AmLaw's Vivia Chen has new numbers today breaking down the number of female equity partners in the AmLaw 200.  Before we get into them I want to emphasize what a big deal this is.  For months I, and many others, have been agitating about the lack of transparency in the female partnership numbers published by law firm ranking publications.  This busts through that to reveal exactly what we feared: pathetically low numbers of women with equity at many of the nation's largest firms.

Among single-tier firms the average percentage of female partners was 18% compared to an average of 13% of equity partners who were women at multi-tiered firms.  

First, it's important to understand what multi-tier means.  This doesn't refer to of-counsel or attorneys at law who stay at the firm without ever joining the partnership.  Multi-tier refers to law firms where different partners are subject to different compensation systems.  Equity partners draw from firm profits in proportional share.  Service, income, and other non-equity partners are compensated like associates, not based on books or business of firm profits, but on hours worked or a salary structure more akin to an associate's.  Non-equity partnership often also lacks voting powers and management authority.

And the distinction between single- and multi-tier matters.  More than a third of single tier firms had more than 20% female partnership compared to only 2 of the 51 multi-tiered firms surveyed.  Read that again.  See what I mean - this stuff is a big deal.

Another interesting set of statistics are the differences between the percentage of men and women partners who have equity.  Littler Mendelson has the highest percentage of equity partners who are female at 25%, BUT they also have a 19% gender gap in the percentage of partners who have equity (79% of male partners, 60% of female partners).  Not surprisingly, firms with a history of strong female leadership fare better in the department (see Shook Hardy, Dorsey & Whitney, Pillsbury Winthrop, and Fullbright & Jaworski for example).

Finally, you'll notice that as you move down the multi-tier firm chart into the firms with the lowest numbers of female equity partners the gender gaps between the percentages of partners who have equity tend to be higher.  You can imagine a firm saying, "yes our female partnership numbers are low, but we have very few service partners so our partnership number is more robust than other firms with higher numbers."  Well think again. 

So to all the 2Ls deciding in the coming days and weeks among offers from large law firms: take a look at AmLaw's data and see how they stack up.  I can't think of a better measure of your chances for future success and satisfaction.