women in large law firms

More Part Time Lawyers Are Women (duh)

Submitted by Manamana

NALP just released some new numbers on part time lawyers (see here for the New York Law Journal writeup). These are some pretty telling stats. Less than 6% of all attorneys work part time, even though 98% of law offices report offering part time options. Not surprisingly, most of those working part time are women (only 5.4% of all attorneys worked part time; close to 13% of women worked part time). New York continues to lag behind other markets in terms of flexibility in work arrangements.

Topic: Balancing Private and Professional Life
Optional tags: working mothers, Work, women in large law firms, part-time, flex-time

NAWL’s National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms, Part II

Submitted by Peg

In a previous post, I talked about some of the results recently reported by NAWL for their annual national survey. For the first time, NAWL asked firms questions about the retention policies and efforts to retain women lawyers. The survey focused on three structural issues: large minimum hour requirements, poor part-time policies, and the existence (or not) of a women’s initiative within the firm.

Topic: Firms and the Private Sector
Optional tags: women in large law firms, rankings, NAWL, Big Law

Money Talks: The free-market answer to more diversity in law firms

Submitted by KHernan881

With all the talk about diversity being a good business practice for law firms, it is nice to finally see a client put some pressure on law firms to change. In the November issue of Corporate Counsel magazine there is a short story about General Motors and the demands it makes of its outside counsel to be more diverse.

Topic: Firms and the Private Sector
Optional tags: women in large law firms, Diversity

Are these really the 50 best firms for women?

Submitted by rpontikes

Judge Nancy Gertner of the District of Massachusetts submitted the below Op Ed to Massachusetts Lawyer's Weekly (www.masslawyersweekly.com) commenting on the Working Mother 50 best law firms for women. She highlights that the word "honor" has to be put into the correct context since many of the firms in Boston on the list have lower than averagae women as equity partners.