First to say this list can lick my taint then make me dinner.

In response to this article, all I have to say is that the U.S. Supreme Court was correct in Bradwell v. Illinois. Damn the legislature for giving women an easier career track in the legal profession.

Paul Hastings isn't on the list? How odd...

Fabulous. So mothers and fathers will abandon their kids in day orphanages and be able to work. Great. Gotta love this country!

So, lemme get this straight... it's "Working Mother" magazine, but it's "50 Best Law Firms for Women"?

I suspect they conflate the needs of women in general with the specific needs of mothers. In which case, if you're a childfree woman, looking to this list for direction may not be in your best interests.

Foley Hoag made the list? HAHAHAHAHAH. Did they talk to any of the women who actually work there, or just the marketing department?

Okay, first of all, WilmerHale is based in Washington, not in Boston. Second of all, any survey that includes WilmerHale as a women/family-friendly firm is a joke. Then again, any real survey of women/family-friendly firms would not include the vast majority of these BigLaw firms.

A&B #1!

I would love to see a list of best firms for women without children! We get discriminated against because firms think we are going to have children.

Bingham didn't make the list?

Pretty funny that Sidley made the list after firing 10 people who were on maternity leave. I'm sure they didn't buy that spot.

I can't imagine why Paul Hastings didn't make it on this list.

Elie’s staycation = ATL stealth layoff

This blog has learned from biglaw’s ham-handed mistakes. Lat knows how to get rid of someone discreetly.

Elie agreed to keep quiet about the arrangement. I don’t know the specifics of the deal, but I do know that the catered platter of donuts that the ATL staff enjoyed every morning is now delivered to Elie’s apartment instead.

#14 - I was wondering why Krispy Kreme stock shot up today.

For those wondering how receptive Americans are of Obama's facist plans to ram Obamacare down our throats, I invite you to look at this clip from concerned constituents at the townhall meetings:

http://news.aol.com/article/angry-crowd-at-arlen-specter-town-hall/609021?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fangry-crowd-at-arlen-specter-town-hall%2F609021

I wonder if Latham counted the 200+ laid off attorneys as working "reduced" hours...

PE,
I was wondering if you had acquired another canine since the demise of your beloved Algernon.

In 2005, President Bush and the Republican Congress passed a tougher bankruptcy amendment aimed at teaching Americans to be more fiscally responsible. Under Obama's administration, about 1.4 million bankruptcies will be filed this year. Was this the change you were hoping for or believed in?

This comment is addressed to post no. 18.

Thank you for your concern. I have in fact acquired a new Afghan hound. His name Simeon. I was going to name it Barack but it would insult the poor hound.

Who did Steptoe pay off to be included on this list? Hell of a good marketing spin. Did anyone from this magazine reach out to female attorneys at Steptoe? Without a doubt, the answer is no. The firm that supports partners who harass women... makes perfect sense to include it on this list.

When did this ever become an important issue?

I'm glad I don't work for one of these firms. I won't be associated with any organization that promulgates sexist policies to favor hos.

At least Vault 6-10 is well represented. Or maybe it's these damn whom who are keeping these firms out of the top 10

This list has no credibility. Last year SKADDEN was listed as family friendly.

Jesus who cares- people should just be happy their firm is not laying them off or folding entirely.

PE, you can polish President Obama's boots with fur cut from your Afgan bitch. Then go home and pray that you did not fail the bar exam again.

PE - did you happen to study at St. Edward's at Oxford?

6 - you are right on. I am a happily and intentionally childfree married woman working at a firm on the list . The firm may be MOTHER friendly but that does not equal WOMAN friendly.

All women are not mothers and the firm definitely actually encourages motherhood; it's pretty frustrating. Everyone assumes that if you are female and in your 30s you are just sitting around yearning to wipe dirty butts and clean up puke, just practicing law while you wait to pop it out. That expectation from the partners, etc. is a career impediment for those of us who don't want to work part time or take extended (or any) maternity leave.

If being a mom isn't on your to-do list then I'd steer clear of one of these places. Or at least carefully evaluate whether they push the mommy status on you or just tolerate the fact that you have a right to parent if you want. I wish I had thought of that difference a few years ago when I came here.

