The 2018 Working Mother 60 Best Law Firms for Women

For 11 years, Working Mother has recognized the U.S. law firms that utilize best practices to retain and promote women lawyers.

For the second year, Working Mother collaborated with the ABA Journal as a knowledge partner in recruiting firms and publicizing results. At these 60 law firms, almost half of associates and more than a third of partners are women, on average, while one-fifth of equity partners are women. These firms also increasingly offer extended parental-leave benefits and encourage more lawyers to work remotely and use flexible hours.

A few key parental-leave, work-life balance and career-advancement initiatives taking place at firms featured on the list include:

• Several firms offer generous parental leave policies. One firm, for example, offers a gender-neutral parental-leave policy, giving all lawyers and professionals 26 weeks off with up to 18 weeks at full pay.

• Another firm created a formal sponsorship program that identifies junior women and ethnically diverse attorneys and pairs them with senior firm members; that same firm began offering to ship home breast milk for attorneys who travel for work.

• Backup care and in-home care for family members of all ages, from infant through elderly, is offered by a firm, where up to 80 hours may be used at an affordable rate.

• At one of the firms, a Balanced Hours employee-resource group provides guidance on mentoring and development of attorneys with reduced hours.

The following profiles of the Best Law Firms for Women highlight the impressive benefits they offer, and the progress they are making.

Click here to see aggregated data on the 2018 Working Mother Best Law Firms for Women.

EQUITY PARTNERS = Equity partners who are women

NONEQUITY PARTNERS = Nonequity partners who are women