A legal industry stalwart has come out publicly against quotas for women on boards. Gilbert + Tobin managing director and founder Danny Gilbert claimed that quotas for women on boards were unnecessary at the Diversity Council Australia’s Annual Diversity Debate today ( September 22).

Gilbert, who was second speaker on the negative team, said quotas would result in companies thinking they had done enough about gender equality and diversity simply because they had met the quota. He also argued that there could be a risk of companies appointing women to the board who were not of the calibre of other board members. “It’s counterproductive to make concessions to quality because of quotas,” said Gilbert. “They need to be there on merit, not because of some mandatory regulatory approach.”

Gilbert used his firm as an example of why quotas were unnecessary. The firm is regularly acknowledged as having the highest proportion of female partners as a percentage (33.9 per cent) and has a number of senior female leaders. “We got there without a mandate,” said Gilbert. “Women in senior management positions are getting there on merit.” However, while the firm does have a high percentage of female partners it only has one female board member, out of eight, putting it well below other firms including Freehills which has one third of its board positions filled by women.

The affirmative team, led by Carol Schwartz, founder of the Women's Leadership Institute Australia, ended up winning the debate 61 percent to 39 percent, as voted by more than 130 industry leaders and professionals.