You might not believe this, but I really did try to be positive about the report that the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) issued yesterday. Sure, the female equity partner equity rate is essentially stagnant, but, hell, that’s a lot better than having it plummet, right?
Well, that was the positive spin. Today, I’ll tell you what I find troubling about the NAWL report. For starters, an unprecedented number of Am Law 200 firms simply refused to be part of the survey at all. The NAWL report notes that 33 firms “declined to participate in this survey although they had previously participated in our survey as recently as last year.” (For the 2013 survey, 92 firms participated—50 Am Law 100 firms, and 42 in the Am Law Second Hundred.)
