Women continue to join the legal profession in greater numbers, and with the several-year running majority of women in law school seats, associate classes will more than likely feature more women than men for the foreseeable future. But in a historically male-dominated industry, the path to leadership and management for women in firms is still a rocky one.
Less than 28% of firm partners are women, but many law firms are working to raise that number. Law Week reached out to several firms that have a significant presence in Colorado, and each that responded had programs in place to support the growth and advancement of women and diverse associates.
Gibson Dunn
Gibson Dunn’s “Women of Gibson Dunn” initiative turns a decade old this year. Denver office partner-in-charge Robyn Zolman and partners Jessica Brown and Monica Loseman wrote to Law Week Colorado via email about the record-breaking success of the program.
“Over the past ten years, the number of women partners at the Firm has grown from 52 to 158,” said Brown, Loseman and Zolman. “We are proud that more than 80 women have been promoted to partner internally and 60 lateral women partners have joined the Firm during this time. We are likewise proud to have women represented at all levels in senior leadership, including at the very top of the Firm with the 2021 election of Barbara Becker, Gibson Dunn’s first woman Chair and Managing Partner.”
The representation of women in leadership and management extends beyond the partner level. The firm’s executive committee is 30% women, its management committee is 40% women and 44% of the partners-in-charge of Gibson Dunn’s worldwide offices are women. Locally, women made up the majority of partners in the firm’s Denver office this year — the first time in the history of the Denver office.
Included in the initiatives are women’s lunches, flex-time arrangements, hybrid work schedules, mentoring circles, maternity and paternity leave benefits and an annual women’s networking event. Gibson Dunn has also developed three initiatives dedicated to supporting women of color, LGBTQ+ women and women based in the firm’s Europe, Middle East and Asia offices.
“The impact has been immense for the firm and represents our tireless commitment to advancing women at the Firm,” wrote Brown, Loseman and Zolman. “We are also proud to enter the next decade of our Women of Gibson Dunn initiative with a continued focus on supporting women internally, along with a commitment to expand our efforts to uplift women in our communities beyond the Firm.”
Husch Blackwell
Nikelle Meade, an Austin-based partner at Husch and Blackwell, wrote to Law Week via email that women at the firm have been organizing, programming for and developing each other for decades.
“The firm’s efforts to advance women have been created by women, for women, and have taken several forms over the years,” wrote Meade.
The firm’s current women’s empowerment employee resource group focuses on three key areas, professional development, connectivity and retention and advancement.
“Through member programming (including guest speakers and workshops) and ongoing networking (helping members continuously engage each other), HB WE ensures women have access to the tools and resources they need today and well into the future,” wrote Meade.
The firm’s efforts have paid off. Meade told Law Week 43% of the firm’s attorneys and nearly 75% of the firm’s business professionals identify as women and/or nonbinary.
The Women’s Empowerment group is Husch Blackwell’s biggest and most active employee resource group at over 700 members, according to Meade. Recently, the group created a firmwide focus on Women’s History Month, which finished with an inspiration panel at the end of March.
“More broadly, HB WE and the firm’s DE&I team have monitored and identified trends that can positively impact women at our firm, such as clarifying policies around medical leave, annual billable hours requirements, and ensuring associate feedback from partners is meaningful and actionable,” wrote Meade.
The women’s empowerment resource group is one of eight the firm runs, and nearly 1,000 of Husch Blackwell’s employees, or nearly 50% of its workforce, are part of at least one of the groups.
“These groups have proven to be successful in connecting people with like identities who would not otherwise meet each other given our geographic spread,” wrote Meade.
Lewis Roca
“Lewis Roca continually strives to foster a firm culture that draws strength from difference and creates opportunities for its people to grow,” wrote Frederick Baumann, a partner at Lewis Roca, to Law Week Colorado via email.
This effort comes in a variety of ways. The firm operates employee resource groups and affinity groups, including a parents and caregivers group, LGBTQ+ group and a women’s group. The women’s group focuses on mentorship and career progression for female attorneys and professionals within the firm.
Outside of the groups, Lewis Roca has a number of policies in place that help support the full range of the firm’s employees.
“These include professional development programs that provide opportunities for mentoring, sponsorship, and skill development for all lawyers; a lawyer evaluation system using objective criteria; and policies supporting the inclusion of diverse lawyers in the life of the firm, including an affirmative action plan, policies supporting alternative work schedules and hybrid work, on- and off-ramping support, LGBTQ+ self-identification, and domestic partner benefits,” wrote Baumann. “While these programs are open to all attorneys, many of them are particularly important in supporting women and diverse attorneys.”