This list is feminist crap. Wait until the list of the Best 50 Law Firms for men comes out and each one excludes women entirely. After a long day of billing hours and cheating with my secretary, I expect to come home to a clean house and a hot meal cooked by my HLS alumni wife.

An Alston & Bird attorney told me that the only reason they are on that stupid list every year is because only partners are allowed to fill out the survey.

Way to hold it down for the sisterhood you crazed childless-female associate gunners. I myself am a childless-female associate gunner and in no way does my mommy- and daddy-friendly workplace discriminate against me because I don't have kids. I make more than my hours and my hard work is recognized by the teams I work with and in our bonus structure. And because I was able to make more than minimums I kept my job, which is more than I can say for a lot of moms out there in many firms, who totally got shafted in layoffs as far as I can tell. I also get to enjoy the company of great men and women at work who keep life in perspective because they have families or other obligations. I've seen childless people take leave for all sorts of unorthodox reasons and find open doors at the firm when they want to return. If you are feeling oppressed in your childless existence way maybe you need to either (1) get over yourself and your persecution complex or (2) find a different firm.

This is a shameful statistic at the time when these same law firms are laying off young lawyers, leaving thousands unemployed and rescinding offers to law students. I'm sure the liberals and feminists will see this as "progress" but this is exactly what's wrong with America today and what will lead to this nation's downfall -- rat race to be more "progressive"

Any woman with half a brain and two breasts would be smart enough to marry rich, and stay away from these law firms

My wife was pregnant and out of town for several weeks in litigation. I basically missed an entire trimester of her pregnancy. She won an extra four weeks of maternity leave to reach: 12 weeks because she pulled 12 hour days for a month on it and because she had to have a C-section, otherwise it would have been 4 weeks. She worked till 3AM two days before going into labor.

Her firm made this list.

What a bunch of total nonsense.

29 - For your sake, let's hope it's not too late by the time you wake up and realize you're missing out on the single best thing life can offer you, and you don't find yourself 15 years down the road scrambling around Chinese orphanages desperate to adopt...

To the laid off latham first year who has nothing better to do than trash latham in every post.... Did it ever occur to you that trashing your former firm is counter productive? Presumably the reason you joined the firm in the first place was to get a big gold star on your resume. Now that you are unemployed, shouldn't your goal be to make everything on your resume seem as impressive as possible so that you can get another job? It not surprising you haven't found a job yet.

Isn't it begging the question to say that what's best for women is what's best for the legal profession?

I agree with the comments of child-free women that mother- or parent-friendly is not the same thing as women-friendly, but, like 32, can't imagine how being a woman with no plans of having children could hurt your career at any law firm.

I've seen firms bending over backwards to promote women, whether for good PR or because of pressure from clients. If you're a woman who has no intention of taking yourself out of the game by having children and going on a reduced schedule, you should be having no problem. In fact, you should be glad that so many talented women are voluntarily removing themselves from direct competition with you, clearing the way for your success.

Regardless, this list is stupid.

Who's the poor bitch who had to make that really awkward pose for the "50 Best Law Firms for Women" photo (see above)?

It's too late. If you voted for him, you have yourselves to blame for the fate of this nation. Obama supporters are backing down and starting to question the person they elected and the phony promises of hope and change. Let us hope that Obama doesn't further damage this nation during his lame duck presidency that will end in January 2013.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/12/change_we_can_believe_in_97861.html

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/12/an-economic-time-bomb-being-mishandled-by-the-obama-administrati/

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-11/obamas-euthanasia-mistake/

Can anyone verify that Davis Polk gives TEN weeks of paid paternity leave? My understanding is that it gives only 4.

Davis Polk sent that piece around to the entire firm to brag, and it says ten weeks of paid paternity leave, so they had better be willing to stand by that.

What Skadden didn't make it? With it's "treat new mothers like crap" policy, I would have thought it was a shoo-in.

