Diversity in the legal profession remained one of the key issues in 2011, with consistent reports that more needs to be done to improve it. At the forefront of diversity discussions in the legal profession this year was gender, as the number of females in senior positions was exposed as disproportionately low.

The Law Society of NSW’s advancement of women report, released this month, spotlighted the fact that, despite high numbers of female lawyers in the profession (46 per cent), just over 23 per cent are principals. Leaders in business and law agreed that there is much work to be done in this area.

In February, a Mallesons Stephen Jaques survey of 125 board directors from 300 organisations found that more than half believe there is a lack of diversity on Australian boards.

But despite acknowledging the lack of diversity – with less than 10 per cent of females on the board of ASX 200 companies in 2010 – 62 per cent of survey respondents indicated they would not support additional measures, such as quotas, to improve board diversity.

“[Diversity quotas] really do affect ASX-listed companies more than they affect organisations like [law firms] … I don’t think you need quotas to be committed,” said Lisa Annese, Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s diversity manager.

Norton Rose chairman Sally Macindoe has helped double the number of women working flexibly and significantly increased the number of women returning from parental leave since she began diversity work at the firm in 2005. The firm has also more than doubled the number of women at partnership level.

But Macindoe, who was named Diversity Leader for the Advancement of Women by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) in November, said those achievements took hard work. “It’s a big job trying to effect a change in thinking in professional service firms and making sure everyone understands that diversity is a business issue rather than a social issue,” says Macindoe, who has two children herself.

Efforts to employ and engage more Indigenous Australians in law fi rms has also expanded in 2011. The Legal Profession Reconciliation Network launched two months ago and has since had two meetings to address, discuss and share experiences on topics around reconciliation, specifi cally from a legal profession point of view. Membership currently includes Clayton Utz, Freehills, Blake Dawson, ABL, Gilbert + Tobin, Baker & McKenzie,the Law Council of Australia, and the New South Wales and Victorian law societies. Each member firm has its own Reconciliation Action Plan, many of which include commitments and targets to increase the employment of Indigenous peoples, especially young Indigenous Australians.