Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr has announced its year-end promotions, and women have done particularly well this year. Of the nine counsel being moved up to partner, five are women.
Three counsel were promoted to partner in Washington, including two female partners. The new partners in D.C. are Hartmut Schneider, Nina Tallon, and Shirley Cassin Woodward.
Carol Clayton, Wilmer’s assistant managing partner, said the number of women being promoted is a reflection of the firm’s effort to hire and promote women. “We see this as the start of something we hope becomes a trend,” Clayton said.
The 2010 partner class also includes a new partner in London, two in Boston, and three in New York. This year’s class of partners is one person smaller than last year’s. Of the 10 lawyers who were promoted to partner last year, four were women.
In Wilmer’s non-partner promotions, women also made a strong showing. Eleven of the 14 new special counsel are women, as are 19 of the 54 new counsel, and 56 of the 100 new senior associates.
In other Wilmer news, the firm announced today that it would become the latest firm to move away from the lockstep approach to compensating associates, senior associates, and counsel. The Am Law Daily reports that the new compensation system, which will be phased in through 2012, will shift a larger portion of lawyers’ pay to their bonuses as opposed to base salaries.
Bonuses will be awarded based on merit and will not be linked to seniority or billable hours. Non-partner lawyers will be evaluated based on the quality of their work, efficiency, productivity, and ability to work as part of a team, Clayton said. She added that the move reflects what Wilmer is hearing from clients. “We feel that it’s important to align compensation with our clients’ focus on the value lawyers deliver,” Clayton said.
See the full Am Law Daily story here.
Good for them. Not only are they making it a point to promote women, but they're also making lawyers earn their keep.
Posted by: Joe | December 16, 2009 at 01:57 AM