Survey: Women on decline in law firm ranks

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Women’s ranks in firms are thinning, according to an annual survey from the National Association of Women Lawyers.

For the first time since the NAWL Foundation’s Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms began in 2006, there has been a slight decline in the percentage of women lawyers who are associates and non-equity partners in the nation’s largest firms.

The survey of the nation’s 200 largest law firms found the following:

• Women have a much lower rate than men in promotion to equity partnership: Women lawyers account for barely 15 percent of equity partners.

• Women lawyers are more likely to occupy positions that are not on a partner track. More than three-quarters of responding firms employ nontraditional “staff” attorneys, which are not partner-track jobs.

• Women represent 55 percent of staff attorneys, the highest percentage of women lawyers in any law firm position.

• Women are not credited as rainmakers. Women partners are less likely than men to receive credit for even a relatively modest $500,000 “book of business.”

• Women have low representation in law firm leadership. The majority of large firms have, at most, two women members on their highest governing committee. A substantial number have no women (11 percent of firms) or only one woman (35 percent of firms) on their highest governing committee. Only 5 percent of firms place women in the role of overall managing partner.

• Two-tier/mixed-tier firms are less favorable to women. The phenomena of two-tier and mixed-tier partnership structures continue to have a negative impact on women lawyers. Regarding both compensation and advancement to equity partnership, women lawyers appear to be most consistently successful in one-tier firms.