Bauman noted the firm’s DE&I efforts were designed to make all of its employees feel more included and to encourage its employees to have a better understanding and appreciation for different perspectives.
“Lewis Roca continually strives to foster a firm culture that draws strength from difference and creates opportunities for its people to grow,” wrote Baumann.
Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell
For the past several years, Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell has shifted its interview and review methods towards a behavioral-based process, partner Michele Choe, and managing partner Mike Williams wrote to Law Week via email. Williams and Choe are both DEI committee co-chairs for the firm.
“We discarded the rubric of searching for ‘the right fit’ during interviews – a nebulous concept that fails to check implicit biases,” wrote Choe and Williams. “For lawyers, we also de-prioritized factors like candidate’s law school ranking and the identity of the judge the person had clerked or interned for.”
After two years, WTO analyzed the results of the new interview model, and found the firm had hired significantly more diverse and women lawyers. Choe and Williams said the firm is now updating its review process to similar behavioral-based methods.
In addition to these shifts, WTO plans to launch an annual firm-wide anonymous engagement survey this year, so the firm can gather information about inclusivity and firm culture directly from its employees.
“WTO believes this tool will help us assess employee experience and retention more accurately than we can now,” wrote Choe and Williams. “For example, we hope this information will help us support women and diverse attorneys more effectively going forward.”
WTO is also looking to support the next generation of lawyers, including the firm’s participation in the Law School… Yes We Can! program.
“We believe WTO can play an important role in helping to build a more perfect union by ensuring that future generations of legal professionals truly reflect the diversity of our nation and communities,” wrote Choe and Williams.
The firm began partnering with LSYWC to mentor undergraduates in 2020. Since then, WTO has matched with four LSYWC fellows or alumnae and provided internship-level work experience.
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
In 2014, Ali Metzl and Nicole Ament, attorneys at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, founded the Brownstein’s Women’s Leadership Initiative.
“The WLI provides firmwide mentoring, networking and programmatic support throughout the year to develop women into leaders in their respective practice groups, the firm, the community and the larger legal and lobby professions,” wrote Sarah Auctherlonie, a shareholder and co-chair of WLI, to Law Week via email.
The most recent program launch of WLI is RISE.
“RISE supports our female-identifying associates and policy advisors as they transition from associate to shareholder or policy associate to policy director,” wrote Courtney Shephard, a shareholder and co-chair of WLI. “The program is designed to help our more junior attorneys and policy advisors navigate these critical stages in their careers.”
In the decade since the launch of WLI, Brownstein has seen a 40% increase in female equity shareholders, said Shephard.
“WLI was designed to tirelessly advocate for and enhance the recruitment, retention and promotion of women and diverse attorneys and policy professionals with the firm and the larger profession throughout the different stages of their career,” wrote Shephard.
Auchterlonie told Law Week the group has evolved over the years. At the onset, it was focused on parental leave policy and then equal compensation.
“Now we are working on systemic issues and our goal will be to continue to grow and provide women at the firm the resources they need to succeed,” wrote Auchterlonie. “A key metric to evaluating our success is that we continue to see an increase in the percentage of women in leadership positions at the firm.”
Faegre Drinker
In November 2021, Faegre Drinker signed on to Diversity Lab’s OnRamp 200 program, Maria Lewis, chief diversity officer at Faegre Drinker, wrote to Law Week Colorado via email. The initiative is aimed at bringing back 200 women lawyers who took an extended absence from the profession by 2025. Since they joined the initiative, two full-time attorneys have joined the firm following their OnRamp fellowship.
Lewis and full-time, professional diversity staff guide and implement Faegre Drinker’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.
“All initiatives are designed to: foster mutual professional and personal respect, create an environment in which all individuals are values, attract the best and brightest legal and consulting talent from all backgrounds, promote education and awareness on topics of diversity and inclusion, and develop retain and advance the careers of our diverse lawyers and consulting professionals,” wrote Lewis.
This includes the firm’s affinity groups, which build connections within the firm and help with the professional growth of women and diverse attorneys.
“These groups develop and strengthen connections between Faegre Drinker’s self-identified diverse lawyers, consultants and senior professionals through bimonthly firm-wide meetings, ongoing leadership development opportunities, an in-person annual retreat, and local gatherings,” wrote Lewis.
In addition to these efforts, Faegre Drinker uses data and technology to improve the demographic balance of their client teams. The firm does this by providing their client team leaders with real-time data on the diversity of their teams, and these diversity dashboards were recognized by American Lawyer’s Industry Awards in 2023.