50 Best Law Firms for Women Named by Working Mother magazine
Working Mother magazine has named the top 50 best law firms for women (see below), based on their retention and promotion of female lawyers, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation, among other factors.
Being named to the list is a huge marketing coup. For example, Bass Berry & Sims of Nashville and Memphis put the honor on their website, uploaded a PDF of the entire article, and sent an email to clients, bloggers and others. “Bass, Berry & Sims is honored to be named as one of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women,” says Managing Partner Keith Simmons. “This recognition from Working Mother magazine reaffirms that we have a great place to work and that our diligence in attracting, retaining and promoting female attorneys is working.”
Women comprise 36 percent of Bass Berry's attorney workforce and women hold several leadership roles within the firm, including Leigh Walton (Executive Committee), Anna Grizzle (Entry Level Hiring chair), Cindy Sellers (Business Development and Client Relations chair), Karen S. Neal (Diversity Committee chair), and Tara Swafford and Andrea McKellar (co-chairs of the firm’s Female Mentor Group).
Clients like working with law firms that are family friendly (as opposed to sweatshops where there is pressure to produce billable hours above all). Being on the list will please corporate executives and general counsel, many of whom are women nowadays. It is also a boon to business development, because a lawyer can bring up the honor to start a conversation with a prospective client.
Firms with at least 50 lawyers were eligible to apply. The applicant pool was self-selected. Surveys were scored based on an algorithm that gave different weights to specific survey sections and questions.
Congratulations to all the winners:
- Andrews Kurth
- Arent Fox
- Arnold & Porter
- Baker & McKenzie
- Bass, Berry & Sims
- Bingham McCutchen
- Bricker & Eckler
- Chapman and Cutler
- Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
- Covington & Burling
- Cravath, Swaine & Moore
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Debevoise & Plimpton
- Dorsey & Whitney
- Farella Braun + Marcel
- Fenwick & West
- Foley Hoag
- Folger Levin & Kahn
- Fox Rothschild
- Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
- Gibbons
- Gray Plant Mooty
- Heller Ehrman
- Hogan & Hartson
- Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn
- Hunton & Williams
- Ice Miller
- Jenner & Block
- Katten Muchin Rosenman
- Kutak Rock
- Latham & Watkins
- Lindquist & Vennum
- Littler Mendelson
- Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
- Miller & Chevalier
- Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
- Morrison & Foerster
- Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg
- Patton Boggs
- Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
- Perkins Coie
- Shearman & Sterling
- Shook, Hardy & Bacon
- Sidley Austin
- Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
- Steptoe & Johnson
- Sullivan & Cromwell
- Vinson & Elkins
- WilmerHale
- Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Having worked at one of these "family friendly" firms as a single mother, in my opinion this list is a sick joke. Perhaps workable for a male partner with a stay-at-home wife and two nannies, not so much for working mothers.