New Thompsons partners discuss breaking the glass ceiling

Their promotion comes as a report by the Leadership Foundation for Women Lawyers showed that women can be held back in the legal profession.

The group said that while equal numbers of men and women have graduated from Scotland’s law schools for 30 years, too few women are reaching the top of the profession and too many are leaving the law.

Professor Lesley McAra, a former head of Edinburgh Law School and founder of the network, said: “It is vital that the legal profession reflects the society which it serves. In spite of best efforts, too many talented women are leaving the profession.”

The new Thompsons partners are all mothers of young children and Ms Crawford, 36, from Edinburgh, Ms Bennett, 33, from Dumfries, and Ms Connor, 32, from Glasgow, say that hard work and a supportive employer have helped them rise through the ranks.

Ms Crawford said: “The fact I feel privileged to be here is reflective of the legal profession as a whole because I think there are other people who are being held back from achieving their idea of success within a firm.”

She added: “I have heard from women who feel they have been overlooked because they are recently married or at a certain age where people think they are going to go off and have children. But I have to say that Thompsons have always been extremely supportive, helping their employees deal with the difficulties of childcare and other issues thrown up by being a mum. It really makes a huge difference to have that kind of employer.”

Ms Crawford, the mother of a four-year-old daughter, works with Ms Bennett in the serious and fatal injury units at Thompsons and is also involved in BRAKE road safety campaigns as well as Headway, the brain injuries charity.

Ms Bennett, who has a two-year-old daughter, has also been involved in high-profile cases like the Clutha tragedy and the bin lorry crash in Glasgow.

She said: “We are flexible with Thompsons and they are flexible with us. That is why it works so well and why we’ve all been here so long. I would hope that our promotions will show young female lawyers just starting out that there are firms that take equality seriously, reward hard work and talent and recognise some of the issues for their female employees of having a young family.”

“As time goes on women will realise there are employers like Thompsons and there are employers where there can still be sexism and inequality. Well there is no need for them to hang about at these places when they can get better employment elsewhere.”

Ms Connor, who has a three-year-old son and works with many of Scotland’s trade unions, thinks the Scottish legal sector is making good progress in the battle for women’s equality.

She said: “I know there have been recent criticisms of lack of equality in some firms but I do think that is changing. As you would expect with a firm with so many trade union clients Thompsons have always taken equality issues very seriously and the proof of that is our promotions.”