Women are 87% of paralegals, but only 23% of law-firm partners. Let's find out why.

Several times a year, top legal-services recruiter Barbara Kott gets a call from a major law firm looking to hire a female partner. It’s easy for her organization, Major, Lindsey & Africa, to find candidates who excel at their specialties, Kott says. But that’s not always enough.

Increasingly, these law firms are pressing for candidates who also control at least a $1.5 million “book of business” in client billings, Kott says. That’s a tough ask. Building lucrative client networks isn't always a gender-neutral experience; lingering elements of an old-boys network can create barriers for female candidates that their male counterparts don’t recognize.

Such situations may help explain why the legal profession’s career hierarchies continue to skew heavily male, the higher up one looks. In U.S. law firms, according to newly compiled data from LinkedIn Talent Insights, women account for 87% of paralegals and 40% of entry-level associates who are skilled in corporate law or commercial litigation. Yet women account for only 23% of the law firm partners with these skills, and an even smaller share of managing partners.  

Today’s report on corporate law marks the first in a series of detailed looks – driven by LinkedIn data -- at the way gender and job hierarchies are sorting out in the industries that touch our lives. Future reports will examine sectors ranging from sales to computer software. In addition to documenting gender imbalances, these articles are meant to start a national conversation about root causes and ways to address them. 

For nearly three decades, corporate law’s imbalances have come under the microscope. Major clients such as DuPont in 1992 and Sara Lee in 2004 led campaigns aimed at getting their outside law firms to improve career paths for women and minorities. 

In response to such nudges, law firms “are saying the right things,” says University of Virginia sociology professor Elizabeth Gorman, who has been studying law firms’ career tracks for more than a decade. “But in terms of actual numbers, change continues to be very slow.” 

Since 2009, according to the National Association for Law Placements, women have constantly accounted for more than 40% of entry-level associate lawyers at U.S. law firms. Even so, women represent just 23% of partners in 2018, up only modestly from 19% a decade ago.

What’s shrinking women’s odds of advancement? Old-time stereotypes of men as aggressive and decisive; women as friendly and cooperative haven't vanished, Gorman reports -- and such beliefs cast long shadows within law firms. Firms that prize traits such as decisiveness tend to hire more men. The boldest development opportunities may be less likely to be offered to women. That can create an environment where "the same behavior that’s seen as normal and acceptable for a successful man is seen as imperious and self-centered in a woman," Gorman adds.  

Women who do choose sustained careers at corporate law firms say in surveys that they are about as satisfied as their male counterparts. But many promising female associates leave big law firms early in their careers. Long hours, pay disparities, and the ways that parenting obligations can fall more heavily on women all can contribute to this attrition.  

“I’ve been working on gender issues for 40 years,” says Joni Hersch, professor of law and economics at Vanderbilt University. “In practically every occupation, women are concentrated at the bottom. There are times when it seems as if there are no bright spots.” Just a few weeks ago, Paul Weiss, a leading New York law firm with a history of being a diversity crusader, came under fire for announcing the selection of 12 new partners, only one of whom was female. 

Still, some new approaches are taking hold. At Axiom Law, where 55% of the organization's nearly 1,500 lawyers are female, the traditional hierarchy of associates and partners doesn’t exist. Instead, says Pam Keenan Fritz, Axiom’s head of global lawyer talent, everyone is simply an “Axiom lawyer,” with eligibility for equity grants after as little as two years of service.

“We wanted to move away from hierarchy, and all that can bring,” Keenan Fritz explains. Axiom’s lawyers get to choose the tempo at which they want to work, including remote and part-time options. Clients include fast-paced startups such as Airbnb, as well as major corporations. “We are more female than the average law firm,” Keenan Fritz adds, “because we provide a great place to work with choice of engagement.” 

Asked for an example of lawyers who thrive in the Axiom environment, Keenan Fritz cited a female Ivy League graduate who had worked for a top 10 U.S. law firm before taking a four-year career break to have a family. When this attorney tried to re-enter legal practice, “she was stunned by the silence her resume was receiving. The career break was hurting her ability to restart.” A friend pointed the candidate to Axiom, where “she interviewed exceptionally well” and began working for a prominent Axiom financial-sector client within weeks. 

LinkedIn’s data makes it possible to analyze career ladders in other areas of law as well. Women’s chances of advancement are somewhat better in family law, where 35% of partners are female. The path to the top remains constrained in criminal law, where 24% of partners are female, and in patent law and intellectual property, where only 22% of partners are female.

In analyzing career hierarchies, the LinkedIn analysis starts with paralegals, who provide support services in research, document preparation and other areas. While it’s rare for paralegals (who don’t have J.D. degrees) to enroll in law school and pursue higher jobs, it’s nonetheless striking to note how much this support function is staffed by women.

For people with law degrees, the first rung is “staff attorney,” a position for law-school graduates who generally aren’t on the partner track. Associates tend to be recent law-school graduates who aspire to be partners; partners sometimes rise to be managing partners. The position of “special counsel” can take on many forms; it generally exists between associate/employee and partner/owner. 

In total, LinkedIn’s analysis of the workforce in corporate law and commercial litigation is based on data from more than 95,000 U.S. member profiles, using LinkedIn Talent Insights in January 2019. Gender is inferred from members’ first names, with 95% coverage of the U.S. talent pool based on inferred gender data for LinkedIn members. Members for whom we cannot infer a gender with confidence have been removed from this analysis.

If you’ve worked in corporate law – or have a perspective on the reasons why career tracks unfold the way they do -- it would be great to hear from you in the comments section below. You can keep up-to-date on future editions of The Gender Ladder by clicking the Subscribe button at the upper right of this article’s headline.