Biglaw Women Relegated to 'Pink Ghetto' (When They Can Be Found at All)

Attorney and author Yolanda Young once alleged that Covington & Burling — her former employer and current adversary — had a “staff attorney ghetto.” Now, the National Organization for Women Lawyers (NAWL) wonders if there are so many female staff attorneys that the position is turning into a “pink ghetto.”

I don’t know much about life as a staff attorney or living in a ghetto. But I believe high debts, high stress, and low public regard are endemic to both. The difference is that you can usually find an apartment in the ghetto without spending tens of thousands of dollars on three years of education. Raise your hand if you would trade in your J.D. for a nice set of rims.

Obviously, things are tough for everybody during this recession, but a new NAWL report illustrates that things are especially tough for female attorneys. And not just for the obvious reasons. Sure, women are still criminally underrepresented in law firm partnerships and management positions. But we knew that already.

The exciting new type of discrimination that women face involves the one attorney job where they make up the majority…

Over at The Careerist, Vivia Chen describes the new news in the NAWL report:

One change in the profession is the proliferation of non-partner-track lawyers. NAWL finds that 80 percent of Am Law 100 firms and 50 percent of Second Hundred firms employ staff lawyers. But the big surprise is that “more than 60 percent of staff attorneys are women — the highest percentage of women lawyers in any category or practice, and by definition, a category with little possibility of career advancement.”

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You hear that ladies, you don’t have to be barefoot and pregnant — just hobbled and unable to advance. Yay?

The report suggests that firms might be looking to use staff attorneys instead of letting their own female attorneys work part time. But there is other disturbing news in this report:

NAWL finds that women constitute only 15 percent of equity partners (it’s been the same rate for the last five years) and are barely represented in the most influential committees at their law firms. What’s more, nearly half of the firms say that there’s not a single woman among their top ten rainmakers.

We know how the knuckle-dragging trolls will interpret this information (if you can call whatever self-serving thoughts echo inside their mostly empty brains “interpretation”). Women want/need/should work part time + Women not making rain = Totally okay to exile women to staff attorney positions. Remember, in Don Draper world, systemic gender inequality is what passes for “the good old days.”

What I see here, however, is a system that is not grooming and mentoring talented women so that they can one day become the rainmakers of the future. I think that the flat equity partner rates and the lack of top women rainmakers is proof of failed or lackadaisical business training on the part of firm leaders — training that males (officially or unofficially) receive as they move up the ladder. And the fact that so many firms seem so eager to relegate women to non-partner track associate positions is further evidence that women aren’t being invested in.

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Biglaw has a lot of work to do if it wants to get bring women up to the level of their male counterparts. But it doesn’t look like firms want to do this hard work. Instead, it’s a lot easier to shovel women into staff attorney positions and then act surprised when more people can’t get out from behind that eight-ball. It’s a classic “pull yourself up by your bootstraps — boot sold separately” approach.

Upon reflection, that sounds like exactly what happens in a real ghetto.

Study: Where Have all The Women Lawyers Gone? [WSJ Law Blog]
Recession Tough on Women Lawyers [The Careerist]

Earlier: Diversity Issues To Consider Before You Accept Your Offer