Ethics

John Flood has thoughts about the UK, and Vivia Chen reports the statistics on non-equity partners and gender.  Isn't it possible that the stats Chen reports can be viewed as half-full or half-empty?  If there are more women in the non-equity status, does that reflect increasing efforts to retain skilled women lawyers who choose to divide their waking hours between work and family in particular ways?  Or does it reflect a shunting of women into less remunerative slots in derogation of their economic contributions?

Both stories focus on efforts to obtain data from private practice firms -- and on firms' resistance to providing data.