Saturday, March 13, 2010

Womens will rule now

This week's newspaper headlines were dominated by the passage of the 14 year-old Women's Reservation Bill, which finally cleared its first hurdle shortly after International Women's Day.




With similarly fortunate timing Trilegal has promoted its second female partner this week, proving that flexible working policies can help in combining career and family.



Women lawyers may be faring better in Indian law firms than in the West but there is still a long way to go towards equality in the legal system.



The Indian Bar remains as tough as ever for female lawyers and according to a UN report released on International Women's Day on Monday, Indian women still face difficulty from existing laws and their implemenation.



While the Delhi Bar Council boasts two female representatives, a saga of a different kind continues there, as members Vijay Sondhi from Luthra & Luthra and advocate Rakesh Tiku are now contesting the election results in the courts.



At most law schools on the other hand women are very well represented, as is also the case in the mooting circuit where NLU Jodhpur has now moved ahead of NLS Bangalore in the rankings.

And Clifford Chance has providing a further boost in the competition's stakes by kindly sponsoring cash prizes for the eight top colleges in Legally India's Mooting Premier League.



By contrast to Mooting, cricket is still very much a man's game in legal circles but the discussion following the most recent SILF Cricket League matches shows that not everybody believes it is still a gentleman's game.



Maybe in the interests of the game, future law firm cricket teams should have reservations for women? Food for thought and it could change the dynamics of the competition for the better. After all, law firm sports are supposed to be team-building fun for everybody.

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