Women Still Lag Behind in Top Law Firms

According to the Report of the Third National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms (Nov. 2008):

women continue to be markedly underrepresented in the leadership ranks of firms.

A few of this year's findings:

• Women lawyers account for fewer than 16% of equity partners.
• Only about 6% of law firm managing partners are women.
• In the average firm, women of color account for about 11% of associates but only 3% of non‐equity partners and only about 1.4 % of equity partners.
• Male equity partners earn on average over $87,000 a year more than female equity artners.

The National Association of Women Lawyers began this empirical study of the 200 largest US laws firms in 2006.