City firms combine forces to enable women to reignite their legal careers

Six major law firms - CMS, Macfarlanes, Orrick, Reed Smith, Sidley and White & Case - become founding members of the Reignite Academy

In what is a unique collaboration, CMS, Macfarlanes, Orrick, Reed Smith, Sidley Austin and White & Case today announced they are to be founding members of the Reignite Academy, a pioneering venture which will provide opportunities for experienced lawyers, who have stepped away from successful careers, to return to the field.  

Two thirds of law students are women and figures from the Law Society in England and Wales indicate that 60% of newly qualified lawyers are female.  And yet a 2017 report by PwC found that women make up fewer than 20% of partners in the top 24 UK firms.

“Each year, too many talented lawyers are lost from the profession.  It is our hope that through the Reignite Academy we can help provide meaningful paid work experience, training and a confidence boost to those wishing to return” Tamara Box, managing partner Europe and Middle East at Reed Smith, explained.

Rowena van de Grampel was one of the many highly qualified women who appeared lost to the profession.  An Oxford graduate, Rowena practiced with Linklaters and Shearman & Sterling for ten years but stepped back from her career to look after young children.  She had been away from the City for over three years when she was persuaded to return by executive search consultant Melinda Wallman, who knew that her client was looking for someone with just Rowena’s skill set and was prepared to offer a flexible working arrangement. Rowena is now with the Herbert Smith Freehills’ Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Finance group, has just been promoted to Of Counsel and is pursuing partnership.

The aim of the Reignite Academy is to provide a structured platform to enable more people like Rowena to pick up their careers where they left off.  

“One way of achieving a meaningful increase in female partners is to increase the pool of female talent which will be eligible for partnership in due course” added Melissa Butler, Executive Partner of White & Case’s London office.  

The Academy will be open to both women and men and will use a tailored assessment process which looks for potential, acknowledges the full breadth of a candidate’s experience and accepts that breaks should not be career limiting.  Successful candidates will be offered:

• A six month paid placement in one of the six participating firms, working in one or more practice areas
• A rigorous training, onboarding and induction process, including support to regain practising certificates, if necessary
• One-to-one coaching from specialist coaches

The Academy will begin to accept applications in September, with the aim that people will begin work in January.  The hope is that at the end of the six months, candidates will move to a permanent contract. The inspiration came from a combination of three female-led organisations:  XX Advantage, where founder Melinda Wallman has established a well respected network for female lawyers; Inclusivity Partners, set up by Stephanie Dillon, who has run returner programmes in other sectors; and She’s Back, which supports women who are ready to reclaim their careers.

“We know there are so many women who step back from successful careers, often for family- related reasons” explains Lisa Unwin, She’s Back founder.  “And we are all too well aware of the barriers that they face when they want to return. With Melinda’s knowledge and relationships in the legal sector, Stephanie’s expertise around returnships and our own experience of working with organisations and with women, we were convinced that if we could bring some committed firms on board, we could really make a difference.”

Orrick Corporate Partner Nell Scott, who heads the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion initiative in London, said the firm was keen to be involved as this is a practical solution to a real and pressing problem.  

“The rate at which talented women drop out of law is one of the biggest challenges we face as a profession.  We know from women’s feedback that the difficulty of balancing work and family life is one of the biggest reasons. The Reignite Academy is taking a practical and incredibly thoughtful approach to address this problem directly – by giving women the full support they need to return to work successfully and giving law firms a path to recruit from and integrate this incredible senior talent pool.”

The Academy will be open to anyone who trained with a City firm who has had a total career break, but unlike many similar programmes offered by the banks and large accountancy firms, the doors will also be open to people who have not had complete breaks but who left their City careers to take a different path for a while.

For further information for either candidates or employers, please contact:

hello@reigniteacademy.co.uk.

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About the Reignite Academy founders

The XX Advantage is a specialist diversity consultancy for the legal sector, founded by Melinda Wallman, a former corporate lawyer and one of the leading legal search consultants in the London market, known for placing senior women.

She’s Back helps women create long term, sustainable careers.  Founded by Lisa Unwin, former consulting partner at Arthur Andersen and Director of Brand and Communications at Deloitte, Lisa is the co-author of  She’s Back: Your Guide to Returning to Work.

Inclusivity Partners provides clients with high quality, flexible returner programmes.  Founder Stephanie Dillon is a former Director with international recruitment agencies Hudson and Michael Page.