25/11/2008 - Jo Malone - Networking and Christmas Shopping Evening
04/12/2008 - Edward Scissorhands
27/01/2009 - Dennis Sever's House
Work life balance has in the past often been brushed aside as merely a women’s issue, particularly in the legal profession. The Lawyer article penned by Richard following intense media and academic interest in his research paper ‘Male lawyers and the negotiation of work and family commitments’ was titled (by the Lawyer), ‘Work-life balance: ladies only?’ Professor Richard Collier’s groundbreaking research into the work life balance of male lawyers is one more signal of the entrance of this issue into the mainstream.
The Winter 2006 issue of Link magazine contains an article by Joanne Mortimer entitled ‘Sand in the Blackberry’, profiling the recent work of Professor Collier, one of the UK’s leading academic experts on gender and law – and talented singer whose band recorded its first album in 2006. Click here to go to the Link magazine section of the website. Click here to join the AWS to start receiving Link magazine free of charge.
Richard Collier carried out a small-scale qualitative study by conducting in-depth interviews with male lawyers from trainee to equity partner on their experiences of working in large commercial firms. The research report, funded by the British Academy and which runs to 160 pages, provides some fascinating insights. Some views expressed by the male lawyers interviewed for this research project are set out here:
“At recruitment stage … there has been quite a shift in what graduates are looking for. Even the most able graduates are talking much more about, yes, wanting a career, but not at any cost … not being prepared to ... work at any cost to achieve partnership.” (HR director)
“I think [work life balance] is extremely important in the profession. Amongst my peer group it’s more of a concern than before … it is a big issue for my generation.” (trainee)
“We are in the 21st Century and we can’t, I think, just talk about it and tick the boxes: we have to actually address it … Work life is the big issue and the single question [trainees] ask about more than anything else … is the working hours …” (partner)
“Definitely … attitudes to work and the expectations of firms, particularly amongst junior staff … have changed dramatically.” (fee earner)
“I think people are more prepared to say what they want … they are moving around and they are being encouraged to move around … and there is a shift in people’s attitudes.” (fee earner)
“I have been through it all and I know, it’s bad for your health, it’s bad for your relationships. You know you don’t want to live that life. It’s alright if you are young I suppose, if you haven’t got commitments.” (partner)
“Oh I know lots of people who are utterly miserable … Partly because if they work for a City firm, their salary is pretty good, so … it means making a pretty major decision [to leave]”. (fee earner)
“Stress causes a whole range of health issues, you know, whether it is just the fact that you are pre-occupied and you can’t switch off … or whether it is physical manifestations such as insomnia or whatever else … there are big problems.” (fee earner)
“In the City, if a 6, 7, 8 year qualified solicitor announced he was taking time out to spend time with his young family … I think the unspoken question, or perhaps the spoken question, would be sort of, Why? What happened to his career? Is there some claim we haven’t heard anything of yet?” (trainee)
“My suspicion is that you are never going to get a male assistant who leaves saying that he wants a better work life balance. He just wouldn’t do it. You might just do it at partner level, but at assistant level you are still in the proving ground.” (partner)
“When [the Law Society] actually … address issues of work life balance it is to do with women going off to have children … they don’t look at men.” (fee earner)
The research on male lawyers’ work life balance is to be followed up in 2007 when Fellowship funding (see more details below) means interviews begin on a larger research project. Keep an eye out for new developments by checking this web page or using the links below.
Professor Collier is also known for his recent research on Fathers4Justice and the controversial fathers’ rights movement and, in October 2006, published ‘Fathers’ Rights Activism and Law Reform in Comparative Perspective’, with Professor Sally Sheldon of the University of Kent in Canterbury, another leading UK expert on gender and law. The book takes a critical look at the state of the fathers’ rights movement in 5 countries, comparing the success it has enjoyed at effecting legal reform in each of them.
Interestingly, it also examines how the fathers’ rights movement has borrowed from earlier social movements, particularly the women’s movement, in its strategies, rhetoric and attempts at legal reform. Further information about this aspect of Richard’s work is contained in the Link magazine article. (Click here to go to the Link magazine website. Click here to join the AWS and to start receiving Link magazine free of charge.)
Professor Collier is professor of law at Newcastle Law School at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne (click here for his profile). In 2006 he was awarded the prestigious British Academy and Leverhulme Trust ‘Thank-Offering to Britain’ Senior Fellowship (click here for details of the award). Richard has been on study leave since autumn 2006 and is currently in Australia as a Visiting Fellow at the Socio-Legal Research Centre, Griffin University.
Richard is on the editorial board of the Journal of Social & Legal Studies. Alongside many journal articles on law and gender, Richard’s publications include the books ‘Masculinity, Law and the Family’ (1995), ‘Masculinities, Crime & Criminology’ (1998), the edited collection ‘Fathers’ Rights Activism and Law Reform in Comparative Perspective’ (2006) (with Professor Sally Sheldon of the University of Kent in Canterbury) (2006) and the forthcoming ‘Fatherhood: A Socio-Legal Study’ (also with Professor Sheldon). He is currently working on a book entitled ‘Essays on Law, Men and Gender’ (2007).
If you are interested in participating in or simply finding out more about Professor Collier’s research – whether into male work-life balance in the legal profession, fathers’ rights or otherwise – he would be pleased to hear from you. You can contact Richard by email on Richard.Collier@newcastle.ac.uk or (when he returns from Australia) by phone at Newcastle University on +44 (191) 222 66 55.
Alternatively, you can contact Joanne Mortimer, on the AWS executive committee, by emailing her at joanne@womensolicitors.org.uk.
Click here to go to the Link magazine
website. Click here to join the
AWS and to start receiving Link magazine free of charge.