Leading Advocates for Work/Life Balance and Women Pair to Honor the
Nation’s Most Progressive Law Firms
NEW YORK, Aug. 14 LAWFUEL – The Legal Newswire — Working Mother magazine, the authoritative source for career mothers, and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, a national consulting firm advising attorneys and legal employers on work-life balance and the retention and advancement of women, today announced the list of the 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Lawm Firms for Women. The winning firms are notable for their work/life and women-friendly policies — including flex-time, child care and women-focused mentoring, leadership and networking programs — as they set new standards to retain and promote top female legal talent.
In a profession often distinguished by cut-throat competition, 100-hour work weeks, and few women in top partnership positions, the 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women firms are redefining standards of success and creating workplaces that encourage the retention
and promotion of women. For more than twenty years, women have comprised
40-50% of law school graduates and forward-thinking firms are recognizing
that in order to retain and promote the best talent, they need to ensure
women lawyers’ success.
“Forget the old stereotypes of law firms as inhospitable to women,”
said Suzanne Riss, Editor in Chief, Working Mother magazine. “As Working
Mother examined the practices of many of the nation’s law firms, I was
pleasantly surprised to discover that a number have been quietly changing
their policies in recent years to reflect changes that are afoot in society as a whole. The 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women are making women’s issues a priority, and the success of their
policies will hopefully become reflected in the number of women, from
associates all the way up to partners.”
“We are delighted to celebrate the firms that have begun to make
strides with respect to women. Competition is the ultimate instrument of
change and my goal in partnering with Working Mother to create this list is to make work/life balance and women’s issues a basis of competition among law firms, as historically has been the case for salary or pro-bono,” said Deborah Epstein Henry, Founder and President, Flex-Time Lawyers LLC.
Added Henry, “The other key component to making change is information
and participating law firms are now positioned to acquire the national
benchmarking data they need to improve the status of women in the
profession and raise the bar on what makes a best law firm for women.”
THE 2007 WORKING MOTHER & FLEX-TIME LAWYERS
BEST LAW FIRMS FOR WOMEN
Alston & Bird, Atlanta, GA
Armstrong Teasdale, St. Louis, MO
Arnold & Porter, Washington, DC
Baker & Daniels, Indianapolis, IN
Baker & McKenzie, Chicago, IL
Bingham McCutchen, Boston, MA
Blackwell Sanders, Kansas City, MO
Bryan Cave, St. Louis, MO
Chapman and Cutler, Chicago, IL
Covington & Burling, Washington, DC
Cravath, Swaine & Moore, New York, NY
Debevoise & Plimpton, New York, NY
Dickstein Shapiro, Washington, DC
DLA Piper US, New York, NY
Dorsey & Whitney, Minneapolis, MN
Duane Morris, Philadelphia, PA
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, Pittsburgh, PA
Farella Braun + Martel, San Francisco, CA
Foley & Lardner, Milwaukee, WI
Folger Levin & Kahn, San Francisco, CA
Gibbons P.C., Newark, NJ
Heller Ehrman, San Francisco, CA
Hogan & Hartson, Washington, DC
Holland & Knight, New York, NY
Howrey, Washington, DC
Hunton & Williams, Richmond, VA
Ice Miller, Indianapolis, IN
Katten Muchin Rosenman, Chicago, IL
King & Spalding, Atlanta, GA
Kirkland & Ellis, Chicago, IL
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis, Pittsburgh, PA
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, New York, NY
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, Los Angeles, CA
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw, Chicago, IL
McDermott Will & Emery, Chicago, IL
McGuireWoods, Richmond, VA
Miller & Chevalier Chartered, Washington, DC
Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, Boston, MA
Morrison & Foerster, San Francisco, CA
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, New York, NY
Patton Boggs, Washington, DC
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, New York, NY
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, New York, NY
Reed Smith, Pittsburgh, PA
Sidley Austin, Chicago, IL
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, New York, NY
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, Chicago, IL
White & Case, New York, NY
WilmerHale, Washington, DC
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, Winston-Salem, NC
The complete information about the 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time
Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women-including profiles of the winning
firms-appears in the August/September issue of Working Mother, available on newsstands August 14, 2007 and at http://www.workingmother.com and
http://www.flextimelawyers.com.
Methodology
The 2007 Best Law Firms for Women application was developed in a
partnership between Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers LLC. The application included detailed questions about the issues that are most important to the retention and promotion of women lawyers. The 50 winning firms were
selected based on their responses to an application measuring six areas of importance: workforce profile, benefits and compensation, parental leave, child care, flexibility, and retention and advancement of women.
About Working Mother
Founded in 1979, Working Mother magazine reaches nearly 3 million
readers and is the only national magazine for career mothers. Its 21-year
signature initiative, Working Mother 100 Best Companies, is the most
important benchmark for work/life practices in corporate America. The
publication also releases the annual list of the Best Companies for
Multicultural Women in the June issue. Working Mother is published by
Working Mother Media (WMM), which also owns the National Association for
Female Executives (NAFE), NAFE Magazine, the annual 100 Best Companies
WorkLife Congress, as well as the Best Companies for Multicultural Women
Conference and regional Town Halls. In 2006, WMM acquired Diversity Best
Practices and the Business Women’s Network, making Working Mother Media the largest media company in the country focused on diversity and the
advancement of women. For more information, please visit
http://www.workingmother.com.
About Flex-Time Lawyers LLC
Flex-Time Lawyers LLC(R) is a national consulting firm advising
lawyers, law firms, bar associations, law schools and corporations on
work/life balance, business development, women’s initiatives, re-entry of
comeback professionals and the retention and promotion of women. It hosts a
membership organization with chapters in New York and Philadelphia,
offering networking opportunities, support, career guidance, education and information sharing to effect change. Flex-Time Lawyers LLC is a resource
to the press and legal community at large on work/life balance and women’s issues and also provides recruiting services. It has been covered
extensively in the national and legal press, including The New York Times, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, National Public Radio, The Boston
Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, National Law
Journal, New York Law Journal, and numerous others. For more information,
please visit http://www.flextimelawyers.com.
