Maddocks Gender Pay Gap Statement

Pleasingly, when we look at the gender composition of our legal staff, it indicates that the concentration of women and men being paid in the upper quartiles aligns with the gender composition of our total Maddocks workforce. Our average total remuneration gap is 0.2% compared to 11.7% in the comparison group of others in the legal services industry (employee range 250-499).

Total Workforce

Upper Quartile

Upper Middle Quartile

Lower Middle Quartile

Lower Quartile

Maloch

Maloch is the company which employs our legal assistants, law clerks and shared services team members. Almost 80% of our workforce are women and this is reflected in our legal assistant population and our People & Culture and Business Development, Communication and Marketing shared services teams. While these are not unique trends to our business, the impact is that women currently earn more than men on average in all quartiles. Through the actions we take across our various business processes, we are actively working on ways to build a more balanced candidate pipeline. Our average total remuneration gap is -5% compared to 11.7% in the comparison group of others in the legal services industry (employee range 250-499).

Total Workforce

Upper Quartile

Upper Middle Quartile

Lower Middle Quartile

Lower Quartile

Our Action Plan

Our focus on the gender pay gap is only one part of working towards gender equality. Other actions with which we have committed include:

Leadership roles – the firm’s Board is made up of the Chair and CEO as well as elected partners. The current Board Composition is 40% women, 60% men excluding the Chair role. Thirty-eight percent of our partners are women, which is close to our target of 40/40/20. Forty-five percent of our executive leadership team (CEO, COO, CIO, Directors, and Practice Group Heads) are women. We have four practice groups in the firm and as of 1 February, two of the four are at or almost at 50/50 gender composition at the partner level.

Flexible Work and Parental Leave – since the introduction of hybrid work arrangements and the formalisation of our policy in September 2024, all partners, and staff, except for a small number of positions in shared services, can work from home as part of their working week. In addition, we have had a strategy called FlexAble in place since 2019 which describes the various flexible work arrangements available to people. It has four focus areas – flexable hours, flexable place, flexable leave and flexable every day. Twenty-one percent of our workforce work on a part-time basis however 93 percent of those are women. Normalising part-time work for all genders is a society-wide issue, and one we are addressing in part through our flexible paid parental leave approach where leave can be taken across two periods, or in a way that best suits the business and the individual. We track and measure the uptake of paid parental leave by men. Since 1 July 2018, we have had a 45% increase of men taking parental leave. Men now take, on average, 58 days of parental leave compared to 19 days of parental leave five years ago.

Culture and Respect – we are committed to an inclusive culture of respect and safety at work. We acknowledge that embedding this is a critical lever in relation to gender equality as workplaces with a zero toleration for inappropriate behaviour of any kind can attract and retain talent of any gender. Sexual harassment is listed as a risk in our Health & Safety Risk Register which is reviewed annually by the Health & Safety Committee. We have developed a page on our intranet called “Respectful Relationships at Work” which includes links to all relevant policies and our Sexual Harassment Prevention Plan. Any formal complaints of gender-based discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, or bullying, are reported to the firm’s Board on an annual basis.

Broaden our candidate pool – we are considering ways to attract more men to roles such as legal assistants and law clerks. By reviewing where we post our ads, writing our ads to avoid gendered language and sharing examples of development opportunities available we would like to see a shift in the proportion of women and men in these roles and in any teams within our firm where a gender imbalance occurs.

My Personal Commitment

As CEO, I take personal responsibility for driving these changes. We report our progress annually to the firm’s Board and review what further changes are required. This is not just about numbers—it is about creating a workplace where everyone can thrive and reach their full potential. It is about building a modern Australian law firm that better reflects and serves our diverse public and private sector client base. We know that achieving pay equity requires sustained effort and accountability. We are committed to this journey and to being transparent about both our successes and our challenges along the way.

David Newman
CEO and Partner

_Definitions:

_{Equal Pay for Equal Work means that men and women performing the same or similar jobs must be paid the same. This is a legal requirement, and we regularly audit our remuneration processes to ensure we meet this obligation.}

_{The Gender Pay Gap is different - it measures the difference between the average earnings of all women and all men across our firm, we look at this in a number of ways. By team, by level, by office, by role. If there is a gap, we do a deep dive to look at what has caused the gap and what short- and long-term actions are required, if appropriate, to address it.}