Bonnie Warkentin Click here to see full sized version.

Sisters aren’t doing it for themselves, according to a recent study which showed that fewer female lawyers are choosing to hang up their own shingle and become sole practitioners.

An exhaustive ten-year study conducted by the American Bar Foundation, the National Association for Legal Career Professionals and several other smaller organizations found that among lawyers in the U.S. in the survey group who went solo, only 34 per cent were women.

The situation is similar in Canada, with the added problem that women are leaving private practice altogether, according to the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC). This has become such a dire concern that LSUC recently struck a committee to explore ways to keep women in the law.

Bonnie Warkentin is co-chair of LSUC’s Retention of Women in Private Practice Working Group, which expects to report its findings and recommendations to Convocation early in 2008. She says that while women represent 32 per cent of the profession in Ontario, only 24 per cent of those women are in private practice.

Veronica Jackson, chair of the Canadian Bar Association Women’s Forum says that sole practice often seems to be particularly unappealing to women.  “It is the perception of uncertainty which permeates into private practice in general…a lot of women are cautious, and want to make sure they can make ends meet.”  The relative lack of women in sole practice creates a vicious circle as well. She says: “There aren’t a lot of women who can act as role models to mentor the young ones.”

Sole practice should be a more attractive alternative for women, Jackson thinks.  “If more women would try it, they would realize they could do it. There are a huge number of benefits: you can set your own schedule; you are in charge and the ultimate decision maker — it is a great feeling and women do excel when they are in that situation.”

Even though working in a large firm has traditionally meant long hours and difficulty maintaining work/life balance, Jackson says many women opt to continue in this environment, because of the benefits, including maternity leave.  She says also that once women are in the big firm environment, it may be hard to imagine doing anything else.  “It’s hard to walk away from what you know.”

Warkentin says that the working group’s research overwhelmingly shows two main areas of hardship for women: maintaining income during any sort of leave, especially maternity leave; and keeping the practice going upon returning from a leave. Another area of concern, which was surprising, she says, is that women are having difficulty developing networking opportunities and client relationships. “When you add into the mix that they have to run home and look after the kids, it’s much harder to spend five hours golfing with clients.”

Work/life balance continues to be a major problem for women.  According to a Catalyst Canada report published in 2006, even when law firms offer flexible work arrangements, many women feel it is detrimental to their careers to take advantage of them.  A majority of the lawyers surveyed didn’t believe that someone who went on a flexible work arrangement would ever become a partner.  They felt that by working flex-time, for example, they would be seen to be contributing less and being less committed to their firm. Another problem, according to the study, is that while many male lawyers have spouses staying at home to ease the burden of family responsibilities, only one in 13 female lawyers has a spouse who doesn’t work outside the home.  This leads to a skewed perception: men lawyers think that the firm leadership effectively models work-life balance, but women lawyers don’t agree.

Those women who eschew the big firm environment and do strike out on their own face the challenges common to all small firms and sole practitioners — isolation, having to do more administrative tasks on their own, and trying to maintain an income. But for some, like Sharon Moote, of Oshawa, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages. Moote worked as an associate at three large firms in Toronto, then worked as an employee in a small firm, and finally opened her own firm in 2000. “I’ve never looked back,” she says.  “The satisfaction of having my own business, watching it grow, and monitoring where my clients come from has been a great benefit.  As well, by practicing on my own, I’ve been able to go to my children’s cross-country meets and doctors’ appointments.”

Kattie Ross, a lawyer in Cobourg, Ontario, is the only female partner in a small firm and just recently had her first child.  She encourages other lawyers to try small town, small firm practice. She says “There’s plenty of work, as older lawyers retire, so income is not an issue.”   But, she finds there is a constant pull between the demands of personal life and the obligations to her clients. “When you’re self-employed, you have nothing to fall back on.  If you don’t work, you don’t make money. I told my doctor I needed to have my baby on or before the due date because I had to be in court.  I had my baby on Saturday, and was in court the following Thursday.”