b'BACK TO NAVIGATIONLaw firms could address the COVID pressures and impacts on women in several ways. Actively encouraging and supporting men in the utilisation of parental leave and carers leave to share both the sacrifices and rewards of carer roles.Considering how they can more directly support employees with the practical provision of these carer roles including childcare support, coaching, and targeted wellbeing support.By working to better understand the competing needs of women in the workplace, firms can respond by providing the solutions to manage these demands, including flexible working hours, additional leave or concessions on performance assessments that consider extenuating circumstances. Providing training that addresses unconscious gender bias and provide monitoring of key processes to ensure identify where it may occurAnd finally, while it is uncomfortable to discuss and accept, domestic violence is a real part of our community and the stresses and compressed living caused by COVID is a catalyst for increased occurrences of this. Unfortunately, ethnicity, religion, social class, educational or professional background do not provide immunity from this problem. Employers have both a legal and moral responsibility to support victims of domestic and family violence. Apart from responding to COVID, firms also need to continue with the fundamental changes required. The Law Council of Australia survey National Attrition and Reengagement Survey highlighted the need to focus on a range of priority changes to address the causes including, Career path transformationLeadership and role modellingRelationships and supportThe Women in Leadership: Lessons from Australian companies leading the way report identifies the ten common features of leading organisations who are dismantling barriers to womens participation at senior levels.The process recommended by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and detailed in their Gender Strategy Toolkit identifies the following key actions:AnalyseUnderstand the firms gender equality status - Conduct a gender pay gap analysis and understand gender pay gapsAssess barriers to women progressing to leadership rolesDesignIdentify the best interventions and set targets to address the identified inequalitiesImplementDevelop and deliver action plans - Measurable effectiveness against. ReviewRegularly assess the effectiveness of actions against targets and review the impacts on the identified barriers Modify and update the design and implementation of the strategy to respond and consider new opportunities 25'