Women are still finding progress slow when it comes to making partner.
According to a report released yesterday from the San Francisco-based Project for Attorney Retention, which surveyed 100 American law firms, only 23 of those firms had partnership classes consisting of at least 40 percent women in 2008. Fourteen of the 100 firms, including Washington-area Steptoe & Johnson and Venable, did not include any women.
Other Washington-area firms did better. Dickstein Shapiro tied for the top spot on the list with Cravath, Swaine & Moore, thanks to a new firmwide partnership class that was roughly 67 percent women. Wiley Rein was second, with a new partnership class that was 60 percent women.
The survey included 100 law firms, which were chosen based on prior years’ surveys, firm size, reputation, and availability of information.
In Washington, the overall size of partnership classes were generally down. At 16 of the D.C. 20 offices, there were fewer partners elected for 2009 partnership than the year before.
Comments