Lisa Gilford, president of the National Association of Women Lawyers and a partner at Alston & Bird in Los Angeles.
Survey says: Women lag far behind as rainmakers
October 26, 2009
In its fourth annual report on how women are faring in the profession, the National Association of Women Lawyers has, for the first time, zeroed in on women as rainmakers. The conclusion: Women are "surprisingly weak" in bringing in new business.
The group found that at 46% of law firms surveyed this year there weren't any women among the top 10 rainmakers, while 32% had one, 15% had two, and 6% had three or four.
"We were shocked to find how big a disparity there is," said Lisa Gilford, president of the association and an equity partner in the Los Angeles office of Atlanta-based Alston & Bird. "We really want to look and find out why." She suggested there may be structural barriers at firms keeping women from getting credit for clients they land or excluding them from opportunities to win new business.
The study, based on information collected in February from the 200 largest U.S. firms, charts women lawyers' progress in compensation, partnership status and leadership posts. This year the study also examined how women fared in losing jobs as firms slashed costs in the face of the recession. The report showed that women and men were cut in equal numbers among full-time lawyers, but women suffered disproportionately in part-time terminations, mainly because they filled such a large portion of such positions.
The latter loss "concerns us because it obviously thins the ranks of the number of women who are now able to succeed up the ranks of law firms," said Gilford, who worked part-time at her firm for a while after having her second child.
The pay gap between men and women equity partners narrowed slightly this year, with men earning $565,200 on average and women taking in $499,350 — or 88% of their male counterparts' pay, compared to 87% last year. The report attributed that shrinkage mainly to an overall pay decline amid the recession. At the nonequity partner level, there was also improvement with women earning 92% of their male counterparts' pay, compared to 87% last year.
The Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts released a separate study on Oct. 15, showing that women in the state have left the profession in greater numbers than men. In Massachusetts, women now make up about 57% of inactive lawyers and 34% of active attorneys.
The Massachusetts study, based on a survey of 24,587 lawyers, also found that women outnumber men in government and nonprofit legal jobs and are under-represented at law firms. Of active women lawyers, 69% work at law firms, 15% for government agencies and 5% for nonprofits, the study said. The figures for men are 81%, 7% and 2%, respectively.
Lynne Marek can be contacted at lmarek@alm.com.
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