Intereating reading in today’s paper. An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the disparate number of female law partners in law firms, according to a Pennsylvania Bar study (though any local lawyer knows that just from looking around!).
Check out these statistics:
- About 45% of the graduating classes of Penn and Temple are women
- Only 30% of the lawyers at “big” firms are women
- Just 18% of partners are women
- A mere 16% of managing partners are women, up from a pitiful 3% just 5 years ago
We’re proud to say that we’re bucking that trend at Erblaw. Currently, 75% of our attorneys are women, and 50% of the managing partners are female (or should that be “is female” - it’s me).
One of the often cited arguments against women achieving in the profession is time management, specifically with children. At the big firms, flexibility is often discouraged in favor of billable hours. We take another tact at our firm, touting flexibility as a plus, which increases the quality of service to clients. It works - in a big way. Two of the attorneys at the firm are moms, and have the flexibility of bringing children to the workplace. That flexibility allows moms to actually come to work when childcare isn’t an option, which means that clients get service when they wouldn’t otherwise. It’s a win-win situation.
Hopefully, other firms will consider flexible arrangements in the future, making it easier for women to perform on the level that we know that we’re able - at the top, with the boys!
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