Wednesday, October 10, 2007

 

Law Firm Rankings Released Today

Want to know which law firms have the highest percentage of women partners, the most pro bono participation, or the highest number of Hispanic attorneys? A new report issued today will tell you all that and more.

Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession, a group of law students from across the country "dedicated to helping law firms and lawyers recommit to a legal profession devoted to effective and efficient client service, to lawyers as people, and to the roots of our profession in service," tabulated information from NALP about the largest law firms in six markets. They ranked and graded the law firms in various individual categories (percentage of partners and associates who are women, black, Hispanic, Asian, openly LGBT, amount of pro bono participation) and also prepared an overall report card. The end result is a very useful tool that should help law students and laterals find law firms that fit their needs.

Cynthia Calvert of PAR spoke at the group's press conference today. She emphasized that the rankings will also benefit law firms by highlighting the importance of diversity, allowing the firms to see how they are doing vis a vis other firms, and providing an incentive to improve diversity by affecting the supply of applicants.

The report follows on the heels of the Yale Law Women's top ten list of family-friendly firms. The list, beginning with no. 1 is: Quarles & Brady; Proskauer Rose; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer; Jenner & Block; Mayer Brown; Covington & Burling; Arnold & Porter; DLA Piper; Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, PC; and Faegre & Benson. The list was created using responses to NALP's Workplace Questionnaire, and considered such factors as maternity leave, availability of child care, and percentage of attorneys working part-time.

Law students and laterals seeking employment in law firms should also check out The Scoop, PAR's online information about what it is really like to work part-time at various law firms, and PAR's law student resource page.

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