Which firms made the cut for this year’s ranking?
The post Elite Law Firms Recognized As Some Of The Best For Women & Diversity (2024) appeared first on Above the Law.
Year in and year out, we watch law firm after law firm pay lip service to their commitment to diversity in the legal profession, with promises to put women attorneys on equal footing with their male counterparts, whether it be through hiring and retaining more women attorneys, promoting more women attorneys to equity partnership ranks, providing more leadership positions to women attorneys, or adopting more family-friendly policies to ensure that women attorneys are able to excel at their jobs while maintaining a stable work/life balance. Despite these continued assurances, and despite the fact that a number of firms have made great efforts to improve women’s stature in the law, there is still much more to be done — and we know which firms are working hard to do it.
Yesterday, Seramount (formerly known as Working Mother Media) released its seventeenth annual list of the Best Law Firms for Women & Diversity. These law firms are considered pioneers in the field when it comes to attracting, retaining, and promoting women lawyers. These law firms not only stand out as being family-friendly workplaces, but they also ensure that women shine in their equity partnership ranks.
Which firms made the cut for this year’s ranking?
To earn themselves a spot on the Best Law Firms list, self-selected applicant firms must complete an extensive application (more than 600 questions long) with topics ranging from attorney representation, schedule flexibility, paid time off and parental leaves, and development and retention of women and people of color. Questions also included family-friendly benefits, and mentoring and sponsorship participation. Seramount then selected the best firms based on data provided by those firms from the year 2023. “Our Best Law Firms for Women and Diversity demonstrate unwavering commitment, despite the uncertainties in the legal field,” said Subha V. Barry, President of Seramount. “I’m proud of the steady and positive change they are driving, even if it’s a gradual process. I applaud these industry leaders for their dedication to cultivating inclusive firm cultures.”
So what do we know about the recognized firms? Forty-two percent of lawyers at these firms are women, and 24 percent of lawyers at these firms are women of color. Twenty-seven percent of equity partners are women, while the percentage of women promoted to equity partner is 41 percent. All firms offer formal mentoring programs, and 89 percent offer formal sponsorship programs. Eighty-nine percent of the firms offer backup childcare, and 84 percent offer childcare for sick children.
Seramount has revealed the number one firm on this year’s list. Congratulations to Orrick for its unprecedented triumph when it comes to recruiting, retaining, promoting, and developing women lawyers and lawyers from underrepresented groups, including people of color.
Without any further ado, here is the full list of this year’s 50 honorees (in alphabetical order):
Arnold & Porter
Baker Donelson
Blank Rome LLP
Chapman and Cutler LLP
Cooley LLP
Covington & Burling LLP
Cozen O’Connor
Crowell & Moring LLP
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Dickinson Wright
DLA Piper LLP (US)
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
Hanson Bridgett LLP
Holland & Knight LLP
Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
Husch Blackwell LLP
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Latham & Watkins LLP
Lathrop GPM, LLP
Littler
Lowenstein Sandler LLP
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky, and Popeo, P.C.
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Morrison Foerster
Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP
Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C.
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
Perkins Coie LLP
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
Proskauer Rose LLP
Ropes & Gray LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP
Shook, Hardy & Bacon L.L.P.
Sidley Austin LLP
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Stokes Lawrence P.S.
Wiley Rein
WilmerHale
Winston & Strawn LLP
Congratulations are in order for all of the firms returning to the list this year, as well as the firms that are new to the 2024 list. Excellent work!
If your firm didn’t make the cut, do you think it should have? If your firm did make the cut, was it deserved? What can be done to improve work/life balance for women and working mothers? If you’d like to let us know what you think, you can email us, text us at (646) 820-8477, or tweet us @atlblog. Once again, congratulations to all of the law firms that made this important ranking!
2024 BEST LAW FIRMS FOR WOMEN AND DIVERSITY WINNERS [Seramount]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on X/Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
