International Women's Day 2016

International Women's Day 2016

Tuesday 8 March marked this year’s International Women’s Day, a day that celebrates economic, political and social achievements of women across the world.

Stevens & Bolton LLP is committed to providing equality opportunities and encouraging diversity in employment across the firm. We are committed to treating individuals fairly and giving them an equal chance.  In our view, it’s about constantly promoting an inclusive culture that encourages everyone to realise their full potential, and through that approach comes true teamwork and strength.

A key diversity challenge for many large law firms is the gender balance at senior levels of the firm.  At Stevens & Bolton, 32% of our partners are female, with Senior Associates and Associates seeing 73% and 68% female representation respectively. 80% of our business support teams are female.

As a comparison, the top 200 UK law firm average for female partners in 2015 was 23%, and many firms are now adopting gender diversity targets, particularly for partnerships.

Two women at the firm share their experiences below:

Stephanie Dale, Head of Employment, Immigration and Pensions
“I studied law at Newcastle University and then trained at Addleshaw Goddard where I qualified in 1985. After a stint in-house with a teachers’ trade union to gain industrial relations experience, I joined Dentons in 1987, becoming head of their employment, immigration and pensions department. I was at Dentons for over 16 and joined Stevens & Bolton LLP in 2004 and became head of our employment, immigration and pensions department.  I am therefore on the Management Board and am also a member of the Strategy Board. It is encouraging to see the number of women in the partnership and their involvement in all aspects of the partnership.  I can only see women’s representation in the partnership increasing.“

Katy Knewstubb, Dispute Resolution Paralegal
“I joined the firm as legal secretary in the dispute resolution department in early 2009. I found litigation to be extremely interesting and in 2010, with the support of the firm, I embarked on my legal studies with the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx). I studied whilst still working full time and after 4 years of studying, passed my final two exams whilst on maternity leave with my first son. At this point I achieved graduate status with CILEx specialising in dispute resolution. Having returned to work from maternity leave in May 2015, I am now working as a paralegal which is giving me the opportunity of working towards my chartered status as a Fellow of CILEx. I will be shortly heading on maternity leave for a second time, after which I look forward to returning to work to continue with my career progression.”

To see full details of our diversity statistics for 2014/15 please visit our website: www.stevens-bolton.com/about-us/diversity

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