Legal Marketing & PR

50 Best Law Firms for Women Named by Working Mother magazine

By Larry Bodine, Esq.

Working Mother magazine has named the top 50 best law firms for women (see below), based on their retention and promotion of female lawyers, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation, among other factors.

Being named to the list is a huge marketing coup. For example, Bass Berry & Sims of Nashville and Memphis put the honor on their website, uploaded a PDF of the entire article, and sent an email to clients, bloggers and others. “Bass, Berry & Sims is honored to be named as one of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women,” says Managing Partner Keith Simmons. “This recognition from Working Mother magazine reaffirms that we have a great place to work and that our diligence in attracting, retaining and promoting female attorneys is working.”

Women comprise 36 percent of Bass Berry's attorney workforce and women hold several leadership roles within the firm, including Leigh Walton (Executive Committee), Anna Grizzle (Entry Level Hiring chair), Cindy Sellers (Business Development and Client Relations chair), Karen S. Neal (Diversity Committee chair), and Tara Swafford and Andrea McKellar (co-chairs of the firm’s Female Mentor Group).

Clients like working with law firms that are family friendly (as opposed to sweatshops where there is pressure to produce billable hours above all).  Being on the list will please corporate executives and general counsel, many of whom are women nowadays. It is also a boon to business development, because a lawyer can bring up the honor to start a conversation with a prospective client.

Firms with at least 50 lawyers were eligible to apply. The applicant pool was self-selected. Surveys were scored based on an algorithm that gave different weights to specific survey sections and questions.

Congratulations to all the winners:

1. Andrews Kurth
2. Arent Fox
3. Arnold & Porter
4. Baker & McKenzie
5. Bass, Berry & Sims
6. Bingham McCutchen
7. Bricker & Eckler
8. Chapman and Cutler
9. Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
10. Covington & Burling
11. Cravath, Swaine & Moore
12. Davis Polk & Wardwell
13. Debevoise & Plimpton
14. Dorsey & Whitney
15. Farella Braun + Marcel
16. Fenwick & West
17. Foley Hoag
18. Folger Levin & Kahn
19. Fox Rothschild
20. Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
21. Gibbons
22. Gray Plant Mooty
23. Heller Ehrman
24. Hogan & Hartson
25. Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn
26. Hunton & Williams
27. Ice Miller
28. Jenner & Block
29. Katten Muchin Rosenman
30. Kutak Rock
31. Latham & Watkins
32. Lindquist & Vennum
33. Littler Mendelson
34. Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
35. Miller & Chevalier
36. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
37. Morrison & Foerster
38. Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg
39. Patton Boggs
40. Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
41. Perkins Coie
42. Shearman & Sterling
43. Shook, Hardy & Bacon
44. Sidley Austin
45. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
46. Steptoe & Johnson
47. Sullivan & Cromwell
48. Vinson & Elkins
49. WilmerHale
50. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Full post as published by Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog on August 21, 2008 (boomark / email).