I don't think the list provides an accurate perspective on the "best law firms for women" because alternative work schedules for women and female equity partners vary significantly by practice areas. In my experience, firms will allow for alternative work schedules in certain practice groups (e.g., employment, antitrust) rather than others (e.g., corporate, securities). It would be beneficial to see how many part time attorneys and female equity partners are in each practice group. If a firm really cares to allow alternative work schedules and female equity partners, then we would see part time associates and female equity partners throughout each practice group, rather than a firm "beefing up" numbers by adding partners/part time associates in only two or three practice groups.

The data and conclusions in this "study" are massaged more often then a Kobe steer. Many of the firms listed are hot beds of (a) sexual harassment (b) predators (c) "horizontal advancement programs" (aka HAPee times) and (d) window dressing numbers management comparable to Bernie Madoff.

PE: Get bent. You tried to do schtick on a suicide. We haven't forgotten and we do not care what you think about anything.

Disappear.

Hey 35 how much was your wife paid for her time? She easily could have gotten a different job that paid less and would have been far more accomodating. Hey, preschool teachers make in the low twenties with benefits and have great maternity leave policies. Maybe she should try that if you do not like the hours her current job requires.

The part-time lawyers I know sacrifice client development in favor of their flex time.

A little light reading for PE:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/06/01/090601fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

Squire Sanders has been trying to make itself more "diverse" and has been trying to correct a lot of deficiencies with respect to its treatment of women. It extended maternity leave to 18 weeks, and established a women's diversity committee. Unfortunately, if you are a woman there, you will never make partner, or it will take you WAY longer than it takes a man at the firm, assuming you can make it that long, and if you are a woman in the corporate department, you are treated like garbage and at a significant risk of being bullied into signing away your personal life. Just ask SSD's publicity people about the results of the diversity study they did, which said that corporate was the worst department to be in if you are a woman at the firm. Women in the corporate department have an awful existrence across the board... for example, womeon who are going out on maternity leave are asked constantly by partners how long they are planning to be out, and are made to feel as though it is career suicide if they take the full leave time, even though the firm has a generous policy. And forget alternative work arrangements... if you have the audacity to work part time as a woman,or even to ask about it you are kept off of prime deals and cases, treated as though you are unreliable, and even your fellow associates will trash you to partners for "not being committed" to the firm. I imagine the partners at SSD are surprised they didn't make the list, but if they were honest with themselves, they would realize it takes more than a figure-head committee and offering illusory benefits to women.to make a list that actually pays attention to how women are really treated...

WAKE UP EDITORS

51 - I saw the same thing in the corporate department at my former firm.

47 - LMB

Ice Miller? Get real. Piece of sh!t regional firm with delusions of grandour.

48 -

What, exactly, is your point? 35 was criticizing his wife's firm's placement on this list, not his wife's career. Your comments were rather insulting - and for no reason, I might add.

I think what 35 was trying to say was that, although people deserve what they get when they fully expect it based on clear communication (long hours, poor maternity policies), when firms go out of their way to try to dispel conceptions that are fairly appointed, people aren't getting what they expect . . . nor are they getting what they were promised.

Granted, the firm wasn't putting this list together, but the point remains the same. This list is complete BS. Many firms on it have horrid maternity policies by any reasonable standard.

As a man, I wish I could ever contribute something to the world as incredible as a new, breathing life. But I can't have babies, so my only lasting tangible contribution is to provide for my family. I'm all for equal opportunity in the workplace, but do we really need to trash men for wanting to hold on to the last shred of their identities: their jobs?

Heh- at Littler, an employee cannot exceed 30 weeks of maternity leave during her employment with the firm. In other words, you better not plan on having more than 2.5 kids!

PE, where did you go to high school? Somewhere in the Virginia Prepatory League no doubt?

ATTN: "Child-free woman" commenters...don't worry! Firms treat booty-ass ugly women as a third gender.

PE is STILL in high school...guess it would have been better if we had elected Johnny Rockets and Bible Spice, huh? Open your eyes, read some real news (i.e., other than FOX) and realize that Obama is President of the US whether you like it or not...tool. Or perhaps you're just trolling?? Don't you have a town hall meeting to go shout at?

