Press Release: November 23, 2005
Female Lawyers Advance (sorta)
In promoting women to partner, Charlotte firms not quite last.
The Charlotte Observer
MIKE DRUMMOND
Charlotte continues to rank low when it comes to promoting women lawyers to partner, according to a national legal association.
The good news is that Washington-based NALP found in its recently released annual survey that Charlotte firms fared better this year.
Instead of dead last, Charlotte firms in the NALP survey ranked next-to-last. Only Salt Lake City, new to the survey this year, ranked lower.
Not all law firms in Charlotte are represented in NALP's survey. Yet the results likely will continue to stir debate whether law firms in Charlotte and elsewhere are doing enough to promote women lawyers to leadership positions.
Cheryl Steele, partner at Charlotte-based Horack Talley, said she believes NALP fails to capture Charlotte-based firms. Instead, it focuses on national firms that have a local presence.
"There's not the glass ceiling in local firms like ours," she said.
Of Horack Talley's 19 partners, five are women. The 26 percent female representation beats the national average of 17.29 percent, and Miami's top standing at 23.69 percent.
Many lawyers here say Charlotte's low female representation, in part, reflects national law-firm practices that put a premium on billable hours over work-life balance.
"We're very flexible on hours," Steele said. "I'm not sure that's true of larger firms that have swooped in to have a presence here. I think that's where (NALP's) numbers are coming from."
Judith Collins, research director at NALP, said any law firm is welcome to fill out its annual survey.
"It likely won't be small, a firm with two attorneys" that takes part, she said. "It does tend to be national firms, or more regional firms."
NALP, a national association of legal professionals, helps law firms recruit talent and is an advocate for gender and racial diversity. The survey shines light on that diversity goal.
Interviews with more than a dozen local law firms and industry experts for a story last month failed to unearth a Charlotte-specific reason for the poor gender standing. Nor does NALP's survey explain the differences among cities.
However, NALP says on its Web site that "the presence of women comes nowhere near to matching their presence among law school graduates, which has ranged from 40 percent to almost half since the late 1980s."
In an Observer survey conducted last month, firms in Charlotte range from having no women partners to having 50 percent representation
San Francisco-based employment law firm Littler Mendelson has a small Charlotte outpost of nine lawyers, four of whom are women. Of its four partners here, two are women.
Hunton & Williams, founded in Virginia in 1901 and now with offices worldwide, has a mid-size presence with about 35 lawyers in Charlotte, eight of whom are women. Of its 13 partners, none is a woman.
Frank Emory, partner at Hunton & Williams, said his office focuses on litigation and high-end finance -- areas where women historically have been underrepresented.
The local office has groomed women to become partner. But, he noted, the Charlotte office has lost two senior-level women to Bank of America and one to Wachovia in the five years he's been here.
Emory, who is black, added that the firm values diversity because, among other things, it's good for business. He and others point to the firm's national diversity and women initiatives, which include a Women Partners' Group.
As for women partners in the firm's Charlotte office. "Call me back in five years," he said.
Wider Survey
NALP surveyed 43 cities covering 1,425 offices this year, compared with 41 cities and 1,366 offices last year.
- 18 Charlotte firms took part in the NALP survey this year -- 11.47 percent of partners were women
- 16 Charlotte firms took part in the NALP survey last year -- 10.87 percent of partners were women.
- Salt Lake City law firms reported 8.73 percent of women were partners, lowest in the nation.
- When NALP began surveying in 1993, women nationwide accounted for 12.27 percent of partners.
- Today, women account for 17.29 percent.
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