Women have made up more than 40 percent of law school students since 1985, and nearly half since 2000. Today, more graduating law school students are women than men. There are plenty of women lawyers, and there have been for decades, so why are relatively few making it to the top of the profession?
While firms hire about equal numbers of women and men as associates, women make up only 30 percent of nonequity partners, about 20 percent of equity partners and a mere 12 percent of the highest firm leadership roles, according to the National Association of Women Lawyers. Less than 3 percent of equity partners are minority women. Only 18 percent of law firms report a woman among their managing partners. Women are only slightly better represented among in-house leadership, comprising less than a quarter of general counsel in Fortune 500 companies and less than 20 percent of GCs at Fortune 501-1000 companies, according to the American Bar Association. One-third of sitting federal judges and only 31 percent of state judges are women.
