Gender inequality persists at law firms, new report says

By Louis Krauss BridgeTower Media Newswires Women have increased their numbers in the legal profession over the last 40 years, but many still report gender-related issues hampering their careers including everything from offensive comments in the workplace to being passed over for promotions. That's the takeaway from a new report that focused on senior female lawyers, a project of the American Bar Association and ALM Intelligence that surveyed 1,262 lawyers nationwide, 70% of them women. Everyone surveyed had at least 15 years of experience in the legal profession. Attorney Roberta Liebenberg, who co-wrote the article with Stephanie Scharf, said the findings reinforce the need for law firms to tackle diversity issues and to eliminate longstanding discrepancies in how female lawyers are treated. "At this glacial rate of progress, the profession needs to change," Liebenberg said. "We really need people to act with a sense of urgency. This is an issue that needs to be resolved, and it takes commitment and accountability." The motivation for the project, Liebenberg said, was that firms often focus on helping female lawyers succeed early in their careers, but the writers had not seen any studies on the intersection of gender and age when it comes to lawyer attrition. While 45% to 50% of new law firm associates are women, according to the report, in 2018 only 20% of law firm equity partners were women. The difference suggests that women are leaving law firms before they reach these higher positions. Ninety-one percent of male respondents said their firm's leaders were active advocates of gender diversity. Sixty-two percent of women respondents agreed with that assessment. The survey also found that 84% of male respondents and 55% of female respondents believed their firms were actively promoting women into leadership roles. When it came to whether their firms work to retain experienced lawyers, 74% of men agreed compared to 47% of women. The report's authors noted that firms that perceive and market themselves as meritocracies where the quality of a lawyer determines success were the most likely to have members with unconscious biases when it comes to issues such as gender equality. "People who believe the firm is meritocratic tend to perceive themselves as unbiased and fair, which causes them to succumb more easily to unconscious biases," the report states. Attorney Christina Bolmarcich, a principal at Semmes Attorneys at Law in Baltimore, said that she feels men and women are treated equally at her firm. But she said there are times when gender plays a role in her work. For example, Bolmarcich said she has at times sent an idea via email to colleagues at the firm, only to have a male attorney take credit for it. "What I notice a lot is female attorneys tend to ask permission to do something, whereas the male counterpart just says, 'Here's what I'm going to do,'" Bolmarcich said. Bolmarcich said the firm's diversity committee seeks to increase the number of women who are equity partners. On the Semmes website, 14 of the 56 attorneys listed in the Baltimore office are women, five of them principals. Bolmarcich said there can be a variety of reasons why firms struggle to attract a more diverse array of attorneys. "I think it's a very difficult challenge to tackle because it gets to the heart of why does each woman take a different path," Bolmarcich said. "Is it something in the culture of the firm, or something with a particular attorney who leaves? It's important to identify each individual woman to figure out (whether) the firm doing something that it could do better." Nancy Greene, chair of Miles & Stockbridge, said she believes her firm is one of the best when it comes to providing equal opportunities for women attorneys. Of the firm's 221 lawyers, 81, or 36%, are female, along with 23.9% who are female equity partners and 26.7% who are female principals, according to Miles & Stockbridge Marketing Director Amy Gaag. Greene emphasized the importance of having women in leadership positions and said that an important part of the firm's hiring process is to ensure equal pay for men and women lawyers. "It's not uncommon when you hire people brand new that men negotiate more in the hiring process than women do," Greene said. "(Women will) sometimes undersell themselves. We're very thoughtful about that." Greene added that in her 20 years with the firm, she's never had anyone point to gender inequality as a reason for leaving. "I'd be surprised if anyone left for gender reasons, but if they did it would be a high priority to figure out why," Greene said. Thomas Lynch, a principal at Miles & Stockbridge in Frederick, said it was "troubling" that a person's gender or race remains a factor in terms of achieving success at law firms. He said he was proud of the fact that Miles & Stockbridge has a female chair. He also said that his eyes were opened to gender issues when he moderated a panel on sexual harassment at the annual state bar association meeting in Ocean City last year. "It's one of the things when you hear their stories, with the level of emotion, you can feel it and better understand the impact it's had on them," Lynch said. "It's not something as a man I had experienced before." Published: Mon, Nov 18, 2019