Let's all please remember that these wonderful, generous policies are in place for attorneys only. For staff it's usually just the same BS from place to place.

Latham? hah. Ask how many female partners it actually has sometime and whether they'll ever make equity or be forever kept at income. The firm is a terrible place for women - unless you like being hit on creepy male partners.

PE, STFU with all your anti-Obama anti-health care political BS that has nothing whatsoever to do with this thread. Go blog or twat or whatever about it, but don't clog this thread (or ATL generally) and turn it into your personal soapbox.

This is total bullshit. In my firm, most of the women don't work much anyway, regardless of whether they're having or have children. Men carry the load, with help from a handfull of women who actually believe in working hard. If women want to be treated as equals, then they damn well better start acting equal.

And now for today's survey.........

(a) What percentage of male members of senior law firm management have had inappropriate sexual relationships with women partners, clients, associates, and administrative staff?

(b) What percentage of women partners in senior law firm management have had inappropriate sexual relationships with partners, associates, clients, or admin staff?

(c) what % of the firms listed in this Top 50 report invest heavily in marketing their diversity, collegiality, and atmosphere --- actively ignoring or dissembling about what is ignored with a wink and a nod every day and night....?

(c) will this ever change?

Discuss. Extra points for wit, specifics, and urban legends.

"inappropriate" is in the eye of the beholder.

The numbers in this so-called study are an absurd exercise in reality distortion. Whether or not you work at one of these firms, your experience of part time will depend entirely on your practice and the people you work with.

I was on theoretical part time for years at a v20 firm on this list, but due to the nature of the practice and the partners who ran it, I still worked many 90 hour weeks, often for weeks at a time, cancelled vacations (including while already on them) with no notice, missed holidays and family events, and otherwise worked like a lunatic. My overall billables were given some slack, but any expectation that I could have a normal life outside work or any semblance of balance at all was out the window, and everyone I knew laughed hard (and derisively) at the notion that I was working "part time." Be careful out there kids, people are trying to snow you.

67/68 - "inappropriate" is indeed in the eye of the beholder. So too are other things. But it's too early in the morning to be more graphic.

#10 here - I think I was unclear - I didn't mean the childless are discriminated against more than other women - I meant to say we are unfairly lumped in the same category. People are just waiting for you to come in and announce you are knocked up. Especially because I am young, married (and despite what one commenter said, attractive). I have no maternal instinct and very little desire to have kids. If I ever change my mind my husband and I have decided that he (with the lower income) will stay home w/ the kids, not me. As I get to know people I tend to make that known so that I can dispel their worry that midcase I'd go on leave.

We have a profession that requires commitment. A big trial can take years of work. The client wants the person who knows it best arguing it. Granted, anyone can have a heart attack and not be there but the odds are greater that a woman will have a baby.

I'm all for equal rights all around but at the end of the day employers will prefer the person who is reliable that gets the job done. I try to demonstrate that it will always be me - but it is hardly socially acceptable to mention that you never want to have kids in an interview.

68 - agreed in all respects (25 years at V10 firm - white male, 2 kids, trial practice). But without 'outing' yourself - what's the back story. Were you promoted? Were/are you treated fairly on compensation? Did male partners make similar sacrifices? If so, were they praised or disparaged?

The theoretical part time issue is fascinating - in my firm there were MANY senior partners whose ACTUAL billable hours were well below budget / pace - but they were inflated and then written off to give the appearance of Herculean productivity. It's all a stupid effin game but those in charge somehow manage to stay in charge and punish those who are not. They could in fact have been labeled "part-time" at 1200-1400 hours a year - the rest of their hours were fictitious fluff.

Oh noes! My formerly beloved PE has turned out to be nothing more than an unemployed recent law school graduate with right wing propaganda Turrets.

You used to be so dear. Now you're just tedious.

Please go away.

xoxo,
Muffy

70 here one last time - also, my frustration comes from the fact that while we don't make partner we have the "benefit" of maternity leave but that doesn't help those of us that have no desire to use it.

I'm so sick of these lists. Working Mother magazine must be struggling for revenue and these 50 firms must be happy to provide it. And I worked at A&B--it has no place on this list at all.

