Leading Through Lived Experience: Laura Wattley on Fertility, Flexibility and the Law
As part of our series speaking to people across the legal industry about the causes that matter most to them, we recently had the pleasure of speaking with Laura Wattley, Senior Legal Counsel at E.ON.
Laura shares why she believes genuinely flexible working is critical to women’s progression in their careers. She also speaks candidly about her own fertility journey, and how this experience led her to co‑create a trailblazing Fertility employee network to support others facing fertility challenges at E.ON.
Could you explain why you believe gender parity is critical for the future of law firms and for legal services providers?
Firstly, we know that over 60% of law graduates are women, so ignoring gender parity risks losing access to half of that talent pool. Beyond that, we know that gender‑diverse leadership teams tend to make better decisions, bring broader perspectives and foster greater innovation. From a commercial standpoint, it simply makes good business sense.
More broadly, the legal market is extremely competitive. Firms and legal services providers that do not reflect diversity risk falling behind, both in attracting the best talent and in meeting the needs of their clients.
And finally, it’s the right thing to do and is something we should all be actively working towards.
What barriers do you perceive still exist for women entering the legal industry today?
I have thought about this issue a lot recently, and while there are still barriers for women entering to the legal industry, I think what concerns me more, is that we have a lot of women entering into the legal profession but that they often leave, or their careers stall, before they reach senior leadership roles.
A significant factor is work-life balance. Many women are mothers, or they have caring responsibilities such as supporting ageing parents. When you look at a typical law firm with the high-pressure environment and the billable targets, that's not necessarily conducive to maintaining a work-life balance, which can make career progression for women more challenging.
So, for me, this is where the real focus needs to be: retaining talented women and enabling them to progress into senior roles, rather than losing them mid‑career.
Could you tell us about how your own experiences have shaped your views on gender parity?
I went through 10 years of IVF treatment whilst working at E.ON as an in-house lawyer. IVF is an incredibly demanding process, both physically and emotionally and during that time I had to be very conscious about pacing my career, for example, avoiding working on very high-pressure projects when I was about to begin an IVF cycle. I also needed to take a substantial amount of leave to attend fertility appointments and procedures during this time.
After returning from maternity leave in 2023, I wanted to ensure that other women didn’t have to face the same challenges alone. So, I co-founded a fertility network at E.ON called Fertility Forum with other women who also have lived experience of fertility issues.
We focus on increasing awareness within E.ON of fertility challenges and crucially, training line managers and other colleagues about what infertility is all about and what our fertility policies are so that they can be applied in the right way.
The Fertility Forum created and successfully introduced a policy which provides unlimited paid time off for people going through fertility challenges at E.ON and also introduced the concept of ‘Fertility Friends’. Fertility Friends is a network of people who have been through fertility issues and can provide confidential support and advice. For example, if a colleague needs to have an awkward or difficult conversation with their line manager about an IVF procedure that's upcoming, it gives them the support network to discuss with others who may have been in a similar situation, and allows them to feel more confident having their own conversations.
Personally, when I was trying for a second child, I found that having the fertility policy and the inclusion network available to me a real benefit, because it made me feel less guilty about having to have the time off for fertility treatment. It was reassuring to know that the colleagues in my business understood what fertility challenges were and that felt like a game changer to me. It showed me that gender parity isn't all about numbers. It's about creating an environment where women feel that they can thrive no matter what their personal circumstances are.
What advice would you give to law firms and alternative service providers like NuCAS that want to really embed gender parity into their organisational DNA?
I would say to listen to women. Listen to their lived experiences, both personally and professionally, because in understanding those experiences, it will allow you to put in place tangible measures that will actually make a difference.
At E.ON, we have our Fast Forward Women's Development Network which has around 1700 members. We've also got our Women in Leadership programme which has supported over 400 women and both of those initiatives have contributed to a 9% increase in promotion rates, which is great. We allow flexible working from day one, which is so important for working mothers, or those with caring responsibilities.
We've recently been accredited as fertility friendly and menopause friendly and they are both obviously big health issues for women. We've also got a really engaged working parents network and women currently make up 44% of our workforce. They make up 37% of our senior executive positions and three of our seven board members in the UK are women.
These efforts show that you can have a strong business and an inclusive culture. It's about making sure that your gender parity measures are woven into the very fabric of your organisation and aren't just add on measures.
How have you been able to utilise these policies and networks to enable to you to have a successful career as a working mother?
For me, it’s been about maintaining boundaries, and from a business perspective, creating an environment where women feel able to do the same. Flexible working is absolutely key to that. If you want to retain women in your organisation who are mothers or who have caring responsibilities, you must have a flexible working policy in place, and it has to be a meaningful one. Ideally, it’s the kind of policy you don’t really need to talk about. If you need to step out for an hour in the morning to watch your child in a Christmas play, you just make up the time later. You don’t ask for permission; you just do it.
I think when women know they genuinely have the ability to work flexibly, they’re much more likely to apply for senior roles, because those roles feel achievable alongside their other caring responsibilities.
I'm currently leading a team of five lawyers and I’m very conscious of role modelling these behaviours. So, for example, this week I'm going to see my son in his Easter bonnet parade. I will make it clear to my team when I'm going to be out of the office and what I'm out of the office for so they can see flexible working in action. I think it's really important for those women who have made it into senior leader positions to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Finally, what is the best piece of advice that you can share with someone who's considering a career in law?
I would say really try to get under the skin of what it is like to be a lawyer day-to-day, not just what you see on the TV or in the movies. When you log on at your desk, what are you going to be doing? See if it aligns with your values, your skill set and what you see yourself doing in the future.
A great way to do that is by doing meaningful work experience, not just in a law firm, but also in in-house legal teams as well. I've worked in both private practice and in in-house legal teams and being an in-house lawyer is completely different to being a private practice lawyer, so it's good to get that comparison.
Once you've decided that a legal career is for you, it's then a case of taking a step back and asking yourself how much you want it. It is an incredibly competitive industry to get into, and it requires sustained commitment over a number of years to become fully qualified, so that is something to really consider. However, once you've decided this is the path for you, it is an incredibly rewarding career. No two days are the same, you'll be intellectually challenged every day, and you get to apply your legal skills to complex problems to help people and businesses, which is very satisfying.
We’d like to thank Laura for taking the time to speak with us, and for sharing her story so openly and honestly. It’s inspiring to see the impact she has already made within E.ON, as well as the ripple effect her work is creating, across the legal industry and beyond. Her experience is a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when individuals come together with a shared purpose, and a real inspiration to us at NuCAS, as we strive to create meaningful change across the legal community.