The Call to Action: Advancing Women Attorneys in Leadership in Chicago
The Chicago Bar Association (“CBA”) issued a Call to Action (“CTA”) in 2004 with 10 law firms acting as leadership signatories:
Baker & McKenzie LLP
DLA Piper US LLP
Jenner & Block LLP
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
McDermott Will & Emery McGuireWoods LLP
Schiff Hardin LLP
Sidley Austin LLP
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP
The CTA has 50 signatories2 at present: 44 law firms and six legal departments. Each signatory to the CTA agreed to pursue five goals over the time from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2007:
• Increase % of women partners by three percentage points
• Women on every firm committee in same proportion as in partnership
• Increase number of women practice group leaders
• Ensure flexible hours policies are equitable and viable options
• Improve any disparities in rates inwhich women and men are retained, promoted and laterally recruited
The intent of the CTA was to promote greater focus on and increased awareness of advancing women into leadership roles in Chicago law firms. Each of the five goals was measured annually and reports were issued to the signatories. These interim measurements were intended to provide tools to law firm signatories to ascertain their progress on the goals of the CTA.
In 2005, the CBA’s Alliance for Women (“AFW”) won the National Conference of Women’s Bar Association’s Public Service Award for the CTA. Since 2004, the templates for the CTA and the annual measures have been shared with bar associations across the country, many of which have created calls to action in their communities.
The AFW was thrilled by the results achieved by the CTA in Chicago. Every one of the five CTA goals were met or exceeded by a number of signatory firms. Material progress on the issue of women in leadership roles in the Chicago legal community has been made since the inception of the CTA in 2004.
Goal 1: Three Percent Increase in Women Partners
This goal was measured on both an absolute and a relative basis. On an absolute basis, twelve law firm signatories increased their percent of women partners by at least three percent (firms are listed in the order of percentage increase):
Bryan Cave LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Schiller DuCanto and Fleck LLP
Ungaretti & Harris LLP
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Chapman and Cutler LLP
Perkins Coie LLP
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP
Foley & Lardner LLP
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Bryan Cave experienced the biggest increase in women partners from 2004 to 2007: 19.0%.
In connection with the CTA, the AFW also looked at relative performance of law firms with regard to their percent of women partners. In 2004, the average for the percent of women partners at Chicago law firm offices1 was 18.12%. In 2007, that average2 had increased to 19.31% and 22 Chicago law firm offices exceeded that average. The signatory law firms with the highest percent of women partners at the end of the CTA in 2007 are (the firms are listed in order of percentage of women partners):
Schiller DuCanto and Fleck LLP
Cassiday Schade LLP
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP
Tressler Soderstrom Maloney & Priess LLP
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Ungaretti & Harris LLP
Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP
Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C.
Four firms appear on both of these lists—they increased the percent of women partners by at least three per- cent from 2004 to 2007 and they are among the top 10 highest percentages of women partners among Chicago law firms.
Goal 2: Proportionate Representation on Power Committees
Between the baseline year (2004) and the end of the CTA (2007), there was a 100% increase in the number of signatory firms that had women proportion- ately represented on the majority of the firm’s power committees. One-third of the signatory firms increased the number of power committees at their firms with proportionate representation by women (firms are listed in alphabetical order):
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Bryan Cave LLP
Chapman and Cutler LLP
DLA Piper US LLP
Foley & Lardner LLP
Goldberg Kohn Bell Black Rosenbloom & Moritz, Ltd.
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP
Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP
Schiff Hardin LLP
Schiller DuCanto and Fleck LLP
By the end of 2007, Brinks had women proportionately represented on all of its power committees.
Goal 3: Increase Women Practice Group Leaders
More than half of the CTA law firm sig- natories met the goal of increasing their number of women practice group lead- ers (firms are listed in alphabetical order):
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Bryan Cave LLP
Chapman and Cutler LLP
DLA Piper US LLP
Foley & Lardner LLP
Goldberg Kohn Bell Black Rosenbloom & Moritz, Ltd.
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP
Laner, Muchin, Dombrow, Becker, Levin and Tominberg, Ltd.
Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP
Mayer Brown LLP
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
McGuireWoods LLP
Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP
Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Winston & Strawn LLP
Material increases from 2004 to 2007 in the number of women practice group leaders were reported by three of the signatory firms. Foley & Lardner LLP added thirteen women practice group leaders, and Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP and DLA Piper US LLP added nine and seven, respectively.
Goal 4: Equitable and Viable Flexible Hours Policies
Over half of the signatory law firms reported that an attorney utilizing a reduced schedule had been promoted to partnership (firms are in alphabetical order):
Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C.
Chapman and Cutler LLP
DLA Piper US LLP
Dykema Gossett PLLC
Foley & Lardner LLP
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP
Jenner & Block LLP
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP
Mayer Brown LLP
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
McGuireWoods LLP
Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP
Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP
Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson LLP
Schiff Hardin LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP
Winston & Strawn LLP
During the course of the CTA, almost half of the signatory firms reported an increase in the number of attorneys working a reduced schedule (firms are in alphabetical order):
Baker & McKenzie LLP
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Bryan Cave LLP
Chapman and Cutler LLP
Foley & Lardner LLP
Jenner & Block LLP
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Laner, Muchin, Dombrow, Becker, Levin and Tominberg, Ltd.
Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP
Perkins Coie LLP
Quarles & Brady LLP
Schiller Schiller DuCanto and Fleck LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
By the end of the CTA, all signatory firms reported having a written flexible hours policy.
Goal 5: Improve Retention, Promotion and Lateral Recruitment Disparities
This goal focused on preventing dilution of the existing women partner statistics by hiring and promotion practices.
The CTA results on this goal demonstrate that a number of firms have actively improved the percent of partners who are women through their hiring and promotion decisions.
These signatory firms had at least one class of new equity partners that was forty percent or more women attorneys (firms are listed in alphabetical order):
Baker & McKenzie LLP
Chapman and Cutler LLP
Foley & Lardner LLP
Jenner & Block LLP
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP
Laner, Muchin, Dombrow, Becker, Levin and Tominberg, Ltd.
Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP
McGuireWoods LLP Perkins Coie LLP
Quarles & Brady LLP
Schiff Hardin LLP
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Vedder Price P.C. Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP
During the course of the CTA, four of these firms had two classes of new equity partners that were at least 50 percent
women (firms are listed in alphabetical order): Chapman and Cutler LLP, Foley & Lardner LLP, McGuireWoods LLP and Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon LLP.
Conclusion
Chicago law firm signatories to the CTA demonstrated success on each of its five goals. Many firms demonstrated real success on the front of advancing women into leadership. Overall, the Chicago legal community made mate- rial progress and established some best practices that fed the success of its efforts. Continued progress will be neces- sary, but the CTA facilitated focus and progress on this important issue.
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Ms. Pigott is Managing Director of R3 Group LLC and Ms. Grayson is a partner at Jenner & Block LLP. The two were Co-Chairs of the Alliance for Women (“AFW”) in 2004 at the inception of the Call to Action and have co- chaired the Call to Action Committee of the AFW since then.
1. A list of signatories can be found at www.chicagobar.org.
2. Statistic provided by National Association for Law Placement.