50 Best Law Firms for Women Named by Working Mother magazine

working mother, best law firms for women, law firm marketingWorking 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:

  1. Andrews Kurth
  2. Arent Fox
  3. Arnold & Porter
  4. Baker & McKenzie
  5. Bass, Berry & Sims
  6. Bingham McCutchen
  7. Bricker & Eckler
  8. Chapman and Cutler
  9. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
  10. Covington & Burling
  11. Cravath, Swaine & Moore
  12. Davis Polk & Wardwell
  13. Debevoise & Plimpton
  14. Dorsey & Whitney
  15. Farella Braun + Marcel
  16. Fenwick & West
  17. Foley Hoag
  18. Folger Levin & Kahn
  19. Fox Rothschild
  20. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
  21. Gibbons
  22. Gray Plant Mooty
  23. Heller Ehrman
  24. Hogan & Hartson
  25. Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn
  26. Hunton & Williams
  27. Ice Miller
  28. Jenner & Block
  29. Katten Muchin Rosenman
  30. Kutak Rock
  31. Latham & Watkins
  32. Lindquist & Vennum
  33. Littler Mendelson
  34. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
  35. Miller & Chevalier
  36. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
  37. Morrison & Foerster
  38. Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg
  39. Patton Boggs
  40. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
  41. Perkins Coie
  42. Shearman & Sterling
  43. Shook, Hardy & Bacon
  44. Sidley Austin
  45. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
  46. Steptoe & Johnson
  47. Sullivan & Cromwell
  48. Vinson & Elkins
  49. WilmerHale
  50. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

 

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CES - August 22, 2008 4:55 PM

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.

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