Wednesday, November 07, 2007--Andis Kaulins [11/07/2007 01:41:00 PM] - Home - About - My Book
Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession Releases New York Rankings
Following up on the previous LawPundit posting, we pass on here an October press release by the coalition, Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession, who rank large law firms in New York City and other major legal markets. The rankings are made on the basis of gender composition, diversity, billable hours, and pro bono participation:
Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession Releases New York Rankings
Washington, D.C., October 10, 2007 — Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession today released a series of reports ranking large law firms in New York and other major legal markets on gender composition, diversity, billable hours, and pro bono participation. The new documents highlight major differences in large law firms and will enable law students to make more informed choices about their entry into the profession. The rankings are available online at http://refirmation.wordpress.com.
The national grassroots organization of law students will release its report at a press conference on Wednesday, October 10 at 12:30 pm. The event will occur in the Zenger Room (13th Floor) of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Representatives from several law schools, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, will be in attendance.
“Most students think big firms are indistinguishable. But they're not," said co-President Andrew Bruck, a 3L at Stanford Law School. "Our report helps students see the differences between their potential employers. There’s a tremendous market for law students, and markets rely on information. By providing this information to students, we’re helping students make better informed choices about where they want to work after graduation.”
Here are brief findings from the rankings:
“This pathbreaking research sends a message to America's law firms that is loud and clear: the best law students want to work at the firms where they have a fair chance at promotion, and where it is possible to work hard and enjoy a family life,” said Michele Landis Dauber, Professor of Law at Stanford. “It's about time students collected this kind of basic information about law firms and began to vote with their feet.”
“This is a extraordinarily impressive effort to shine much needed light on law firms’ commitment to diversity, not just in principle but in practice,” said Deborah L. Rhode, McFarland Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Ethics, Stanford University and Former Chair, ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. “This should be the starting point of a constructive conversation between firms, law schools, law students, and bar organizations about how to create a just and equitable professional culture.”
“Firms have to do more than compete on salary alone. Whether the metric is gender equity, billable hour expectations, or attrition rates, lawyers will be attracted to high-performing firms, and avoid firms unresponsive to their priorities,” said Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession co-Founder Andrew Canter. “We look forward to distributing these rankings to our members and law students across the country.”
Additional praise for the report can be found on Page 4 of this press release.
About Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession
building a better legal profession is a national grassroots movement that seeks market-based workplace reforms in large private law firms. by publicizing firms’ self-reported data on billable hours, pro bono participation, and demographic diversity, we draw attention to the differences between these employers. we encourage those choosing between firms — students deciding who to work for after graduation, corporate clients deciding who to hire, and universities deciding who to allow on campus for interviews — to exercise their market power and engage only with the firms that demonstrate a genuine commitment to these issues.
b.b.l.p. is 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. we are working to ensure that practicing law does not mean giving up a commitment to family, community, and dedicated service to clients. by advocating for reforms to law firms we hope to help keep law both a business and a profession to be proud of. it has been featured in the wall street journal, national law journal, legal times, and the new york law journal, among other publications.
Media Contacts:
Andrew Bruck
Co-President
973.769.6912
bruck@stanford.edu
Andrew Canter
Co-Founder
202.251.1468canter@stanford.edu
Michele Landis Dauber, J.D./Ph.D.
Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
650-521-6005
MLDauber@law.stanford.edu
Praise for Building a Better Legal Profession
“Building a Better Legal Profession has provided us with a resource that has great promise. By comparing the largest law firms in the top legal markets, the students have put a spotlight on the key issues of demographic diversity, pro bono participation and hours billed, which are such important indicators of the heart and soul of a firm. It is particularly noteworthy that these law students are showing initiative and demonstrating a commitment to improving the profession and career options for themselves and for all those who will come after them. These enterprising law students have an enormous potential to be a force for good and for positive change – now and throughout their careers. I commend them for their dedication and hard work.”
-- Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President, National Women’s Law Center
“This report confirms that the legal profession has a long way to go in terms of becoming more diverse and fully reflective of our society. We hope that this report can also serve as a springboard for devising strategies that increase minority representation in law firms."
