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Gender equality issues are among the most controversial concerns in the London legal world at present. While women are now freer to enter the legal profession, consisting 60 percent of graduate recruits of law firms, much can still be improved in terms of salary and benefits in the field. Indeed, equal pay for both genders remain a standing issue in law firms, even though a law has been enacted in 2010 consolidating discriminative UK legislation concerning pay and benefits for both genders. Additionally, many legal firms have yet to review their pay policies which have led to this gross inequality of pay because of gender. The disparity of salary and benefits among male and female law practitioners of the same status reach an average of £50,000 per year. For instance, a male cost draftsman may receive a month salary of £25,000, but a female Costs Draftsman will get paid a relatively lower rate of £20,000 per month—a £5,000 monthly discrepancy in pay and benefits. Considering the exorbitant law costs in London, it is unfair to withhold from women practitioners the same rights and benefits enjoyed by their male counterparts. Indeed, while women have gained access to the legal world, they remain low in the legal career leader, with limited work opportunities and inflexible working hours. This dismal situation, along with unequal pay, women in the legal career often choose to leave their profession, and figures show that women comprise only 20 percent of partners in legal firms. Only a few women are granted senior partnership status at present, and only 14 women out of 84 candidates have been granted Queen’s Counsel (QC) status. Aside from the issue of equal pay, there have been documented cases of illegal discrimination against women lawyers after taking their maternity leave. Indeed, there is an urgent call to review passé laws discriminating women on the basis of their gender. Sadly, the legal sector remains one of the fields lagging behind in the enactment of equal rights for women. Law Costs collected from each case should be more than enough to give fair and lucrative benefits to all practitioners, regardless of gender. Given these recent findings, the Legal Services Board (LSB) has called for a wider scope of study regarding the issue of equality pay and gender rights for a more conclusive report. Hopefully, with the aid of such a study, relevant changes could be made to ease the plight for women in the legal profession. Andrew Simon is an expert who provides professional costing services with years of expertise. With his supervision Cumberland Costings, a leading firm with team of highly professional law costs and cost draftsmen, has given a new direction to costing process. Together with his team he has set remarkable standards of delivering superior services to their clients.
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