NEW YORK, May 29, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Women continue to make only slight progress toward equal representation at law firms in the U.S., according to Law360’s 2018 Glass Ceiling Report, which was released today by the legal and regulatory news agency. This year marks Law360’s fifth annual report, which analyzes the demographic makeup of more than 300 U.S.-based law firms.
The report reveals that just 36% of all attorneys are women, even though women have comprised more than 40% of law school students for over three decades. At the partner levels, the representation of women shrinks even further. Just over 23% of law firm partners — either nonequity or equity — are women, and just over 20% of equity partners are women. Forty-five percent of nonpartners — associates, of counsel and staff attorneys — are women, but at no level of the typical law firm did the representation of women increase by more than a percentage point since last year’s survey.
While women of color made up nearly one-fifth of the first-year law school students in 2017, the latest Glass Ceiling Report shows that only 8% of private practice attorneys and 3% of law firm partners — either equity or nonequity — are women of color.
Women also continue to hold a disproportionately small percentage of leadership positions at U.S. firms in 2018. Just over 12% of law firm leaders are women, Law360’s survey shows. However, the report also indicates that firms that have placed women in top leadership roles tend to have higher levels of representation for women across the entire attorney workforce. For example, average representation of female attorneys at firms with a woman in a leadership role is 3 percentage points higher than the average of all firms surveyed, and representation of female equity partners at such firms is 5 percentage points higher.
“While this year's Glass Ceiling Report shows very modest gains for women, the numbers reflect what we've seen over the past five years,” Law360 editor-in-chief Anne Urda said. “And that is that women are significantly underrepresented in the legal workforce, particularly at the partner and equity partner levels.”
“Still, conversations we've had with female law firm leaders this year suggest that the #MeToo movement has sparked fresh discussions inside law firms about gender discrimination and gender equality, which may spur changes down the road,” Urda added.
While firms of all sizes profess their commitment to gender diversity, some definitely are doing better than others. At the top-ranked firms in Law360’s survey – including Littler Mendelson, Fragomen and FordHarrison – women make up at least 50% of the total attorney workforce. Littler and FordHarrison also have equity partnerships that are more than 30 percent female, while Fragomen tops 40 percent, dramatically higher than the typical law firm.
Few firms are immune to gender discrimination, harassment and pay inequity, however. Nearly one-third of female respondents to Law360’s Attorney Satisfaction Survey, to be released this summer, report having experienced sexual harassment, and more than one-half said they had faced gender discrimination on the job.
The full 2018 Glass Ceiling Report is available via subscription to Law360. To subscribe, please visit www.law360.com/subscribe or email customerservice@law360.com.
Methodology: For the 2018 Law360 Glass Ceiling Report, Law360 surveyed over 300 U.S.-based law firms, or vereins with a U.S. component, on their U.S. demographic makeup as of Dec. 31, 2017. Only firms with at least 20 attorneys were eligible to participate. Eighty-eight of the top 100 firms by headcount participated in the survey, while 81% of the top 200 firms by headcount took part.
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