-- L. Jared Boyd, National Attorney General, National Black Law Students Association
“We are proud to earn this recognition from Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession. A commitment to workplace diversity is essential in attracting and retaining exceptional attorneys out of law school and to ensuring the success of law firms. It will continue to be a top priority at Orrick.”
-- Ralph Baxter, chairman and CEO of Orrick, which ranked highly in overall diversity in the New York market.
“These reports are extremely important. Even the best intentioned law firms can have gaps between policy and actual practice and objective numbers can help point out those gaps. Law firms as well as law students will benefit from better information that is widely available."
-- Cynthia Thomas Calvert, Co-Director, Project for Attorney Retention
“Law students are in a powerful position to positively influence the legal profession by making educated choices early in their careers about the kinds of law firms for which they want to work. Too often, students don't have the information to really evaluate what a firm prioritizes in hiring and retaining lawyers. This program has the potential to remedy that problem and to give law students the tools to begin their careers in environments where they will be welcome and encouraged while getting to do important, challenging work.”
-- Kate Reilly, Vice President, Harvard Women's Law Association. Ms. Reilly can be reached at kreilly (at) law.harvard.edu or 973-886-6669.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 11/07/2007 01:41:00 PM
Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession Releases New York Rankings
Following up on the previous LawPundit posting, we pass on here an October press release by the coalition, Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession, who rank large law firms in New York City and other major legal markets. The rankings are made on the basis of gender composition, diversity, billable hours, and pro bono participation:
Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession Releases New York Rankings
Washington, D.C., October 10, 2007 — Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession today released a series of reports ranking large law firms in New York and other major legal markets on gender composition, diversity, billable hours, and pro bono participation. The new documents highlight major differences in large law firms and will enable law students to make more informed choices about their entry into the profession. The rankings are available online at http://refirmation.wordpress.com.
The national grassroots organization of law students will release its report at a press conference on Wednesday, October 10 at 12:30 pm. The event will occur in the Zenger Room (13th Floor) of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Representatives from several law schools, including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, will be in attendance.
“Most students think big firms are indistinguishable. But they're not," said co-President Andrew Bruck, a 3L at Stanford Law School. "Our report helps students see the differences between their potential employers. There’s a tremendous market for law students, and markets rely on information. By providing this information to students, we’re helping students make better informed choices about where they want to work after graduation.”
Here are brief findings from the rankings:
- Gender Composition: At all firms surveyed in New York City,[1] women are significantly less represented as partners than as associates. Even at Morrison & Foerster, which has the highest percentage of female partners in New York, women make up only 23.3% of all partners. At Fulbright & Jaworski, which has the lowest percentage of female partners in New York, women are only 7.1% of all partners.
- Low Diversity Partnership Rates: Of the 74 New York firms included in the report, 27 (over one-third) do not have a single Hispanic partner, 25 do not have a single African-American partner, and 21 do not have a single Asian-American partner.
- Diversity Report Card: Looking at all forms of diversity (gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation), several firms are significantly more diverse than their peers: Cleary Gottlieb is the only firm to score in the “A” range, with Paul, Weiss and Debevoise close behind. At the bottom of the list are three law firms – Pryor Cashman, Blank Rome, and Herrick Feinstein – that do not represent the diversity of law students or our profession.
- LGBT Representation: Although Sullivan & Cromwell currently faces a lawsuit alleging sexual orientation discrimination, it ranks first in New York for its percentage of partners that are openly LGBT. Sidley Austin, however, has 449 attorneys working in its New York office and yet not a single out LGBT partner.
- Pro Bono Participation: Firms have widely divergent views on the value of pro bono work. At the top are Patterson [ ], (with 100% participation), [ ]. Among responding firms, the firms with the lowest pro bono participation include [ ].
- Transparency: Firms also place different priorities on giving law students the information we want via National Association for Law Placement surveys. Ten firms, including DLA Piper, WilmerHale, and Goodwin Procter, were high-performing when it came to answering questions about billable hours and pro bono work – two issues of high student concern. A few firms, however, like Wachtell, Greenberg Traurig, and Shearman & Sterling, didn’t fill out these portions of the survey. [law firm links added by Lawpundit]
“This pathbreaking research sends a message to America's law firms that is loud and clear: the best law students want to work at the firms where they have a fair chance at promotion, and where it is possible to work hard and enjoy a family life,” said Michele Landis Dauber, Professor of Law at Stanford. “It's about time students collected this kind of basic information about law firms and began to vote with their feet.”
