30 Workingmother.com | august/september 2019
Best
Wo m e n 2019
Law Firms
for
Constangy, Brooks,
Smith & Prophete
Atlanta, GA
Chairman Neil Wasser
Chair, Women’s Network
Kimberly Seten
Over the past five years,
60 percent of internal promo-
tions to partner—both equity
and non-equity—were women.
Fifty percent of the firm’s
governing body and practice/
office leadership are women.Cooley Palo Alto, CA
CEO Joe Conroy
Partners Shira Nadich-Levin
and Kay Chandler
The six-month Pathways to
Sponsorship program matches
influential partners with female
and multicultural associates,
serving as mentors and
sponsors, and providing
feedback and advocacy.Crowell & Moring
Washington, D.C.
Chairman Philip Inglima
Co-chairs, Women’s Initiative
Counsels Sima Namir-Kalantari,
Tiffany Wynn and Alexis
DeBernardis
On March 15, 2018, the firm
hosted more than 300 clients,
lawyers and staff to celebrate
National Women’s History
Month with a panel discussion.
The subjects: advancing women
and diverse attorneys, and the
importance of relationship-
building with sponsors and
mentors to achieve this goal.Culhane Meadows
Dallas, TX
Co-managing Partner and
COO Kelly R. Culhane
Co-managing Partner and CTO
Heather C. Haughian
The largest national women-
owned firm uses a formula for
its compensation system based
on merit, and most attorneys
work from home. In the past
year, five of the top 10 highest
earners were women.Davis Wright Tremaine
Seattle, WA
Managing Partner Jeffrey Gray
Partners Bonnie MacNaughton
and Jaime Drozd Allen
In 2018, the Peer Mentoring
Circles program was revamped,
and now supports more than
100 women attorneys of all
practice areas and career levels
to broaden their network and
support professional and
personal development.Debevoise & Plimpton
HALL OF FAME New York, NY
Presiding Partner Michael Blair
Co-chairs, Women’s Resource
Group Jennifer Chu and
Courtney Dankworth
The firm launched a program
that gives women lawyers
real-time feedback from
senior lawyers in four one-
hour sessions focusing on
engagement, guidance across
differences, approaches for
soliciting advice, and continuing
positive behaviors.Dechert New York, NY
CEO Henry Nassau
Co-chair, Global Women’s
Initiative Abbi Cohen
Women2Women (W2W):
Defining My Success is a panel
series hosted by the firm’s
women attorneys and external
guests. Topics include
overcoming perfectionism,
building confidence, closing the
deal, getting a seat at the table,
understanding barriers to
success, building your brand,
and taking smart risks.Dentons US Washington, D.C.
CEO Mike McNamara
Partners and Co-chairs,
WomenLead Christina Carroll
and Maria Livanos
The Preparing for Rain program,
which helps women hone
rainmaking skills and improve
business development, was
expanded to include more
networking opportunities and
presentations by senior women
partners and firm leadership.DLA Piper New York, NY
U.S. Managing Partner
Stasia Kelly
Partners and Co-chairs,
Leadership Alliance for
Women Stefanie Fogel and
Lisa Haile
As part of their diversity and
inclusion action plans, leaders
of all practice groups started
comparing average billable
hours worked by diverse versus
nondiverse lawyers on the
50 highest revenue clients to
see if there are inequities they
can resolve.Dorsey & Whitney
HALL OF FAME Minneapolis, MN
Managing Partner
William Stoeri
Partner, Women’s Attorney
Group Co-chair Beth Forsythe
A pilot sponsorship program
for three new female partners
was created to assist with their
trajectory from income to
equity partner. They were
matched with mid- to senior-
level equity partners in similaror related practices from other
offices, who provided work
referrals and coaching on busi-
ness-development techniques.Drinker Biddle & Reath
Philadelphia, PA
Executive Partners Judith
Reich and William Connolly
Partners and Co-chairs,
Women’s Leadership
Committee
Lynne Anne Anderson and
Jennifer R. Breuer
In 2018, a firm-wide Women’s
Retreat brought together
women lawyers to network and
identify strategic goals to
support career and personal
success. Work started there
continues through regular
meetings of subcommittees
and programming focused on
business development, work-life
balance and enhancing personal
connections within the firm.Faegre Baker Daniels
HALL OF FAME Chicago, IL
Chair and Managing Partner
Tom Froehle
Director of Diversity and
Inclusion Brita Horvath
The firm launched a custom-
ized data-analytics project to
improve diversity and inclusion
initiatives. Data on gender was
presented to firm leadership
and all women partners, and
has become the basis for
strategic planning efforts.Finnegan, Henderson,
Farabow, Garrett
& Dunner Washington, D.C.
Managing Partner Mark Sweet
Partner, Liaison for Women’s
Initiatives Erika Arner
The women partners launched
a group for women attorneys
called Finnegan FORWARD:
Focused On Raising Women’s
Advancement, Representation
and Development, with three
main objectives: establish
business initiatives; increase
internal and external networks;
and provide business-develop-
ment and career-advancement
training programs.of the
top 10% of earners are
women. This is up
from 11% five years ago.
15 %