Last week (6 December), Emma Woolley was appointed the chair of Hall & Wilcox — the first-ever female chair in the firm’s 105-year history.

In conversation with Lawyers Weekly following her appointment, Ms Woolley said she’s been surprised — and humbled — at the number of personal messages of congratulations she’s received; and said it “means a lot” to the firm’s younger lawyers to be able to see the firm promoting women.

“In addition to doing the things that I do from an actual practice perspective, I mentor quite a number of lawyers, male and female. And it’s been really great to hear from them how pleased they are to see that we have a female chair,” she said.

“And obviously, inclusion is not just an agenda. And we do work really hard to be inclusive, outside of just gender balance. But I’ve had a lot of positive messages from female lawyers.”

Ms Woolley is particularly passionate about the advancement of women within the profession — and said that “you can’t take your eye off the ball for a second” when it comes to the promotion of junior female solicitors.

“We cannot take our eyes off this issue. I really did think when I became a lawyer in the early days, when we talked a lot about gender issues and talked a lot about opportunities for women within the law. I didn’t really expect it to remain as a significant issue,” she quipped.

“I’ve been in practice for nearly 30 years; I really didn’t think that it would still be such an issue. So, it’s come a long way. I didn’t think all those years ago that it would have been possible for women to lead a firm the way that I do today. But there is a long way to go.”

Over her three-decade-long legal career, Ms Woolley has seen a number of positive changes, including a lot more women advancing to leadership positions within the profession.

VIEW ALL

“There’s certainly a lot more respect for women in leadership positions. I think there’s a lot more focus on ensuring that work is inclusive on the basis of people returning to work after having families — and that’s male and female, with one of my colleagues in my team just about to go on parental leave for a few months to help as his wife transitions back to work, and that’s truly a great thing to see that there’s a sharing of the responsibilities of family. That’s massively different,” she said.

“I think the expectation when I was a very young lawyer was that when you had children, that you took the time out from work and maybe you didn’t come back. Now, firms are doing everything they can to retain people, including making it flexible and manageable for families, as far as they can. As a parent, I think it still remains difficult, but it certainly has come a long way.”

Normalising parental leave and flexibility and ingraining these sorts of attitudes is “critical” for firms to attract and retain staff, according to Ms Woolley.

“You’ve got to lead from the front. If we take up the policies, our own policies … We definitely do see that as being incredibly important. I think culture is something that’s critically important to us as a business, and we pride ourselves on our culture; we are very protective of it. As partners and leaders, we see ourselves as custodians of that culture. And in order to ensure that it is maintained and it’s continuously improved over time for the next generations, we’ve got to live it and follow the principles that we’ve set down for each other,” she added.

“We’ve got a really collaborative partnership that’s demonstrated and apparent to people within our business across the board. So, I think it’s really important. And the object is to make it better than it was, so we hand the baton over to the next generation with a much-improved culture.”

And whilst the legal profession is currently extremely candidate-driven, Ms Woolley emphasised that dedication to firm culture has “absolutely” made an impact in terms of retention.

“A lot of young lawyers talk to each other across businesses. And they’ve got a sense from those conversations, what it’s like, and I think they understand that the grass might be greener, because the money might be better — and there’s a war for talent, a financial war. But it’s been really clear to us [that] the way that we supported each other and we supported our people during the last few years has meant that we have retained more people than perhaps we might have done if we didn’t have that strong culture and collaborative culture,” she explained.

“As far as attracting people, again, people talk. And I think that when people join us, we talk to them about culture and the importance of it and why we think it’s so special. But it’s only really once they’re there that they understand it and they can really see and what we were saying is, in fact, true to experience.”

Particularly from the perspective of those who want an inclusive, balanced workplace, culture has to be of high priority — something which Ms Woolley said goes back to her new appointment.

“Why that has resonated with people is that they see opportunity and diversity and inclusion and a commitment to communities that we have — for example, our commitment to our pro bono and community programs is really important,” she said.

“And enhancing the experience that [younger lawyers] have beyond just providing them with opportunity and money. I think it is important.”

In addition to being involved in the firm’s pro bono practice, there are a number of other issues and challenges Ms Woolley plans to focus on in 2023.

“We are expecting that things might be more challenging in the first half of next year, from a business perspective. There’s obviously a lot of challenge generally, from interest rates, inflation and energy prices. But the reality is that we need to make sure that we focus very closely on what our clients are telling us they need, what our people are telling us they need, and ensure that we respond to that quickly,” she concluded.

“We’ll also be coming together as a partnership in February, which is a great thing to be able to do in person, and look at where we are and where we’re going. And I’m looking forward to being part of that discussion.”

Lauren Croft

Lauren is a journalist at Lawyers Weekly and graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism from Macleay College. Prior to joining Lawyers Weekly, she worked as a trade journalist for media and travel industry publications and Travel Weekly. Originally born in England, Lauren enjoys trying new bars and restaurants, attending music festivals and travelling. She is also a keen snowboarder and pre-pandemic, spent a season living in a French ski resort.