Marks & Clerk's Fiona Phillips was featured in two Law360 UK articles examining the barriers that continue to drive gender pay disparities in the legal sector, from the evolution of law firm partnership structures to the impact of artificial intelligence on career progression. Across both pieces, experts highlighted concerns that despite progress in some areas, women continue to face structural obstacles to reaching senior leadership and equity partnership positions.
In a discussion on the future impact of AI, Fiona emphasised that the legal profession must rethink how it measures value as firms increasingly adopt new technologies. She argued that lawyers' role in an AI-enabled future will be less about delivering knowledge and more about acting as a strategic partner to clients, reflecting a broader shift towards service, judgement and relationship-building. Her comments came amid wider debate about the risk of unequal access to AI training and opportunities creating new gender disparities within the profession.
In a separate article examining whether salaried partnership is becoming a new glass ceiling for women in law, Fiona highlighted the need to rethink traditional approaches to business development and client engagement. She noted that there is "no reason" why building client relationships should continue to rely on formal evening events and networking formats that can be difficult to balance with caregiving responsibilities. Instead, Fiona pointed to the opportunity for firms to adopt more inclusive approaches that enable a broader range of lawyers to develop client relationships and progress to senior leadership roles.
Together, Fiona's contributions underscore the importance of ensuring that technological change, career progression and business development practices are designed to support a more inclusive legal profession. The coverage demonstrates Marks & Clerk's engagement with some of the most important conversations shaping the future of the legal sector, including AI adoption, workplace equity and the development of more diverse leadership pipelines.
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