in 2004, the Chicago Bar Association’s Alliance for Women the created the “Call to Action” project, a three year program to increase women in leadship roles. Forty-four Chicago firms signed the pledge, agreeing to foster diversity in the legal profession. Each law firm signatory's goal was to:

• increase the percent of its women partners by 3 percentage points from its 2004 levels by December 31, 2007.
• have women represented on every firm committee in the same proportion as the number of women partners at the firm by December 31, 2007.
• increase the number of women practice group leaders at the firm by December 31, 2007.
• review its flexible hours policy and its use in order to ensure that alternative schedules are an equitable and viable option by December 31, 2007.
• materially improve any disparity in the rates in which men and women are retained, promoted, and laterally recruited at the firm by December 31, 2007. 

Almost a year has past since the three year deadline, but the ABA Journal, The National Law Journal, and the Chicago Tribune are all reporting that only 11 of the 44 firms achieved their pledged goals, including the Chicago offices of Bryan Cave; Seyfarth Shaw; Schiller DuCanto & Fleck; Foley & Lardner; Chapman and Cutler; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Hinshaw & Culbertson; Ungaretti & Harris; McDermott Will & Emery; Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson; Katten Muchin Rosenman; and Perkins & Coie.

Some attorneys criticize the association's figures because

they include women who have achieved the title of "partner" but do not have equity in their firms. Many firms have established a two-tier partnership as a way of concentrating ownership among fewer people. The Chicago association did not distinguish between the partner levels when it asked firms for their information. 

The ABA Journal reports that at the end of 2007, 19.31 percent of partners at Chicago law firms were women, compared to 18.12 percent in 2004.