WOMEN CAN BE PARTNERS IF THEY DON'T HAVE KIDS

Vlad called a meeting. An urgent meeting. This always spelled trouble The calendar appointment was sent last night for a meeting at 8am. With three school aged children, getting into the city was a bit like climbing mount Everett with a broken leg but I did it. I wished I'd had time to find the citation as an employer of choice for women so I could flush it down the toilet, but that would have to wait.

The subject of the meeting was partner promotion candidates and he invited me and all of the group head partners to the meeting. No one had any information about what this meeting was about. There were no papers attached to the meeting maker. Vlad rarely committed anything to writing. That way if things turned to shit he could always find a way to blame someone else and deny everything.

However, when we got to the meeting, we were each given a list of all lawyers in the senior lawyer category. This was a very long list as there was a bit of a bottle neck. This is very common in large law firms with everyone wanting a piece of the action. You could see that in the eyes of everyone around that table they were wondering how long this meeting was going to take and what use it was. After all appointing new partners had great potential to reduce the amount of coin in their own pockets. The pie is only so big.

Vlad was clearly on a mission. He had no doubt been instructed from those on high that we had , once again, to develop very clear career plans for those people we thought had partner potential; even though we had done this before. And for those without partnership potential - well, it was probably lampshades time. Which would be my job to execute.

Anyway, as usual, no one said anything, unless specifically asked a question.

Vlad started going through the list. The first three names on the list were men, very senior, and there were lots of questions and flattering responses about their interactions with clients, the size of their practices, potential for them to grow those practices, their ability to delegate and supervise staff etc. etc. etc. All good and useful conversations, leaving aside the fact that most of them had great potential to be arseholes if they made it to partnership.

The fourth person on that list was a woman. Let's call her Brigid. Brigid is a brilliant lawyer, excellent billables, great with clients and staff, pleasant to deal with etc etc etc. Before giving her supervising partner any chance to make a comment, Vlad said:

'Brigid would be a good candidate for partner. She has just turned 40, so is probably unlikely to have children'.

He then proceeded to the next name on the list. For a moment, I sat there stunned. I was the only woman in the room. In the middle of his first sentence in discussing the next male potential candidate, I excused myself and said 'may I ask a question?'

You could hear a pin drop. No one interrupted Vlad when he was speaking. He turned his pale dead eyes towards me and said imperiously 'yes'.

'How many children do you have Vlad?'

'I have four – why?'

'Well, it seems that having four children has not been an impediment to you not only becoming a partner, but becoming a managing partner.'

I then went around and asked each of the male partners in attendance how many children they had. Only two of the ten people did not have any children. Of course those that did all had stepford wives at home caring for the little blighters. They all shuffled in their seats looking down at their feet, no one willing to make eye contact with either Vlad or me, clearly embarrassed.

I was seething with rage inside, but I think I was doing a fairly good job of not showing it. I calmly folded up my compendium and with as much dignity as I could muster, excused myself, and announced I had another meeting to attend and that I would arrange individual meetings with the group heads to discuss their candidates on their merits, thereby guaranteeing the wrath of Vlad.

But in my head I was shouting 'adios mother fuckers you're on your own'

AMFYOYO.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad