Tuesday, October 27, 2009

NAWL survey says women aren't making the rain happen

Speaking of gender gaps (see Laura's post) and coinciding with the anniversary celebration of the Minnesota gender fairness task force report, the National Association of Women Lawyers has issued its 2009 Report on the Status of Women in Law Firms. It shows that on average, a female equity partner earns $66,000 a year less than a male equity partner.
Also, women lawyers continue to lag significantly behind men as rainmakers in their firms with nearly half of major law firms indicating they have no women among their top 10 rainmakers. This does not bode well and will likely manifest itself in continued salary discrepancies between men and women.
“[W]omen lawyers are terribly underrepresented in the ranks of major rainmakers in large U.S. firms. Our data cannot tell us whether this underrepresentation is a function of less aggressive rainmaking activities among women, or the result of ‘inherited’ clients of the firm flowing to men, whether women are given opportunities to participate in business development on an equal footing with men, whether women are receiving credit for business development at the same rate as men, or if there is some other explanation for the observed differences,” the survey states.
In addition, the survey examined the affect that the economic downturn had on female lawyers, revealing that women have been disproportionately affected by the layoffs. Women constituted almost all of the terminated attorneys who practiced on a part-time basis. Among full-time lawyers, men and women were laid off proportionally.
Other results:
o About 14 percent of the nation’s largest law firms have no women on their governing committees;
o Women account for about 16 percent of equity partners;
o Women make up only about 15 percent of recent equity laterals, compared to 85 percent for men.
The survey results suggests women lawyers need to take a hard look at whether they are making the rain happen or whether there is an institutional umbrella over their practices.

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