UK’s Top Judge: Women Better Counsel Than Overworked Men

The legal industry’s 24/7 work style was created by “obsessive, testosterone-driven” men, who are ultimately not as professionally effective as women more driven to achieve a work-life balance, Lord David Neuberger, President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, said in a lecture. “Solicitors with family responsibilities almost inevitably work fewer hours, and therefore do not carry the same heft as those sad people who have no life but their work. And, in our society, it is far more common for women to have the family responsibilities,” he said in his “rainbow lecture” speech at Westminster. “I fear that, when push comes to shove … corporations may decide that they want obsessive, testosterone-driven men rather than balanced, sensible women fighting their corner – even though it is often the balanced sensible women who will very often be more effective advisers and advocates.”

Lord Neuberger also pushed UK law firms to recruit from less privileged backgrounds, for instance looking at applicants who may not have graduated for a top tier school. . “I have my doubts about that approach, which would have ruled me out,” he said.