Biglaw

The Glass Ceiling Report: Law Firms 'Fundamentally Struggle' To Support Women

But the future is female at some firms (at least when it comes to who's in charge).

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No news is good news, right? Not when it comes to women’s progress in the legal profession — not at all.

Despite the fact that women lawyers across the country have led movements for gender equality and equal pay, gender parity within the law is still a “distant goal.” Women continue to be underrepresented in private practice, especially when it comes to attaining leadership roles. In fact, in the last year at the average law firm, from associate to equity partner, women’s representation has increased by no more than a percentage point, a statistic that’s been depressingly static for years.

There are now more women in law school than ever before, but men still lead the pack when it comes to private practice, making up about two-thirds of attorneys in this sector of the legal profession with gender-discrimination suits still being continuously filed by women. What’s more (but more accurately, much less) is that within those private practice firms, only 22.2 percent of equity partners are women.

This was all before the pandemic, when law firms were “fundamentally struggl[ing] to support the rise of women in their workforce, at all levels.” We shudder to think what this data will look like next year.

How can progress for women in the law be made when the odds seem to be stacked against them? Some law firms are leading the way, and thanks to Law360’s annual Glass Ceiling Report, we now know which ones are the best for women.

Law360 surveyed more than 300 U.S. firms, or vereins with a U.S. component, about the demographics of their lawyer workforce as of December 31, 2019. Firms were then grouped into tiers based on U.S. attorney headcount, and ranked by the percentage of female attorneys and female equity partners at the firm.

In the biggest of Biglaw category, those with 601+ attorneys, the top 5 firms are:

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1. Littler
1. Jackson Lewis
3. Ropes & Gray
4. Cooley
5. Ogletree

For Biglaw firms with slightly smaller headcount, 251-600 attorneys, the top 5 are:

1. Fragomen
2. Davis Wright Tremaine
3. Fredrikson & Byron
4. Shook Hardy
5. Debevoise

You can check out Law360 (sub. req.) for rankings of smaller law firms.

There may yet be good news ahead for women in the law, because at several firms, the future is female (at least when it comes to who’s in charge):

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There have been some recent bright spots in the past year, however. The legal industry kicked off 2020 with a series of announcements that women had been appointed to lead U.S. and global law firms.

In the first few months of 2020, at least seven law firms announced that women had become their top leaders.

Women also made up 40% of attorneys promoted to partner, equity or nonequity, in 2019 according to survey data collected by Law360. This suggests firms will have increasing opportunities to shift the gender balance in leadership roles in future years, as long as they can retain that talent in the partnership ranks.

Congratulations to all of the women who were promoted to partner this year, and especially to the women who were chosen to lead some of the largest law firms in the world. Kudos to all Biglaw firms that do more than just pay lip service to gender parity and actually follow through to make these important and necessary changes.

Glass Ceiling Report: How Does Your Firm Measure Up? [Law360 (sub. req.)]
Law360’s Glass Ceiling Report: What You Need To Know [Law360 (sub. req.)]

Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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