The next Female Counsel event will take place on 26th May at 9am. At our last session a really important question was asked: ‘How do we female lawyers set boundaries to enable us to be happy, successful and fulfilled both at work and outside the office?’ This is such a huge topic and one that demands proper discussion time. How do we assert ourselves to gain some sort of work/life balance? Is it even possible?

As part of my new business, I want to provide women with a forum in which to discuss issues that really matter in the modern legal world. And so I am pleased to launch ‘Female Counsel’. Every quarter I will be joined by an inspiring woman and I am delighted to announce that Vivien Davies, senior litigation partner at Fieldfisher will be my first guest speaker. Vivien is passionate about nurturing and #elevatingfemaletalent and she is going to discuss how the workplace needs to be redesigned to ensure it is fit for purpose.

Recently, I had the pleasure of presenting to an incredible audience – Mute off Thursdays - a group of female arbitration lawyers, across the globe, who meet virtually every week for a topical discussion.

Most of us would recognise performance and image as being key elements to success – and they are essential of course. But here we come to the nub of the issue around career progression, because the unsettling aspect of Coleman’s research lies in the relative importance of these three factors.

Life is busy and all too often planning for our careers takes a back seat. Quite frankly, we don’t have time to think about the long term. In reality, for a lot of us, we only think about our careers if something negative happens. Maybe, we don’t get the promotion to partnership we know we really deserve; a lateral comes on board who isn’t quite right. Or we react to an approach from another law firm. Without a plan we end up with a knee jerk reaction…

In my years of recruitment, I have seen many ranging from the biblical to the more manageable. It’s a way for the candidate to really sell themselves but why do we find them so difficult to complete? Why do female partners in particular really struggle with them?

Law firms spend an incredible amount of time and money on hiring partners. The aim is to onboard a partner who will be a success, integrate into the team and wider firm, generate clients and have a long and happy career. Here are my thoughts on how to achieve just that.

I have worked in recruitment for almost 15 years with a well-known and very well-respected London agency. But recently I realised my focus has shifted to working with female lawyers and with law firms who were keen to address the diversity issue within their team.

I’m so proud to be able to say that Norah Durrant Recruitment has been set up by a team of fantastic women and I would like to thank them all.

Is it just money? Does that really push people to move firms? Working with female lawyers over the years has shown me money is definitely not the motivating factor when making a move. Yes, of course it’s important but it is not the driving factor. So what is?