Today's legal leaders are supporting female lawyers with work-life balance and women-friendly policies, offering new standards that retain and promote top female legal talent in a male-driven field. With that, the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) and Flex-Time Lawyers today announce the NAFE and Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women. NAFE is a division of Working Mother Media.
"Our research team has seen an increase in the number of female partners working at the Best Law Firms within the past five years, with women as 19 percent of equity partners, compared to the national average of 15 percent," said Dr. Betty Spence, President, NAFE. "We applaud how the 2011 Best Law Firms for Women are making it possible for women to succeed by offering programs and policies that support their needs."
The 2011 NAFE & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women are continuing to redefine the standards of success, with written reduced hour policies at 100 percent of the winning firms and 78 percent who are offering full-time telecommuting. Now in its fifth year, the Best Law Firms for Women have increased support for programs that encourage networking, training and mentoring, with 80 percent of the firms offering mentoring circles for women and 90 percent offering management/leadership training.
"The 2011 Best Law Firms for Women are encouraging the retention and promotion of women, in addition to creating conducive work environments for all lawyers to thrive," said Deborah Epstein Henry, Founder and President, Flex-Time Lawyers. "By offering leadership and business development opportunities for women, along with generous flexibility, parental leave and childcare programs, these firms are better poised to retain and promote the brightest legal minds, with the goal of reaching parity for women in the profession."
When compared to the launch of the Best Law Firms for Women initiative in 2007, the 2011 Firms have increased female representation at the Counsel (41 percent), Non-Equity Partner (28 percent), and Equity Partner (19 percent) levels. At the winning Firms, women hold 18 percent of compensation, 19 percent of executive, and 23 percent of equity partner promotion committee seats. The Best Law Firms for Women are also leading the legal industry by example in the area of childcare, with 78 percent offering backup childcare and 62 percent offering subsidized in-home backup childcare.
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The 2011 NAFE & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women
- Arent Fox LLP
- Baker & McKenzie LLP
- Ballard Spahr LLP
- Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP
- Chapman and Cutler LLP
- Covington & Burling LLP
- Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
- Dorsey & Whitney LLP
- Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
- Faegre & Benson LLP
- Farella Braun + Martel LLP
- Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, L.L.P.
- Fox Rothschild LLP
- Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
- Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.
- Gibbons P.C.
- Godfrey & Kahn, S.C.
- Goodwin Procter LLP
- Gray Plant Mooty Law Firm
- Hanson Bridgett LLP
- Holland & Hart LLP
- Holland & Knight LLP
- Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP
- Hunton & Williams LLP
- Jenner & Block LLP
- Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
- Kramer Levin
- Latham & Watkins LLP
- Lindquist & Vennum
- Littler Mendelson
- Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
- McGuireWoods LLP
- Morrison & Foerster, LLP
- Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP
- Nilan Johnson Lewis
- Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
- Paul Hastings
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP
- Perkins Coie LLP
- Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
- Quarles & Brady LLP
- Seyfarth Shaw LLP
- Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
- Sidley Austin LLP
- Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP
- Steptoe & Johnson LLP
- Thompson Hine LLP
- Vinson & Elkins LLP
- Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
Methodology: The 2011 Best Law Firms for Women application was developed in a partnership between Working Mother Media and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC. Firms with at least 50 lawyers were eligible to apply and the application included detailed questions about the issues that are most important to the retention and promotion of female lawyers. Completed applications were collected online from November 12, 2010 to January 21, 2011. All data for the 2011 survey was collected from the full year of 2010. The 50 winning firms were selected based on their responses to an application measuring areas such as workforce profile, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation, advancement and retention of women.