11 of 44 Chicago Law Firms Met Female Partner Goal
Updated: A Chicago Bar Association program aimed at increasing the number of women in law firm partnership ranks is being criticized for being too lenient in crediting law firms for improvement.
The “Call to Action” program found that 11 out of 44 Chicago law firms met their pledge to increase female partners by three percentage points over the last three years, the Chicago Tribune reports. But some critics question whether the program sponsored by the bar’s Alliance for Women should not have included nonequity partners in the figures.
Nicole Nehama Auerbach, a partner at Valorem Law Group and president of the Chicago Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law Firms, supports the Call to Action but says in the future law firms should be asked to distinguish between nonequity and equity partners in the totals. “It’s easy for some firms to disguise the fact that women are not being elevated to highest levels,” she told the Tribune.
A 2005 article by program co-chair E. Lynn Grayson of Jenner & Block described the effort, which also promotes flexible work policies and bias-free compensation systems.
Figures from the National Association for Law Placement show that women accounted for 19.31 of partners in Chicago law firms at the end of 2007, compared to 18.12 percent in 2004, the story says.
The article identifies only one of the firms that met the goal—Chapman & Cutler. It reports a 4.7 percent increase in female partners. The National Law Journal said there were 11 others, which would bring the total to 12. The NLJ identified the others as the Chicago offices of Bryan Cave; Seyfarth Shaw; Schiller DuCanto & Fleck; Foley & Lardner; Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Hinshaw & Culbertson; Ungaretti & Harris; McDermott Will & Emery; Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson; Katten Muchin Rosenman; and Perkins & Coie.
Updated on Nov. 5 to include information from the National Law Journal and to clarify that Auerbach supports the Call to Action.
