NAWL Issues 2009 Report on Nation’s Largest Firms Under Leadership of Stephanie Scharf

The National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL®) and the NAWL Foundation® released the results of the fourth annual national Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms. The Survey is the only national study of the nation’s 200 largest law firms which annually tracks the progress of women lawyers at all levels of private practice, including the most senior positions, and collects data on firms as a whole rather than from a subset of individual lawyers. The 2009 Survey underscores that women continue to be significantly under-represented in the upper levels of law firms. The large majority of women who start as associates in firms do not advance to equity partnership and even fewer become law firm leaders. Male equity partners dominate firm governing committees, represent the overwhelming number of major rainmakers in firms and typically receive greater compensation than women equity partners. The Survey also found that the recent round of involuntary terminations undertaken by firm has disproportionately affected women in part-time positions.

Stephanie Scharf, partner at the Firm and current President of the NAWL Foundation, founded the NAWL Survey and continues to chair the survey initiative. For the 2009 Survey Report, go to http://www.nawl.org/Assets/Documents/2009+Survey.pdf.

Related Attorney: Stephanie A. Scharf