Legal News

Women in BigLaw: Pounding Against the Glass Ceiling?

By Nathan Koppel

A survey released today offers a snapshot of how women are faring at corporate law firms. In short, the picture is fairly bleak.

Top law firms have worked hard to create a more inviting atmosphere for women, including offering more generous maternity-leave and flex-time policies along and networking events designed to introduce women to key client contacts.

But there is still progress to be made. According to a survey of 137 of the 200 large corporate defense firms by the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), about 48% of first and second-year associates are women. But the percentages dwindle from there; 27% of non-equity partners and less than 16% of equity partners are women.

There is also a considerable pay gap. At 99% of the firms, the top-paid partner is a man; on average, male equity partners earn more than $87,000 annually than female equity partners. (Fifty-nine firms in the AmLaw 200 reported compensation data.)

Lisa Horowitz, the president of the Association, chalks up the pay differential in part to the fact that women, come compensation time, are less prone to brag about their contributions. “Research has found that women don’t self promote” as much as men, she says. Another factor: many firms, she says, don’t adequately value women’s contributions beyond mere business generation, such as mentoring associates or participating in firm management.

The economy may only compound these gender differences, since firms are more apt to demote partners who aren’t big business generators; that means women, disproportionately. “Leaders of women’s bars are concerned about how economy will impact women lawyers,” says Stephanie Scharf, chair of the NAWL committee that conducted the survey.

LBers, let us hear your thoughts.

Photo: iStockPhoto

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 17, 2008 (boomark / email).