The UK’s first e-mentoring programme launches this month in a bid to drive up number of female ‘rain makers’ within law firms

The UK’s first e-mentoring programme for female lawyers and professionals is to be launched on Monday 28 November in a unique venture aimed at helping women supercharge their rainmaking skills and fasttrack their trajectory to senior leadership.

Kate McMahon and Tamlyn Edmonds – founders and partners of private prosecution law firm Edmonds Marshall McMahon (EMM) – have formed Networking Nuance to assist women to succeed in networking and business development.

In UK law firms of all sizes, women are significantly under represented at partnership level. Over half of lawyers are female, yet only 35% are partners and just 25% of partners are equity partners.

Meanwhile, studies show that more gender balanced leadership creates businesses that are more financially successful, diverse, collaborative and with higher staff retention.

This flexible and affordable mentoring programme comprises a nine-week pre-recorded course featuring weekly videos of expert networkers providing top tips, weekly summaries and tasks, practical Q&A featuring star networkers and an interactive forum designed to help women expand their social networks.

To celebrate the launch of this new product, a film premiere will take place on Wednesday 23 November at Curzon cinema in Hoxton unveiling an exciting episode by Networking Nuance featuring some of the top tips from top-ranked female lawyers sharing their experiences and providing advice.

The premiere will be attended by senior partners and key decision-makers at some of the UK’s top law firms, many of whom have purchased the product themselves.

Kate McMahon, co-founder of Networking Nuance, explains:

“We have over 10 years of managing both genders and noticed that women tend to prioritise their legal work at the expense of building their networks.

The independence, value and extensive networks ‘rain makers’ have is not to be underestimated. The art of bringing in business to a firm is not discussed nearly enough amongst women, yet this is of great significance considering women can progress through the ranks faster if they do generate work. We consider that the lack of business development training and effective advice is one of the factors that explains the UK’s relatively low numbers of female partners, and extremely low numbers of female equity partners.

More gender balanced leadership is good for business. It correlates with higher returns, greater staff retention, greater diversity and corporate stability. We are encouraged by the discussions we have had to date with male managing partners; many have read the same research and also wish to address the imbalance. This programme is designed to assist in realignment.

We are passionate about driving change so that women can both get to and stay in senior positions. We believe that talking, reading and learning about practical solutions helps, and we, along with our amazing experts who are leaders in their fields, seek to demystify the process. We have deliberately selected experts who have different styles and paths to success. We are committed to helping women find their own style and thereafter, to flourish.”

Natasha Harrison, Managing Partner at Pallas Partners, says:

“Pallas Partners is wholly led by its vision: to deliver results on the most complex, high value litigation with a highly diverse and capable team in a unique legal environment. Internally, we support and encourage all our female lawyers to aspire to the most senior leadership roles attainable and to do so in the most authentic way possible.

When I was approached by Kate & Tamlyn to participate in the Networking Nuance programme, I said yes immediately. From the impressive women who have spoken so openly about their experiences to the flexible learning structure perfectly created for busy female lawyers, everything has been carefully curated to propel women forward in their rainmaking journey.”

Renauld Clarke, Director of Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at Brown Rudnick, says:

“As an entrepreneurial firm, we strive for all Brown Rudnick lawyers to hone their marketing and business development skills alongside their technical lawyering skills. However, we understand there is no one-size-fits-all approach for building business.

Our firm has a history of intentionally supporting the business development of our women lawyers with the founding of our Women in Business Series and related gender inclusive programming. Tools like Networking Nuance will enhance our current efforts by allowing our women lawyers direct mentorship from successful business generators who’ve overcome many of the same obstacles they may now face.”

Stewart Hey, head of Charles Russell Speechlys’ international Fraud and Investigations Group, adds:

“We are very happy to support this brilliant initiative. I personally believe that helping women to become leaders in their field results in better commercial solutions for the business and a more rewarding working environment for everyone.”