Women in the Law

Advice from a Lawyer Who Pursued Happiness: Sleep More and Join a Group

A lawyer who spent a year following the experts’ advice on how to be happy has boiled down some of her findings. Sleep more. Join a group. That’s the advice of Gretchen Rubin, who spoke to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog about her findings and her new book, The…

Sep 24, 2009 1:50 PM CDT

Study Offers Tips About How Lawyers Can Succeed as Part-Time Partners

Conventional wisdom says that lawyers who cut back on their hours at work, often to make time for their families, also reduce their opportunities to succeed as partners, says Cynthia Calvert. But that isn’t necessarily true, according to a report (PDF) this month by the Project for Attorney Retention, where…

Sep 23, 2009 7:35 PM CDT

Working Mother Puts Four Law Firms on Its List of 100 Best Companies

This summer, Working Mother magazine released its list of the 50 best law firms for women, without ranking the firms. Now the magazine has included four law firms on its list of 100 best companies for working women, including one that didn’t make the top 50 list. Working Mother lists…

Sep 22, 2009 3:00 PM CDT

Recession Forces More Stay-at-Home Moms Back to Work, Including Lawyers

The recession is pushing some highly educated stay-at-home moms back into the workplace, and lawyers are part of the phenomenon. A New York Times story on the trend includes profiles of four lawyers who say the job hunt isn’t easy. One has been out of the full-time work force for…

Sep 21, 2009 2:13 PM CDT

Partner Promotions at Top UK Firms Fell 33% Over Past Year

A number of British law firms have recently added up the numbers for fiscal years that run from 2008 to 2009 and, after a year of economic turmoil that has hit the legal industry particularly hard, the picture isn’t pretty. Partner promotions plunged among the United Kingdom’s 50 largest firms…

Sep 3, 2009 5:06 PM CDT

Female Lawyers with Masculine Names May Have a Better Shot at Judgeships

Women lawyers with masculine-sounding first names have better odds of becoming a judge than their counterparts with feminine names, at least in South Carolina, according to a study by two economics researchers. The study finds that changing a woman’s name from something feminine, such as Sue, to a gender-ambiguous name…

Sep 3, 2009 1:45 PM CDT

First Women Elected to Simpson Thacher’s Executive Committee

Women partners at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett are celebrating the election of two women to the firm’s executive committee. Sarah Cogan and Laura Palma are the first women to join the 12-member committee in the firm’s 125 years of existence, the Am Law Daily reports. “It was a gaping hole…

Sep 3, 2009 11:55 AM CDT

Now More Than Ever

ABA will continue providing guidance, delivering benefits to boost the profession

Sep 2, 2009 4:10 AM CDT

Skadden Associate Sings Firm’s Praises—Literally

Inspired by a law blog’s call for spur-of-the-moment entries into a law firm-related song contest, an aspiring songwriter at one of the nation’s best-known BigLaw firms stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. After writing “Skadden, You Gladden My Heart” in about an hour, senior associate Stacy…

Aug 31, 2009 7:45 PM CDT

Ex-Receptionist Sues Littler Over Alleged Lack of Bathroom Breaks

Updated: A former receptionist in a suburban Washington, D.C., office of a national labor and employment boutique has sued her ex-employer over an alleged lack of bathroom breaks. Plaintiff Rebecca Landrith contends in the D.C. Superior Court suit that the McLean, Va., office of Littler Mendelson had no formal policy…

Aug 28, 2009 6:42 PM CDT

Arnold & Porter Raids All 2 Partners from Brussels Office of Shearman

Arnold & Porter has raided the Brussels office of Shearman & Sterling, convincing both of the two partners based there, as well as a counsel, to join its own larger office there. All three of the lawyers making the leap to a new law firm in the Belgian capital—office chief…

Aug 27, 2009 11:58 PM CDT

Major Canada Firm Must Produce Pay Info in Hard-Fought Sex Bias Case

One of Canada’s biggest law firms must soon produce a treasure trove of information about its salaries, billing rates and performance reviews, among other confidential information. What is believed to be an unprecedented court order against McCarthy Tétrault requires the disclosure by Sept. 7, in response to a former associate’s…

Aug 25, 2009 5:12 PM CDT

Law Firm Fields 12-Member Women’s Mini-Triathlon Team

Think of a triathlon and you probably picture a group of ultimate athletes. But many among a group of a dozen women from a single Omaha, Neb., law firm training for a mini-triathlon on Saturday are newbies to the sport, reports the Omaha World-Herald. Recruited from YoungWilliams to take part…

Aug 24, 2009 5:39 PM CDT

Yale Law Women Name Top 10 Family-Friendly Firms

Yale Law Women and Working Mother magazine don’t agree on the top family-friendly law firms. A top 10 list of family-friendly law firms released today by Yale Law Women includes four law firms that didn’t make a top 50 list of best law firms for moms published last week by…

Aug 20, 2009 3:15 PM CDT

Marathon No Problem for Laid-Off Lawyer, But Finding New Job Is Harder

Lynne Zagami has never been afraid of a challenge. As her resumé notes, she wrestled for four years on her high school’s boys varsity team. Last year, she completed the Boston Marathon. And, after being laid off from a $170,000-a-year job as a corporate associate in the Boston office of…

Aug 14, 2009 8:46 PM CDT