Each March, International Women’s Day provides an opportunity to reflect on progress made towards gender equality while recognising the challenges that remain. In the legal profession, one continuing concern is the number of talented women leaving their careers, often due to difficulties in balancing career development with family responsibilities.
Recent reporting in the Law Society Gazette has highlighted this ongoing issue. Despite women making up a significant proportion of law graduates and trainees, the profession continues to struggle with long-term retention. Inflexible working practices, combined with the pressures of family life, can leave some feeling they must choose between their legal career and their role as a parent or carer.
At Johnson Astills, supporting women in their careers is not simply a policy — it is part of the firm’s identity. Johnson Astills’ founding director, Helen Johnson, was a single parent when she established Johnson Astills, and many members of the firm’s management team have raised, or are raising, families alongside their careers. This lived experience continues to shape the firm’s culture today. For those seeking a fulfilling legal career or progression within the firm, caring responsibilities are not a barrier. Whether supporting young children, elderly relatives or children with additional needs, Johnson Astills recognises that balancing family life with the demands of legal practice can be challenging. However, the firm is clear that these responsibilities should never prevent individuals from achieving their full potential and as a result, the firm actively promotes a working culture that supports parents and carers, recognising that family responsibilities are a normal and important part of life.
Flexible working arrangements are a key part of that support. Lawyers at Johnson Astills are able to work part time or adjust their hours where necessary to accommodate childcare responsibilities, school commitments and other family needs. The firm also recognises that parents may occasionally need flexibility for school or medical appointments, or unexpected childcare issues. Importantly this flexibility does not come at the cost of career progression. Johnson Astills actively supports the development of its lawyers regardless of their working pattern with many senior roles filled by lawyers with flexible working arrangements. The focus remains firmly on the quality of work and professional development rather than rigid expectations about traditional working hours. This approach helps ensure that talented lawyers are able to remain within the profession, continuing to develop their careers while also maintaining a healthy balance with their personal lives.
For me personally, this support has been incredibly important. I am currently a trainee solicitor at Johnson Astills and also a single parent. Like many people my route into the legal profession has not been a standard one. I had the opportunity to pursue a legal career earlier in life, but chose instead to focus on raising my family. Returning to that ambition later in life, while continuing to balance the responsibilities of being a parent, could easily have felt out of reach. What Johnson Astills has shown me is that a legal career does not have to follow a single traditional path. The firm has supported my progression into a training contract whilst recognising that I also have responsibilities outside of the office. That understanding, whether through flexibility around family commitments or simply a culture that recognises the realities of parenthood, has allowed me to pursue a career I have always wanted whilst continuing to support my family.
Stories like this matter because they demonstrate that when workplaces actively support parents, the profession benefits. Talented lawyers are able to remain within the profession, develop their careers, and bring valuable experience and perspective to their work.
For many women in law, the question is not whether they are capable of progressing their careers, it is whether the profession is structured in a way that allows them to do so whilst also having a family life. Firms that recognise this and adapt their culture accordingly play an important role in ensuring that talented lawyers remain within the profession
This month of International Women’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women across all professions, but it is also a reminder that progress depends on workplaces continuing to evolve. At Johnson Astills the firm’s history and culture demonstrate that supporting women and parents is not just possible but it strengthens the profession as a whole. By creating an environment where lawyers are supported in both their professional and personal lives, the firm continues to uphold the principle on which it was founded – that a legal career and family life should never be mutually exclusive.
