In-house legal teams lead the profession in ensuring a fairer deal for women and ethnic minorities.
According to research by legal recruiter Laurence Simons among 1,900 in-house lawyers, bonuses for women have been higher than those for men among in-house lawyers as a proportion of their salary in the last year.
While men command an average bonus of 10% of their salary, women can expect nearly half as much again.
However, men have greater access to senior positions and earn on average 39% more than women in the UK, compared with 30% higher in the US and 19% higher in the Eurozone.
Women account for 39% of general counsel in the UK compared to a global figure of 35%.
Naveen Tuli, managing director at Laurence Simons, says: “The greater emphasis that the legal community has had to put on diversity, thanks to initiatives such as the Diversity League Table, has seen the industry as a whole begin to address the fundamental gender imbalances we were seeing ten or 15 years ago.
“However, there is still much more work to do, especially in the UK.”
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