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Year in and year out, we watch law firm after law firm pay lip service to their commitment to diversity in the legal profession, with promises to put women attorneys on equal footing with their male counterparts, whether it be through hiring and retaining more women attorneys, promoting more women attorneys to equity partnership ranks, providing more leadership positions to women attorneys, or adopting more family-friendly policies to ensure that women attorneys are able to excel at their jobs while maintaining a stable work/life balance. Despite these continued assurances, and despite the fact that a number of firms have made great efforts to improve women’s stature in the law, there is still much more to be done.
Today, Working Mother released its thirteenth annual list of the 60 Best Law Firms for Women. These law firms are considered pioneers in the field when it comes to attracting, retaining, and promoting women lawyers. These law firms not only stand out as being family-friendly workplaces, but they also ensure that women shine in their equity partnership ranks.
Which firms made the cut for this year’s ranking?
To earn themselves a spot on the Working Mother Best Law Firms list, self-selected applicant firms with 50 or more lawyers must complete an extensive application (more than 300 questions long) with topics ranging from attorney representation, schedule flexibility, paid time off and parental leaves, and development and retention of women. Working Mother then selected the 60 best firms based on data provided by those firms from the year 2019 (i.e., pre-pandemic data). “Law firms on this year’s list were better prepared to respond to the effects of the pandemic because of their continued support of flextime and remote work for working parents and caregivers,” said Subha V. Barry, president of Working Mother Media. “We are proud to recognize their resilience and steadfast commitment to supporting gender equality.”
Here are some of the interesting results gleaned from Working Mother’s study:
Flexibility Has Been Increasing
- Pre COVID-19, all these firms offered reduced hours and remote work for lawyers. Thirty-nine percent of female lawyers used remote work in 2019.
Top Law Firms Hold Leaders Accountable for These Factors
- Career progression of women lawyers who are direct reports…72%
- Managing work-life issues of direct reports…67%
- Career progression of lawyers working reduced hours who are direct reports…66%
Advancement Matters
- The number of women lawyers promoted to equity partner has increased by almost 25% in the past five years.
- All firms on the list offer formal mentoring and 50 percent of mentees are women.
- Two-third of the firms on the list have formal sponsorship with 62% of participants female.
Women have made great progress at Biglaw firms in recent years, but which firms have been most receptive to their advancement? This year’s list highlights firms that averaged 23 percent women among equity partners, compared with only 20 percent five years ago. Women of color make up 14 percent of equity partners (up from 11 percent five years ago). Here’s the list of the 60 Best Law Firms for Women in 2020:
Akerman
Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer
Baker McKenzie
Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz
Ballard Spahr
Bass, Berry & Sims
Blank Rome
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner
Chapman and Cutler
Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete
Cooley
Crowell & Moring
Culhane Meadows
Davis Graham & Stubbs
Davis Wright Tremaine
Day Pitney
Dechert
DLA Piper
Dorsey & Whitney
Duane Morris
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath
Fenwick & West
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner
Fish & Richardson
Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
Goodwin Procter
Hanson Bridgett
Holland & Hart
Holland & Knight
Jackson Lewis P.C.
Katten
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Littler
Lockridge Grindal Nauen
Lowenstein Sandler
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
McDermott Will & Emery
Michael Best & Friedrich
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Morrison & Foerster
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart
O’Melveny & Myers
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Perkins Coie
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman
Quarles & Brady
Reed Smith
Ropes & Gray
Seyfarth Shaw
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton
Shook, Hardy & Bacon
Sidley Austin
Steptoe & Johnson
Stinson
Taft Stettinius & Hollister
Vinson & Elkins
Wiley
WilmerHale
Congratulations are in order for all of the firms returning to the list this year, as well as the firms that are new to the 2020 list. Way to represent your women attorneys!
If your firm didn’t make the cut, do you think it should have? If your firm did make the cut, was it deserved? What can be done to improve work/life balance for women and working mothers? If you’d like to let us know what you think, you can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog. Congratulations to all of the law firms that made this important ranking!
2020 Best Law Firms for Women [Working Mother]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.