Why would any woman who works part time ever ask why she wasn't put on a prime deal? You'd have to be a moron. I'm a woman, and plan on having kids, and I know it makes sense that those who are the most accessible will be on the best deals...that's just the way shit works!

I am hoping though, that by the time I do have kids in a couple years, that Obama will have a program in place to make sure that working moms across America will be offered the best and most interesting work available at their respective firms, along with some government employees who will go around and monitor this!

Agree with 33 completely.

These generous maternity leave policies are subsidized by layoffs and crappier working conditions for employed associates.

These "progressive" firms will send pink slips to associates and paralegals for billing their time while sending full paychecks to associates for merely sitting next to the Madela on the couch.

This nonsense doesn't end when the mother returns to work. Associates have to turn in work product by arbitrary deadlines during the day or before a long weekend because the new mother will invariably bolt from the office at 3pm everyday to continue "working from home."

I thought most firms avoided laying off expecting mothers purely for liability purposes. After that Paul Hastings miscarriage debacle, what law firm in its right mind would do something similar? Soon-to-be dads, on the other hand, are fair game.

I am a female associate (and mom), working at one of the listed firms. I found that once I hit senior associate level, my ability to work part time evaporated. I resumed full time status; since I was working full time hours, I may as well get paid accordingly.

23: Do you work in the K&L Gates IT depertment, by any chance?

Seriously, Sidley fired 10 women on maternity leave? I thought that only K&L Gates did that.

McDermott laid off several women on maternity leave. One of those women worked in my department. She worked very long hours on a thankless case up until the day she delivered. Although several women on leave were not laid off, they either did not take full leave (back in 6 weeks) or work part-time and their days are numbered. I wouldn't let my wife work here EVER!

10 weeks at DPW is very misleading. There are 4 weeks of paternity leave and 6 weeks of "primary caregiver leave" which only apply if you're the primary caregiver. If a DPW couple has a baby, only one of the parents can take the primary caregiver leave (or both can take 1/2 of it). Bottom line? 10 weeks paternity = BS.

80: damn

Are there no employment lawyers at these firms? Or does HR just not talk to them?

Any word on the others firms?

#70

Currently: 34 year senior associate absolutey dedicated to her work, does not want kids.

10 years from now: 44 year old layed off non-equity partner, crying in her sleep over no job, no kids and hysterectomy.

The fact that McGuirewoods is on here is also a joke--that place hemmorages new moms--thanks for the maternity leave, adios--because all of their touted policies are just that, touted, and NEVER actually occur.

62: Amen. Three months of paid leave in this pathetic country is an enormous benefit that's certainly not extended to non-attorneys in BIGLAW. I believe staff at my last job got two weeks of paid maternity leave, provided they'd been at the firm a year. It extended by a week every two years or something equally ridiculous.

Part-time is a huge scam, if you ask me. Parents (mostly mothers) take an abbreviated schedule with less pay and, given that most BIGLAW lawyers are total martyrs with no spine (sorry - it's true), end up working nearly full-time at a reduced salary because they won't say "no". It's the worst of both worlds in that you're working as many hours as a full-time associate (or close to it) but are perceived as working less, a stigma that you'll never, ever shake. My advice would be to simply take a less demanding job (they're out there) and a paycut to avoid that perception.

Why is it so hard to believe that there are women out there that don't want kids? I don't think it has to do with the fact that they are dedicated to their career. I think there are plenty of women who would rather be back packing Europe than wiping snotty noses. But, that is just one opinion.

70:

The odds are greater that the man will have a heart attack.

In my firm, most women partners are part-time. Many women associates leave after kid #2. Life sucks. I spent my maternity leave working. It sucked. There aren't enough of us around to have kids. The people who stay, guys, have heart attacks (or have their prostates give them trouble). Either way, they get to convalesce, with people telling you how dedicated you are and how you need to rest up. The last one, I've never heard.

Even after having had one, baby = not quite dedicated to job, to many people.

