It is no secret that women are grossly underrepresented and underpaid by comparison to their similarly qualified male peers in the upper echelons of the legal profession. According to NAWL’s 2017 annual survey report, approximately 19 percent of women in AmLaw 200 firms make equity partner, 97 percent of firms report that their top earner is a man, and 70 percent have only one or no women as their top 10 earners. Additionally, according to Law360’s 2018 glass ceiling report, women account for only 12 percent of the highest firm leadership roles as managing partner, chairman, or CEO. Women are also leaving law firms in droves at the more senior levels. By most accounts, a woman’s prospects at a law firm are particularly bleak if she is a working mother, and worse still if she is a minority.

Law firms and organizations attempting to tackle the problem have shown modest outcomes. Firms with robust “women’s initiatives” and “flex programs” report some success in improving retention and promotion of women lawyers as a result of having implemented those programs. Although some stand-out women succeed despite the odds, those women are the exception rather than the rule, and progress has generally been underwhelming. The reasons for this lack of progress have been analyzed at length. One of the reasons for leaving law firms cited by women are schedules and demands that are incompatible with mothering. Those expectations result from an obsolete structure and mentality from which many law firms have been loath to part. I do not pretend to have all the answers; rather, I offer my own perspective as a minority mother of two children who has spent most of her career in private practice. I believe that seriously embracing technology and new management styles assists in the retention and advancement of women in law firms, and benefits all lawyers able to take advantage of flexible schedules and working remotely.