A mother’s ambition for the partner title

At Lund Elmer Sandager, we work to achieve greater diversity and a more equal gender distribution, so that we can bring the entire pool of talent into play. That is why we have started LES Women Academy, which help us pull development in the right direction. One of the women in the academy is Natasja Kristiansen, who is an Attorney in the department of litigation and financing, married to Andreas and mother of 4 year old Otto and 2 year old Ellen. We have met the honest and tough Attorney to talk about the challenges of becoming a mother and at the same time strive to become a Partner.

Left the legal profession when she became a mother

When Natasja returned from her first maternity leave in 2016, it was not easy to make everyday life work. Before, she worked a lot, but it did not work when she became a mother: “I had a hard time finding a good balance between work and family life. So, I had to try something else”. Therefore, Natasja chose to leave the legal profession to work as a consultant in the private sector and subsequently as a head consultant in the public sector, where the conditions were better fitted with being a mother. That trend is a well-known challenge in the legal profession, and therefore it is important to address the problem and do something to retain the talent pool.

Returned to the legal profession as a mother of two   

Today, Natasja is happy with the experience she gained as a consultant outside the legal profession, but she quickly felt that she missed the tasks and drifted into the legal profession. In 2018, Natasja became a mother for the second time, and in 2019 she returned to Lund Elmer Sandager’s litigation and financing department, where she is currently in charge of litigation for the city and country courts.

Today, Natasja knows how to prioritize between family and work to maintain the balance that she couldn’t find when she returned from her first maternity leave. She is very aware of this and arranges her everyday life based on that premise. For the same reason, Natasja is also aware of that fact, that the demands placed on partners in Lund Elmer Sandager will only become realistic for her to achieve when her children have grown older.

As Natasja is not the only one to have considerations regarding the partner path and how it fits into the future, it is important for Lund Elmer Sandager to be able to maintain the talent pool in the period from the transition between Attorney to Senior Attorney/Partner.

For that reason, LES has i.e. developed LES Women Academy, which focus on the challenges for female Attorneys. Natasja believes the Women Academy will contribute positively: “I think it is very good that the challenges that may arise in the legal profession in relation to maintaining the pool of talents, both in terms of female and male attorneys and regardless of whether the individual wants to become a Partner or want to work as a Senior Attorney”.

Builds its own role model

As part of the LES Women Academy, successful businesswomen talk about their career path and how they make family life and career stick together. Natasja has not yet met a role model who shares her set of values 100%, so her strategy is to gather inspiration from different people, but at the same time maintain her own values: “the type of partner and attorney I want to be, is present to the clients, but also has the freedom to turn off the phone to be with the family. Both in everyday life and during the holidays. However, this priority will not affect the clients, as it will of course be coordinated in such a way that a colleague can take care of urgent inquiries,” Natasja says.

The legal profession needs to innovate  

Natasja is convinced that the younger generation in the industry will make new demands on law firms that have not been seen previously: “In the past, it was prestigious to work after the partner had left, but I do not think that approach will continue. It is clear to me that the younger generation impose other demands on the employer, both in relation to working hours and workload, and therefore I also believe that in the long run, the legal profession will change in the same direction”.

Natasja expects to succeed in becoming a partner and at the same time prioritize family life, but also acknowledges that it can be a long road. At the same time, Natasja emphasizes that she does not want to become partner solely because of her gender, but because she can contribute and add something to the company.

The struggle to retain women is a journey that the legal profession, Lund Elmer Sandager and the younger generations will have to work on for the many years. At Lund Elmer Sandager, LES Women Academy is a step in the right direction.