Cleary Gottlieb's New Partner Class: Where Are The Women?
The firm just announced 16 new partners and counsel, and only one was a woman.
The new Cleary partnership class?
Happy election day! We hope you have done your civic duty by voting in this historic election.
Speaking of election, one of Biglaw’s biggest and best names, the white-shoe firm of Cleary Gottlieb, just elected 16 new partners and counsel. Naming new partners is usually a cause for celebration at a firm, and based on the credentials and accomplishments described in Cleary’s press release, this new group is impressive indeed.
The Global Legal News You Need, When You Need It
But they fall short in at least one key metric, as displeased CGSH associates and alumni have informed us:
Maybe you’ve seen it, but Cleary just elected a new crop of partners/counsel. 15 men and 1 woman; VERY WHITE. It feels very embarrassing and throw-back-y for a firm so proud of its diversity.
Don’t want to generalize too much based on one year, but women are substantially more than 12.5% of the associate ranks.
Have you and your team considered a story about Cleary’s recent promotions? Of the 16 promoted to partner and counsel last week, only 1 was a woman. In 2015, it was 3 out of 14 partners and counsel, and in 2014, it was 1 out of 10 partners and counsel (with only 1 woman partner in each of those years). In 2013, they promoted no women partners. Those seem like fairly dismal numbers for the promotion of women.
Sponsored
Legal Knowledge Management To Drive Dealmaking
Stuck Drafting A Tough Brief? This Tool Can Help.
What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life?
I asked this source: how many women were considered for partnership this year?
It’s hard to know [how many women were up this year]. It’s not transparent. There have been a few senior women departures lately…. There are a number of women that are upset about this, so I wasn’t sure if you’d already heard.
We have heard, as reflected in the comments above. And it’s worth noting that some of these complaints come from men and from Cleary alumni (who are often in a position to hire their former firm, and who increasingly consider diversity when selecting outside counsel).
We reached out to the firm for comment. Managing partner Mark Leddy had this to say:
While we are proud of the talented colleagues who were promoted to partner and counsel, we all share in the disappointment that women and lawyers from diverse backgrounds were significantly underrepresented. There are no excuses; we must do better. We have undertaken a number of initiatives and are firmly committed to making the investments necessary to ensure that our culture is one in which all lawyers can thrive, and we will continue to do so. We believe these efforts will have a long-term impact on the promotion of women and diverse lawyers to senior leadership positions in the firm.
Sponsored
The Global Legal News You Need, When You Need It
What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life?
That’s a solid response — taking responsibility, pledging to do better, and not blaming the disappointing numbers on a shortage of qualified candidates. Of course, time will tell whether Cleary’s initiatives bear fruit.
In fairness to Cleary, it’s far from the only firm that’s struggling with diversity issues. And it’s also worth noting that Cleary, an impressively international firm, generally does well in terms of diversity. Earlier this year, for example, it made the American Lawyer’s top 10 firms for diversity. (But note that Am Law focuses on racial and ethnic diversity, as opposed to other forms of diversity; the Vault diversity rankings, in contrast, consider diversity “as relating to minorities, women, LGBT individuals, individuals with disabilities, and military veterans.”)
In fairness to Biglaw, it is improving on some metrics when it comes to the treatment of women (a few high-profile lawsuits notwithstanding). Just last week, for example, the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance released a new report showing that of those lawyers promoted to partnership at 134 large U.S. law firms over the last year, 37 percent are women — the highest since the Alliance began collecting the data in 2012, as noted by the WSJ Law Blog.
Per the WSJ, “just 10 firms reported not promoting a single woman, and most of those had fairly small class sizes.” So Cleary, with its one woman partner, is definitely on the low end of Biglaw in this regard. (On the bright side, Cleary’s partner does have some racial and ethnic diversity; one new partner and two new counsel are of Asian ancestry.)
We will be covering other firms when it comes to partnership promotion and diversity issues; we just started with Cleary because of all the reader tips we received. If you would like us to look into diversity issues at your firm, please email us and share what you know. Thanks.
P.S. If you’re interested in gender diversity in the legal profession, please check out our Law Firm Gender Diversity Index.
(Flip to the next page to see the Cleary press release, listing the 16 talented lawyers who will become partners or counsel as of January 1, 2017.)
Number Of Female Partners In BigLaw Hits 5-Year High [Law360]
More Women Promoted at Law Firms, But Still Lag Behind Men [WSJ Law Blog]
Earlier: ATL Law Firm Gender Diversity Index
The Best Law Firms For Diversity (2017)
‘Ball Don’t Lie’ – What Percentage Of Biglaw Partners Are White?
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@abovethelaw.com.
