2012 Top Ten Family Friendly Firms

Yale Law Women (YLW) is pleased to announce its seventh annual Top Ten Family Friendly Firms List. The 2012 Top Ten Firms, in alphabetical order, are:

Arnold & Porter

Crowell & Moring

Hunton & Williams

Latham & Watkins

Littler Mendelson

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo

Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe

Perkins Coie

Reed Smith

WilmerHale

YLW congratulates these Top Ten Firms for their leadership in developing and implementing family friendly practices and policies.

Download the executive summary

This year, YLW emphasized utilization – rather than mere availability – in our survey on law firm policies regarding family friendliness. In an effort to learn more about how formal family friendly policies worked in practice, our survey asked firms to provide detailed information regarding the rates at which attorneys in different positions and of different genders took advantage of those policies. Although some of the results were encouraging, others pointed to substantial room for improvement in promoting the equal utilization of family-friendly policies between men and women. We applaud firms that have taken important steps to deconstruct gender stereotypes of “bread-winner” and “care-giver” by making family friendly options available to attorneys of both genders on equal terms.

Part-time/Flex-time

While nearly every firm surveyed made part-time or flex-time options available to its attorneys, male attorneys did not avail themselves of these options at the same rates as their female counterparts. On average, 80 percent of the attorneys who utilized part-time options were women. Notably, however, at least two firms – Squire Sanders and Vinson & Elkins – have reached gender equity in part-time/flex-time use, with men accounting for 50 percent of all attorneys on part-time or flex-time schedules.

Part-time policies and billable hour policies go hand-in-hand. On average, an attorney working part-time billed 1,130 hours, compared to 1,912 hours for a full-time attorney. These figures show that the average attorney working a “part-time” schedule puts in 60 percent of the hours worked by full-time attorneys. Other firms responded that the minimum scale for part-time work was 75 percent of the full-time workload.

At two firms – Skadden Arps and Squire Sanders – the ratio of part-time billable hours to full-time billable hours was less than 50 percent, indicating that part-time work was meaningfully part-time. Furthermore, all firms surveyed made part-time attorneys eligible for bonuses, and a third of both part-time and full-time attorneys actually received bonuses. Finally, 82 percent of firms surveyed provide additional compensation for part-time attorneys who work more than the planned number of hours.

Many firms emphasized a commitment to flex-time options, which they commonly defined as flexible working arrangements that provide attorneys with freedom to work their full-time hours on a non-traditional schedule or remotely. A small number of these firms expressed their preference for efficiency over “face-time” and pointed to a technological infrastructure that allows attorneys to work as effectively away from the office as in it. Some firms also reported paying their part-time or flex-time attorneys based on the number of their assignments rather than total hours billed. Such creative compensation structures can help replace the pressure for face-time and sky-high billables with incentives to work more efficiently.

Family care

A third of firms provide 16 or more weeks of paid childcare leave to primary caregivers. On average, mothers were offered 16 weeks of leave, while fathers were offered 7.5 weeks of leave. During the survey period, 10.5 percent of female attorneys and 6.6 percent of male attorneys took leave. We were pleased to find that at four firms – Crowell & Moring, Hunton & Williams, Morrison & Foerster, and Perkins Coie – more than 10 percent of attorneys availed themselves of parental leave. In addition, at eight firms, men were equally as likely as women to take advantage of family leave policies. These firms include Arnold & Porter, Dorsey & Whitney, Fried Frank, Linklaters, Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, Reed Smith, and Skadden Arps. Finally, 70 percent of firms offered on-site or backup service childcare. We applaud these improvements in the rates at which men utilize family leave options. Yet we also note that at the average firm, women are more likely than men to take leave and to take the full amount of leave offered.

The percentage of firms that offer formal “off-ramp/on-ramp” programs increased from 36 percent in 2011 to 46 percent this year. Several of these firms shared innovative practices for easing the transition of attorneys out of the workplace or back into it. Many of these practices target “off-ramp” attorneys who may seek to re-enter the workforce after an extended leave. They include providing off-ramp attorneys with ongoing online training and opportunities for pro bono or contract work, pairing them with professional mentors, reimbursing their bar dues, inviting them to firm social functions, and creating customized or progressive return schedules. Some firms also reported the availability of one-on-one family friendly coaching to help employees maintain work-life balance after returning from leave.

We also note a trend in providing support for attorneys with other family responsibilities. For example, several firms have expanded their back-up emergency care services to encompass adult care and elder care. We applaud firms that have adopted a broader definition of family-friendliness by recognizing these important forms of care-giving.

Leadership and Promotions

Promotion to partnership remains heavily skewed toward male attorneys and attorneys who do not utilize family-friendly options. While women currently make up 43 percent of the associate pool, only 30 percent of newly-promoted partners last year were women. Of those promoted, only 5 percent were currently working part-time and 7 percent had previously worked part-time. However, eight firms participating in the survey achieved gender parity in partner promotions last year: Arnold & Porter, Fried Frank, Jenner & Block, Littler Mendelson, Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, Wachtell Lipton and WilmerHale. It is especially interesting to note that at these eight firms with parity in promotion rates, an average of 40 percent of attorneys working part-time were partners, compared to 23 percent at the average firm. Overall, 3.9 percent of equity partners in surveyed firms worked part-time schedules last year.

Finally, we found that the percentage of women equity partners and executive management committee partners remained low, with 17 percent and 12 percent, respectively.

Yale Law Women produces its annual Top Ten Family Firms report to raise awareness of gender disparities within the legal profession as well as to highlight progress and innovative solutions. We believe that the legal industry is capable of making major strides to improve the experiences of women and men attorneys alike. That improvement hinges on careful attention to utilization in addition to availability of family-friendly policies.

Please visit the YLW website, www.yale.edu/ylw, for additional information regarding the Top Ten Family Friendly Firms List.