More women get partner roles now, ETHRWorld

Mumbai: When Kirti Balasubramanian appeared for a promotion interview for the coveted partner level at the country’s leading law firm Trilegal last year, she was just a few months away from heading into her maternity leave. That did not come in the way of her promotion and in October, Balasubramanian was promoted as partner of TMT (technology, media, and telecommunications) practice purely based on her merit and performance.In a trend catching up fast, the country’s leading law firms are playing fair in gender diversity and promoting an increasing number of high-potential women lawyers to partner level and are walking the extra mile to retain them, industry insiders said.

Women accounted for 40% of all promotions across corporate law firms in the country in 2023, up from 33% during pre-Covid times, data from specialist legal search firm Vahura show.

“The promotions were across practice areas such as general corporate, disputes practices, capital markets, real estate, tax and intellectual property rights,” said Sneha Oommen, managing associate-private practice and funds group at Vahura.

Boutique law firm Wadhwa Law Offices, for example, promoted Rachita Nadig as their first female corporate law partner last year, according to Vahura, while…