Sexism Alive & Well In US Legal Blogging Community

Written by Sean Hocking

There is only one way to describe the comments raised about a new report issued by law firm Dorsey & Whitney  Project for Attorney Retention and subsequently published on the Above the Law Blog where the author notes that most partners are male......Scary Scary Scary and Vile Above the Law reprint the report: At a dozen firms, 50% or more of the new partners were women: Dorsey & Whitney (10 of 15 new partners are female, for 71%), Ropes & Gray (7 of 10 new partners are female, for 70%), Simpson Thacher & Bartlett (4 of 6 new partners are female, for 67%), Blackwell Sanders (8 of 12 new partners are female, for 67%), Cravath, Swaine & Moore (2 of 3 new partners are female, for 67%), Crowell & Moring (4 of 7 new partners are female, for 57%), DLA Piper (15 of 28 new partners are female, for 54%), Reed Smith (14 of 26 new partners are female, for 54%), Arnold & Porter (2 of 4 new partners are female, for 50%), Cadwalader (1 of 2 new partners is female, for 50%), Shearman & Sterling (3 of 6 new partners are female, for 50%), and Womble Carlyle (4 of 8 new partners are female, for 50%). Women made up less than half of the new partners at the other 65 firms surveyed. Some firms are in serious gender equality hot water. Here's the list of shame: Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein did not make a single female partner (0 of 8 new partners were female). For others, only one or two women lawyers were awarded the brass ring: Orrick (1 of 13 new partners is female, for 8%), Proskauer Rose (1 of 11 new partners is female, for 9%), Nixon Peabody (1 of 11 new partners is female, for 9%), Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman (1 of 11 new partners is female, for 9%), Baker & Daniels (1 of 9 new partners is female, for 11%), Vinson & Elkins (1 of 9 new partners is female, for 11%), Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge (1 of 9 new partners is female), Akin Gump (2 of 15 new partners are female, for 13%), Milbank (1 of 8 new partners is female, for 13%), White & Case (1 of 7 new partners is female, for 14%), and Gibson Dunn (2 of 13 new partners are female, for 15%). Three firms have had nearly all-dude partner classes for four years running: Akin Gump, Fried Frank, and Vinson & Elkins. For those of you flirting with a career move from lawyering to screenplay-writing, think: Charlize Theron fighting her way to partnership at Fried Frank, à la North Country. Law Firms' New Partners Still Mostly Male: New Partner Classes 2005-2008 [Project for Attorney Retention] What scares us is the bile that then follows in the comments.. pages and pages of it with attitudes makes HOB for one extremely depressed about life as a whole. We won't bother to reprint any of them.. all we can warn you is that some people out their have a serious problem. <a href="http://www.pardc.org/Publications/New%20Law%20Firm%20Partners%202005-08.pdf"> The Report</a> <a href="http://www.abovethelaw.com/2008/03/boring_but_important_new_law_f.php">Above The Law Post -Boring but Important: New Law Firm Partners Mostly Dudes</a> <a href="http://www.pardc.org/">The Project For Attorney Retention</a>

 

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