Linklaters

We are a Saudi Arabian national law firm which fervently supports the development of our female employees across all levels to ensure that a healthy work/ life balance is possible. Most notably, we have introduced flexible working environments, launched a new sponsorship programme and actively promoted the advancement of our female lawyers.

Whilst we hire and retain purely on merit, our female associates significantly outnumber our male associates, particularly at the mid to senior associate level. Supporting and enabling our employees to pursue their legal careers is of paramount importance to our firm. As 50% of our female lawyers have children, this has led to us quickly embracing policies that support flexible working environments to ensure that our female associates are able to comfortably return to work after having children.

To support the development of our employees, we have adopted a flexible working environment which includes enabling our associates to work from home. Given the fact that several of our female associates have young children, the ability to work primarily from home allows for an effective work/ life balance which, importantly, has had no adverse impact on the firm’s productivity.

In light of global changes around the world, it is more significant than ever to provide innovative work/life programmes. We launched a new sponsorship programme in 2021 to enable our Saudi-qualified associates to become dual qualified in England. The first person chosen to commence that programme was one of our female corporate associates, and the next person who will commence the programme is one of our female regulatory associates, highlighting our commitment to supporting women to reach the pinnacle of their legal careers. Moreover, we have sponsored two of our litigators, both of whom are female, to obtain arbitration qualifications to advance their development in their legal careers.

Significantly, we are the only Saudi Arabian law firm operating in association with an international law firm to have a female Partner. This enables a more practical reflection at the leadership level of the mindset shifts required to support the advancement of female associates. The Partnership, as a whole, fully supports the implementation of flexible working arrangements that support the development of both the female and male associates in the firm.