The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance recently announced that the percentage of women promoted to partnership in 2016 in the U.S. offices of many of the nation’s largest law firms has reached a five-year high of 37.3 percent. This number has steadily increased from 33 percent in 2012, aside from a one-year dip to 32 percent in 2014, and is up nearly 3 percentage points from 34.4 percent last year.
The Alliance’s 2016 New Partner Report also noted that Diversity & Flexibility Alliance member firms continued to outpace the national average with 38.3 percent of attorneys promoted to partnership being women.
“While law firms still have a long way to go before women have an equal place in leadership, we are seeing some positive trends in the overall percentage of women being promoted to partnership in 2016,” said Manar Morales, President and CEO of the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance.
“It is imperative that firms support and develop female talent by providing them opportunities to advance their careers, and creating an inclusive culture where women can advance to leadership positions,” she added.
“We believe that it is crucial that we monitor and report this data so that our members and others in the industry are aware of the progress made and continue to explore opportunities that advance women in the profession. We are extremely proud that our member firms understand these opportunities and continue to outpace the national average for promoting women to partner.”
The Diversity and Flexibility Alliance collaborates with organizations and corporations to develop non-stigmatized flexible work policies that promote inclusive work cultures and help to advance more women into leadership positions. It also provides practical research-based solutions that increase organizational effectiveness and create high performance cultures leveraging diversity and flexibility.
Their New Partner Report is a yearly compilation and examination of data from more than 100 of the nation’s largest law firms regarding the attorneys promoted to partnership in their U.S. offices. The data is based upon publicly available firm announcements and other self-reported sources about new partner classes with an effective date of promotion between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2016.
