More Part Time Lawyers Are Women (duh)

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.

I can do anything you can do better!

So there's an article in the NYlawyer.com yesterday about women and law firm recruiting. The article is titled: Generation XX . (I'm not sure what that's about. Hey, NYL, is that some sort of reference to pornography?) Anyway, you can find it here but it requires a registration.

The article reports that a high percentage of law firms are reporting that their summer classes have equal or higher numbers of women than men. To me this makes perfect sense because law school classes are close to equal. So why is this news?

"Just from talking to attorneys at other firms, we all have the distinct impression that women are disproportionately represented in the upper ranks of the classes in terms of their grades," says Lovita T. Tandy, a partner in the Altanta office of King & Spalding and chair of the firm's Diversity Committee.

Oh, so that's why -- girls are smarter than boys?

How to Play Your Cards

In my opinion, the most challenging thing about being a career woman is learning how to play your cards.