Noerr adds new mentoring scheme to its successful Her initiative promoting women’s careers

Noerr has launched a new mentoring scheme to support the firm’s female advisors. Her Success aims to support the individual career development of female associated partners and senior associates and to strengthen their network within the firm.

Since 2020, Noerr has managed to increase the proportion of women among its advisors through a variety of activities, particularly in recruiting and with the Her initiative. Among new hires, the proportion of women now roughly matches the proportion of women who pass the 2nd state examination in law.

To further improve the development and perspectives of its female lawyers, tax consultants and auditors, Noerr has supplemented its Her initiative by launching Her Success, a mentoring scheme specifically geared to the firm’s female associated partners and senior associates.

The scheme has two stages:

• Stage one is an offering for all female senior associates: The support, unique in the legal market, of a duo consisting of a male or female equity partner as a mentor and a male or female counsel or associated partner as a buddy. This combination ensures that all relevant topics can be addressed.
• Stage two starts upon promotion to associated partner. Here, a male or female equity partner acts as a mentor who offers individual support and further development on the candidate’s way to becoming an equity partner.

“By introducing Her Success, we are also pursuing the goal of turning as many of our female advisors as possible into equity partners,” emphasises Anke Meier, partner at Noerr. “We also involve our male colleagues, who continue to network as buddies with the partners and help them hone their leadership skills.”

Noerr’s successful Her initiative already addresses many aspects of the career path towards equity partnership. It covers the topics of training and professional development (Her Rise) as well as internal networking (Her Network) and external networking in the form of Her Executive Circle, a format which brings together female executives from business, academia and the public sector. Noerr also supports both female and male advisors with a recently introduced scheme to help them achieve a better work-life balance. Noerr’s Family Track (press release) offers mothers and fathers an alternative career path with voluntary additional offerings above and beyond the standard parental allowance and parental leave.