What a lot of people here don't seem to understand is that these are also the best firms for men and women who aren't parents. These are the best firms for anyone who doesn't have a diseased need to work themselves sick for every waking moment of their lives. These are the best firms for people who regard themselves as human beings first and lawyers second. If you'd prefer a firm where they work to death childless men and women as well as absentee parents equally, by all means go somewhere else.

Finally the truth about Bingham comes out that it is not one of the best places to work especially for parents (male or female). As you as you become a parent at Bingham they start pushing you out of the firm by any means necessary. I don't have kids but notice how the associates with children and pregnant females are treated like second class citizens.

Thank you 81, for clarifying DPW's policy.

81: So, all a parent without a DPW spouse (which seems like about 99.9% of leave-takers) needs to do is self-identify as the primary caregiver to get ten weeks? Why not just lie about it?

DLA, once again, did not make the cut and rightly so.

71,

Left as a senior associate and am now in-house counsel at a Fortune 500 company.

My reviews were good, my clients loved me and I was starting to bring in work on my own, and the firm even offered to move me to another office and groom me to take over my practice in my geographic area after the partner managing it in my part of the world left to join a client. I'd like to think I would have made partner, and I know I would have made a damn good one had I kept going and made it. But I realized that big firm practice was a never ending sprint servicing clients who expect you, at today's rates, to sacrifice *everything* for them, to move heaven and earth, right now, and that I would never have anything resembling a physically or psychologically healthy life working in that environment.

There may have been a time that being a big firm partner was an attractive proposition, and I suppose it still is to a lot of people. Not to me though. Nowadays, there is no working toward the prize and then getting to have a life and the money too - you may make seven figures, but your adult life will be filled with work, and a big side of anguish about everything you're missing. No thanks.

Regards,
68

The marketing departments at these firms are the ones who send in the data. I know another Chicago firm who laid off all those who chose to work the reduced schedule that had been touted as a viable option for those who wanted some balance in life. Women are miserable there and there are few of them who have any positions of power. This is all just a magazine selling scheme-supported by firms who think nothing of laying off people but spend thousands on marketing and new offices.

The marketing departments at these firms are the ones who send in the data. I know another Chicago firm who laid off all those who chose to work the reduced schedule that had been touted as a viable option for those who wanted some balance in life. Women are miserable there and there are few of them who have any positions of power. This is all just a magazine selling scheme-supported by firms who think nothing of laying off people but spend thousands on marketing and new offices.

This list is a joke.

At several of the "winning" firms, women on maternity leave are being laid off. Best places to work??

80 (McDermott) --

Not sure what office you're talking about, but I'm a woman willing to go to bat for McDermott's DC office. The office has part-time women partners (income and capital), it has allowed at least one female associate to telecommute, and it has a relatively high number of female capital partners.

Perkins Coie is based in Seattle not Chicago.

The fact that Paul Weiss is on this list proves what a joke it is.

Ditto for the comments about these firms not being for you if you take your career seriously and are not a mommy tracker. They love to have excuses for not making women equity partners, but want to attract female associates, as well as overqualified women whom they can pay less based on their working part time.

Ditto for the comments about these firms not being for you if you take your career seriously and are not a mommy tracker. They love to have excuses for not making women equity partners, but want to attract female associates, as well as overqualified senior women whom they can pay less based on their working part time.

Ditto for the comments about these firms not being for you if you take your career seriously and are not a mommy tracker. They love to have excuses for not making women equity partners, but want to attract female associates, as well as overqualified more senior women whom they can pay less based on their working part time.

The best law firms for women are those that encourage men, as well as women, to take family leave and have special part time positions for men who have children. Any firm that focuses its child-rearing support efforts on women and implies that the responsibility is more with the woman than with the man is very sexist.

I worked at Fried Frank until laid off and, based on my experience being threatened with termination, TWICE (the first time because I took six sick days as of the summer of that year because I had to stay home to care for sick children; the second time was after taking FMLA for a sick parent), the list is a sham. I protested outside the Sep. 15, 2009 Working Mother luncheon with my "Mother Laid Off By Fried Frank After 25 Years Needs Job" placard, and have given the firm my own "Sick Babies and Elderly Parents Award."