For years, the stereotype on Big Law has been that it hasn t done enough when it comes to gender diversity implementing diversity initiatives with varied effectiveness. Instead of seeing much progress reflected in the numbers, the data showed a year-over-year flatline on female headcount in Big Law and the data was particularly egregious at the upper echelons of firm partnership and management.
The new NLJ Female Scorecard data is in and it indicates that firms may finally be seeing some payoff to their efforts. Overall female headcount increased to 35% in 2017 from 32% in 2016 (an increase of 8% year-over-year and on par with national women in law statistics according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).*
*It is worth noting that there is some change in Female Scorecard firms annually, partially due to mergers amongst other factors which affects year-over-year trend data. In 2016, 254 firms recorded responses to scorecard while in 2017, 261 firms recorded responses. One notable example is Littler Mendelson, last featured on the scorecard in 2011 and who came in number 5 overall on the 2017 scorecard with 48% of their headcount female, 29% of their equity partnership and 54% of their non-equity partnership. Moreover, of the top 10 firms on the 2017 scorecard, 3 were new additions. The scorecard published in 2017 reflects data from the year prior.
Women in overall partnership increased a percentage point from 21% to 22%, as did equity partnership from 17% to 18% and female associates from 45% to 46% year-on-year.
A toast! Women in Big Law seem to finally be inching forward. Furthermore, when compared to some overseas data, US law firms are swimming in female talent. In a May 2017 article by Emma Ziercke and Markus Hartung of the Bucerius Center on the Legal Profession titled Fix the Firm or Fix the Woman?, the authors found that women make of 45% of newly qualified lawyers in Germany yet only make up 10% of partnership. Similarly, Japanese partnership shows comparable numbers, indicating that women make up only 11% of partnership.
But while the data at first glance seems rosy, it is too early to celebrate.
The first notation to these numbers is that the big increase came from the non-equity partner track, often termed the pink ghetto for the amount of women relegated to income partnership. Female headcount in non-equity partnership jumped a whopping 5 percentage points from 23% in 2016 to 28% in 2017 compare this to the slight increase of 1% in female equity partnership.
Moreover, in keeping with ALM Intelligence s recent white paper on the state of gender diversity in Big Law, Where Do we Go From Here?: Big Law s Struggle with Recruiting and Retaining Female Talent, firms topping this year s female scorecard were primarily focused on niche practice areas. A key takeaway from the report found that niche practice areas (including immigration, family law, health care, education and labor & employment), are the practice areas with the greatest proportion of women. However, top practice areas for Big Law (including litigation, corporate and banking) are not well-represented by female attorneys. The Female Scorecard indicates that this is not expected to change anytime soon.