Firm & Awards
International Family Day 15 May 2022: an interview with Karin Oberlin, Head of Diversity & Inclusion at MLL
Partner Karin Oberlin, MLL’s Head of Diversity & Inclusion, speaks about how central supporting families is to advancing gender equality in the workplace.
Why is it relevant to focus on families when addressing diversity and inclusion policies?
Today a close to equal proportion of women graduate from higher education institutions than men in Switzerland, and there are more female law graduates than male graduates. In law firms in general, the proportion of male to female lawyers typically reflects this balanced gender distribution, however only at the associate level and not at the partner level. It remains challenging to balance pregnancy and motherhood with a career. We need to find solutions to these challenges to avoid the loss of female talent so that companies can benefit from their know-how and experience.
And parenting is not just a job for mothers. We know that fathers also want to take on their share of tasks at home and in childcare. Having the support to do so from the workplace helps fathers to balance their work and personal responsibilities which in turn helps the whole family.
In which way does MLL support its employees that have family caretaking responsibilities?
As a firm we have introduced a number of measures to support both men and women to achieve their career goals alongside a balanced family life. For example, MLL supports flexible working arrangements with remote working possibilities fully integrated within the firm’s HR policies and its IT infrastructure.
Several of our associates and partners (men and women) currently benefit from part-time working possibilities to manage their child-care duties. For those working in our Zurich office who have children younger than Kindergarten age, there is also a bilingual day-care facility in the same building.
With the highest number of female partners compared to other leading law firms in Switzerland and female members of the management team and board, and with mothers at every level of the organisation, we have an active community of role models and inspiration.
Over the past year specifically, we have introduced internal training programs to raise awareness on unconscious bias, stereotypes and the benefits of diverse teams. We have also become a member of Advance, the leading business association for gender equality in Switzerland, through which our firm benefits from numerous advantages such as networking possibilities and focussed workshops. These initiatives support MLL’s objective to nurture female talent throughout the career pipeline, to enable work/life balance and to create an inclusive work environment.
International Day of Families is annually observed by the United Nations across the world on May 15. The day is commemorated to highlight the important affairs central to the welfare of families, such as health, education, gender equality, rights for children, and social inclusion among others.
