Law firms must continue focusing on addressing their gender gaps given growing polarisation around diversity issues, according to Aequales CEO Andrea de la Piedra, speaking at the International Bar Association’s (IBA’s) Latin America regional forum in Lima.

Delivering a keynote speech at the Women Lawyer’s daily breakfast ahead of the conference’s second day on Thursday (20 March), Piedra – who works with organisations to help them close their gender gaps – said that while companies in Latin America have started to take steps to improve diversity, there is still more work to be done.

“Even though that companies are improving in the fact that they have new policies, commitment programmes… what we see is that the data is not changing fast enough,” she said. “This means we still need to address it.”

Piedra’s keynote was preceded by opening remarks from IBA president Jaime Carey, in which he reiterated his commitment to gender parity in the legal profession. The keynote speech also set up the first panel discussion of the day – ‘The power of right policies and culture: boosting business performance and innovation’ – which explored diversity challenges and opportunities, and what law firms should be doing to drive change.

Santiago Carregal, managing partner of Argentinian firm Marval O’Farrell Mairal and one of the speakers on the panel, said that having a strong diversity and inclusion policy is crucial for firms for multiple reasons.

“The first one is that a strong D&I policy attracts talent, not only women, but also men that actually share these values, and this is key, because talent is the most valuable asset for law firms,” said Carregal. “Second is because our clients require us to have this proper commitment towards diversity. So we need to share their needs.

“Third, because diversity fosters essential belonging that helps retain our talent. And fourth, and not least, is because diversity of people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives help understanding of clients and situations, because a homogenous group of people will tend to overlook details of situations that a diverse team can capture.”

Carregal added that while written diversity policies are important for clarity and transparency, they are not enough on their own.

“You can have all the written policies in place, but if this is not a part of the culture and the way you treat each other,” then it is not going to change anything, Carregal said.

“These initiatives also have to come from top to bottom, it has to be part of the culture and the leadership has to be convinced that this is for the benefit of the firm,” he added.

To ensure firms are making progress on diversity, tracking metrics is essential. For example, Eliana Rubiano from the World Bank in Lima said it is important to measure pipeline metrics showing entry into firms, mid-level and leadership positions.

“This reveals exactly what we call the leaky pipeline,” where women represent a high proportion of entry-level roles but tend to drop off at senior levels, Rubiano said.

Firms should also be tracking pay equity metrics to see if men and women are being paid the same for equal work, as well as promotion rates and time to promotion.

“Creating opportunities for women is creating opportunities for your firms and for your countries,” said Rubiano, pointing to a recent report the World Bank published that showed if Peru was to close gender gaps in the education and labour markets, the income per capita of Peruvians could increase by up to 12% by 2030.

Ultimately firms need to ignore the polarisation issues and recognise the long-term impact improving diversity can bring, said Carregal.

“We need to understand this is not a trend, this is a long-term commitment because it’s for the benefit of the organisation,” he said.

The Global Legal Post is reporting from The Road to 2030 in Latin America conference. Click here for further coverage.

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