Few Women Amongst Newly Minted Law Firm Partners

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As of last Thursday, there were five law firms from the Am Law 200 that did not announce a woman making partner, according to The Am Law Daily. Those five firms are Edwards Wildman Palmer; Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton; Locke Lord; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and Stroock & Stroock & Lavan.

Locke Lord and Gibson Dunn said that the lack of female promotions was an anomaly and said that they are dedicated to gender diversity. Stroock and Edwards Wildman refused to answer questions directed to their firms and Cleary’s managing partner Mark Leddy did not respond with any comments.

  

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“It’s not necessarily surprising, but it’s disheartening to see classes of partner in this day and age that don’t have any women,” Deborah Froling said. Froling is an Arent Fox partner in Washington, D.C. She is the president of the National Association of Women Lawyers. “It starts early. It starts with where you get assigned; whether you get someone to sponsor you … Women very quickly fall behind. They’re not getting the assignments, not getting mentoring, not being taken on pitches, not getting the experience in the courtroom. You can lose those opportunities very rapidly.”

According to data from The Am Law Daily, 30.6 percent of new partners announced as of last week were women. The percentage comes from a total of 493 women who had been promoted to partner in the Am Law 200. The numbers are down from 2013, at 34 percent and 2012, at 32 percent.

Locke Lord and Cleary promoted six attorneys to partner last week. Stroock promoted just three new partners. Gibson Dunn and Edwards Wildman promoted seven attorneys to partner.

The chair of Locke Lord, Jerry Clements, said, “We really have an environment around here that stresses mentoring women, bringing them up through the partnership ranks. A lot of our women partners are involved in mentoring, making sure our women don’t feel a sense of isolation, that they’re included in both professional and social activities, are on key client teams, and have a role in developing client relationships.”

Browse open attorney jobs for Locke Lord; Stroock, Stroock & Lavan; Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and Edwards Wildman Palmer at LawCrossing today.