“This is a extraordinarily impressive effort to shine much needed light on law firms’ commitment to diversity, not just in principle but in practice,” said Deborah L. Rhode, McFarland Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Ethics, Stanford University and Former Chair, ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. “This should be the starting point of a constructive conversation between firms, law schools, law students, and bar organizations about how to create a just and equitable professional culture.”
“Firms have to do more than compete on salary alone. Whether the metric is gender equity, billable hour expectations, or attrition rates, lawyers will be attracted to high-performing firms, and avoid firms unresponsive to their priorities,” said Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession co-Founder Andrew Canter. “We look forward to distributing these rankings to our members and law students across the country.”
Additional praise for the report can be found on Page 4 of this press release.
About Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession
building a better legal profession is a national grassroots movement that seeks market-based workplace reforms in large private law firms. by publicizing firms’ self-reported data on billable hours, pro bono participation, and demographic diversity, we draw attention to the differences between these employers. we encourage those choosing between firms — students deciding who to work for after graduation, corporate clients deciding who to hire, and universities deciding who to allow on campus for interviews — to exercise their market power and engage only with the firms that demonstrate a genuine commitment to these issues.
b.b.l.p. is 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. we are working to ensure that practicing law does not mean giving up a commitment to family, community, and dedicated service to clients. by advocating for reforms to law firms we hope to help keep law both a business and a profession to be proud of. it has been featured in the wall street journal, national law journal, legal times, and the new york law journal, among other publications.
Media Contacts:
Andrew Bruck
Co-President
973.769.6912
bruck@stanford.edu
Andrew Canter
Co-Founder
202.251.1468canter@stanford.edu
Michele Landis Dauber, J.D./Ph.D.
Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
650-521-6005
MLDauber@law.stanford.edu
Praise for Building a Better Legal Profession
“Building a Better Legal Profession has provided us with a resource that has great promise. By comparing the largest law firms in the top legal markets, the students have put a spotlight on the key issues of demographic diversity, pro bono participation and hours billed, which are such important indicators of the heart and soul of a firm. It is particularly noteworthy that these law students are showing initiative and demonstrating a commitment to improving the profession and career options for themselves and for all those who will come after them. These enterprising law students have an enormous potential to be a force for good and for positive change – now and throughout their careers. I commend them for their dedication and hard work.”
-- Marcia D. Greenberger, Co-President, National Women’s Law Center
“This report confirms that the legal profession has a long way to go in terms of becoming more diverse and fully reflective of our society. We hope that this report can also serve as a springboard for devising strategies that increase minority representation in law firms."
-- L. Jared Boyd, National Attorney General, National Black Law Students Association
“We are proud to earn this recognition from Law Students Building a Better Legal Profession. A commitment to workplace diversity is essential in attracting and retaining exceptional attorneys out of law school and to ensuring the success of law firms. It will continue to be a top priority at Orrick.”
-- Ralph Baxter, chairman and CEO of Orrick, which ranked highly in overall diversity in the New York market.
“These reports are extremely important. Even the best intentioned law firms can have gaps between policy and actual practice and objective numbers can help point out those gaps. Law firms as well as law students will benefit from better information that is widely available."
-- Cynthia Thomas Calvert, Co-Director, Project for Attorney Retention
“Law students are in a powerful position to positively influence the legal profession by making educated choices early in their careers about the kinds of law firms for which they want to work. Too often, students don't have the information to really evaluate what a firm prioritizes in hiring and retaining lawyers. This program has the potential to remedy that problem and to give law students the tools to begin their careers in environments where they will be welcome and encouraged while getting to do important, challenging work.”
-- Kate Reilly, Vice President, Harvard Women's Law Association. Ms. Reilly can be reached at kreilly (at) law.harvard.edu or 973-886-6669.
Permalink : Andis Kaulins : 11/07/2007 01:41:00 PM
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