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Do Solo Practice Women Lawyers Charge Less Than Their Male Counterparts?
By sintecho • February 23, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
In December of 2007, ALM Research released the results of its survey of 5,000 lawyers working in small and midsize firms and solo practices. The respondents were 78% male and 22% female, which could mean that fewer women work in smaller firms and solo practice; or that women were less inclined to participate; or that fewer women are "leader, manager, partner, shareholder, or owner" of these firms, since ALM reports that these were the majority of the people answering the survey. The survey itself costs $550 to access, but Business Wire reports on its troubling findings on gender: women lawyers…
A Girl Just Wants to Have Fun: Do I Have to Be Serious to Be Taken Seriously?
By jessie kornberg • February 23, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
I can be something of a girly-girl: I think I make a bubbly first impression, I can have a silly sense of humor, I spend a lot of time thinking about my shoes, and I waste time reading about celebrities. Basically I engage in some frivolity, and I like that about myself. Intellectually, I'm into tax policy; so mostly I figure the patent-leather pumps are a positive indication of well-roundedness. Unfortunately that's not necessarily how others perceive these traits; it seems to me that youthful, stereotypically feminine attributes are frowned upon, especially by the generation of pioneers who broke into…
Allison Wolf Gives Advice on Rainmaking for Young Women Attorneys
By Elizabeth • February 18, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
Allison Wolf wrote an interesting piece on how to become a rainmaker as a young woman lawyer, even if you don’t view yourself as the conventional rainmaker. Wolf describes the stereotypical rainmaker as an extroverted man who “likes to talk” and is “a bit egotistical but keeps it in check” and "always out and about networking, attending events, and talking business.” Women who consider themselves for a rainmaking role, Wolf asserts, “determine ‘that’s not me’” based on the following reflections: “I’m not a grandstander.” “I don’t like to talk about my achievements.” “I don’t like networking events; I never know…
How Men and Women Can Work Together at Law Firms [Clippings]
By Anna Nelson • February 09, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
Jennifer Bluestein, director of professional development for the Chicago office of Baker & McKenzie, observes that most training to remedy gender inequalities at firms is geared toward women. Presentations teach female associates how to climb upward. Bluestein argues that male partners also need to learn how to reach downward. There are three ways that senior men can offer a hand up:Managing partners, practice group chairs and senior partners can help women have the same chance of succeeding as the men do. First, women need mentors, just as men do. Second, women need flexibility and career choices, just as men do.…
DirectWomen Board Institute trains senior attorneys to serve on corporate boards
By Anna Nelson • February 09, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
If you or a senior attorney you know would like to serve on a corporate board, you'll want to know about the DirectWomen Board Institute. DirectWomen is a little over a year old--it started around the same time as Ms. JD. While a lot of our stuff focuses on the front end of legal careers (for students and associates), DirectWomen works on the back end (retiring business attorneys). The ABA-sponsored initiative means "to identify, develop, and support a select group of accomplished women attorneys to provide qualified directors needed by the boards of U.S. companies." DirectWomen does three main things:1.…
Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be [Clippings]
By Anna Nelson • February 09, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
Sometime Ms. JD blogger and ever-faithful friend of the solo practitioner Carolyn Elefant has written a new book, Solo by Choice: How to Be the Lawyer You Always Wanted to Be. As a solo practitioner and a regular contributor to law.com, she is an expert on the subject and a woman successfully forging her own path in the legal profession. I haven't had a chance to read the book, but Susan Carter Liebel (another Ms. JD contributor, who also knows her stuff about building a solo practice) says it's "a good reference book filled with great information aggregated in one…
Five Big Law firms ranked in Fortune’s 100 best companies to work for
By Anna Nelson • February 04, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
Five of the biggest Big Law firms are ranked in Fortune magazine's 2008 ranking of the 100 best companies to work for. The issue hits newsstands today, February 4th. Arnold & Porter comes in at #19, Alston & Bird at #31, Bingham McCutchen at #41, Perkins Coie at #55, and Nixon Peabody at #66. [The full list of companies is here--I tripled-checked, but tell me in the comments if I missed mentioning any legal employers on the list!]To compile the ranking, Fortune and the Great Place to Work Institute surveyed just over 400 companies that are at least 7 years…
Clippings: NYT on Law Firms’ Changing Attitudes towards Work/Life Balance
By jessie kornberg • January 24, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
Lisa Belkin interviews Deborah Epstein Henry and details the recent and rapid transformation of many law firms' policies in today's New York Times article, Who's Cuddly Now? Law Firms. Among other signs of change, Belkin noted this touching vignette:A harbinger of changing times might well be the brief filed by the hard-driving white-shoe firm of Weil Gotshal & Manges of New York, asking a judge to reschedule hearings set for Dec. 18, 19, 20 and 27 of last year.“Those dates are smack in the middle of our children’s winter breaks, which are sometimes the only times to be with our…
Open invitation to Debbie Epstein Henry talk & networking reception in DC @ White and Case (RSVP required)
By Anna Nelson • January 22, 2008 •Firms and the Private Sector
Kelly Hoey (White and Case) & Anna MacCormack (NYU Law School) have very nicely extended an invitation to Ms. JD readers in the DC area to attend a free networking reception & presentation on Feb. 4th with Debbie Epstein Henry (another of our favorite women in law) talking about the Best Law Firms for Women ranking she undertook with Working Mother Magazine last year. (We analyzed her survey results here and here.) You can RSVP until January 31st. See the flyer after the jump for more details...Meanwhile, since Kelly and Anna emailed me this invite and asked us to post…