clients and colleagues. Distrust does not help any practitioner in any profession. Lawyers play an important role in democracies and capitalist economies. They can bring about reforms in the attitude of the government and in the legislative process. They are responsible for protecting their clients against exploitation by the corporate world or the government (Hodge, 2007). Time is the chief decisive factor for life and work. Thus, managing time is essential for employees and employers. The everyday life of individuals depends on time management. Household responsibilities and other domestic tasks had been attended by one of the partners in the past. Times have changed and nowadays, both the partners are working, and there is no sharing of household tasks. The average time needed for doing household tasks has been estimated at thirty – five hours a week, which has to be shared between the partners in the home. The present situation is that an individual has to spend about thirty – five to thirty – seven hours during a five day week at the office. Another hour is devoted to commuting to and from work (Williams, 2007). The legal profession, unlike several other professions, entails quite a bit of difficulty. Moreover, it is difficult to gain an entry into this profession. Many students find it difficult to balance their work with their study, and it could prove to be very difficult for entrants who have to support families or dependants. Nevertheless, there are numerous successful lawyers and solicitors, who had overcome these barriers in the early stages of their professional career (Entry to the Legal Profession: Challenging assumptions & overcoming barriers, 2005)A joint research study conducted by the Law Society of Scotland and the Equal Opportunities Commission Scotland, in order to determine the situation of women in the legal profession; found that the number of women in the legal profession was lesser than that of men (MacMillan & McFadyen, 2005). The findings of this research revealed certain important gender based issues, in Scotland’s legal profession. These issues are difference in payments, gender bias in the work and the poor representation of women at almost all levels within the profession. The main gap exists in the area of remuneration, which is based on gender. Employers in the private practice sectors are chiefly men, and female members of the legal profession, usually work on a part – time basis (MacMillan & McFadyen, 2005). . Women who had joined this profession find it difficult to adjust to the unregulated working conditions, unscheduled working hours and stress. Therefore, many female lawyers leave the profession to find insignificant employment in the Chambers, although they are highly competent. However, some women have adjusted to the demands of the job and their family commitments, and remained in the profession. These women have become very popular lawyers and lead a high profile life in the United Kingdom. Women in this profession, who are extremely busy with their legal practice, fail to create social networks, because of their inability to access social relationships. These women tend to experience social exclusion (Darbyshire & Eddey, 2005. Pages 462 and 463). A female solicitor narrated the travails of her profession, and her exposition is representative of the situation obtaining in the law firms of the UK. She had to commence work at 6 in the morning. Officially, her working hours were between 9:30 in the morning till 5: 30 in the evening, but her employer had obtained a written declaration from her, according to which, she had to forego the rights provided by the EU Working Time Directive. What her job entailed was to record a minimum of 8 to 9 chargeable hours daily. She had to work over the weekend and also late at night. There was no specific time for partaking of meals, and most of them had to be consumed while working at her desk. She had never reached home before 11O’clock in the night. Finally, she developed anorexia and other stress related ailments, which compelled her to bid goodbye to her high profile career ('I felt hunted and alone' - lawyer , 2007). The majority of the women have dependants, in comparison to men. The number of women working in private practice and having dependants has been comparatively lower than those in other sectors. With regard to providing care, devoting sufficient time during the illness of a dependant and while shouldering responsibility for domestic issues, there is an indisputable gender imbalance; and women are the key players in these activities. In the area of employment, the average duty hours for employees were forty – three hours a week. Furthermore, there were gender based differences in this area (MacMillan & McFadyen, 2005). The proportion of men is higher, among employees working to standard and scheduled office hours, in comparison to women. Differences were also found in part – time work schedules, between men and women. Thus, women feel that the legal profession is biased towards men (MacMillan & McFadyen, 2005). In the United Kingdom, no woman had reached the position of a judge in the House of Lords, and no woman had been appointed to this court. The House of Lords has been a predominantly male court till now. Seven women have been appointed as High Court judges in the United Kingdom, and there is a senior woman judge in the Court of Appeal. In the category of senior judges, women’s representation is a mere six percent. However, there has been some improvement since the year 1989, when it was only one percent. Subsequently, five senior women judges were appointed. Nevertheless, the women judicial officers in all the principal judicial offices in the UK constitute eleven percent. However, lower down in the judicial hierarchy, women participation is considerably higher (Taylor & Francis, Page 88 to 90). Twenty – five percent of employees in the United Kingdom work for forty – eight hours a week. In the unorganised sector, employees have to work for more than nine hours a day and for six days a week. For emergency services such as transportation, hospitals and round the clock operations, such as the manufacturing and distribution sectors, employees have to work for more than ten hours a day. The conditions and environment at the workplace will influence the daily routine of an individual. Similarly, the personal habits and emotions of individuals will adversely affect their performance at the workplace (Williams, 2007). Many lawyers are calling it a day, and there could be personal reasons behind this trend. Firms are adopting several practices that directly affect the job satisfaction of solicitors. Therefore, the legal firms must take measures to retain skilled and talented solicitors (Lennox, 2007). The public participation of women started in the late 1960’s. They were appointed in several organizations. At present there is no demarcation like the public and private sectors. Women have to simultaneously work in the office and also at home. Therefore, women have double day duties. Researchers in Ireland had conducted a study in the area of gender difference and gender bias in the legal profession. The results of the study revealed that the number of women entering this field is gradually increasing but such new entrants are restricted to the lower rungs of the legal profession (Bacik & Drew, 2006). Furthermore, it is very difficult for women lawyers to maintain a balance between work and household commitments. This is due to the corporate culture of working for long and unscheduled hours and the absence of flexibility in work arrangements. They are also subject to discrimination in private sector offices and firms. In order to set these gender imbalances right, there is a need to restate work arrangements and other factors that influence work – life patterns (Bacik & Drew, 2006). The Government of the United Kingdom, despite knowing about the shortcomings in the legal profession, failed to rectify the inadequacies of the thresholds it had provided. The government’s efforts have been aimed at the future welfare of the employees in this profession, and ignored the disadvantages that currently affect the members of this profession. The new regulations imposed by the government on legal practice, are ineffective and inoperable. Lawyers still continue their mal – practices, and have their own protection against legislation. Individuals are deprived of access to justice and the human rights of the citizens are continuously breached (Does the failure to regulate the legal profession breach the European Convention of Human Rights?). The task of balancing professional and personal life has proved to be daunting for lawyers in the UK. This is all the more true, in the case of women members of this profession. The reason for this is that women have greater responsibility due to dependents, than their male colleagues. Moreover, there is male domination to a major extent and in addition, there is considerable harassment at the workplace. The wages earned by a female lawyer are less than a male lawyer earns. In combination these factors have compelled several women to leave the legal profession. The lack of fixed working hours proves to be a major disadvantage in this profession. Although men find it difficult to balance their personal and professional life, their domestic responsibilities are far less in comparison to women. Hence, it is women who will be at a greater disadvantage in the legal profession. List of References Bacik, I., & Drew, E. (2006, March-April). Struggling with juggling: Gender and work/life balance in the legal professions. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from Science Direct: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VBD-4K1X85C-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=682e10401d458636708801c3a1259650 Darbyshire, P., & Eddey, K. J. (2005. Pages 462 and 463). Darbyshire on the English Legal System. Sweet & Maxwell. ISBN 0421901500. Does the failure to regulate the legal profession breach the European Convention of Human Rights? (n.d.). Retrieved April 13, 2008, from http://www.echr-action.co.uk/ Entry to the Legal Profession: Challenging assumptions & overcoming barriers. (2005). Retrieved April 13, 2008, from LCAN News letter: http://www.lcan.org.uk/downloads/newsletter%20april%2005.pdf Goswami, N. (2007, November 12). The Globalisation of UK Firms. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from The Lawyer.com : http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=129901 Hodge. (2007, January). Believe in the future. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from http://www.journalonline.co.uk/article/1003760.aspx 'I felt hunted and alone' - lawyer . (2007, June 26). Retrieved April 14, 2008, from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6241076.stm Lennox, S. (2007, October). Leaving the profession. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from Thejournal online: http://www.journalonline.co.uk/article/1004600.aspx MacMillan, M., & McFadyen, A. (2005, November). Women in Legal Profession in Scotland. Retrieved April 12, 2008, from A study by the Law Society of Scotland and the Equal Opportunities Commission Scotland: http://www.lawscot.org.uk/uploads/Equality_Diversity/Women%20in%20the%20Legal%20Profession_summary.pdf Taylor, & Francis. (Page 88 to 90). Feminist perspectives on public law. Cavendish Publishing. ISBN 1843142228. Williams, D. (2007, October 1). Managing the life~work boundary. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from The Eos Life~Work resource centre: Briefing #2: http://www.eoslifework.co.uk/boundaries.htm Read More