No Glass Ceiling Initiative

CWL works hard to promote the advancement of women in the legal profession. Statistics show that, while women are advancing in the profession, we are still not where we should be. In 1993, the National Association for Law Placement found that women made up just 12.27% of all partners nationwide. A decade later, in 2003, NALP determined that women held only 16.81% of partnership positions nationwide. CWL seeks to raise the representation of women in the partnership and management ranks so that it is more aligned with the 50% of law school students who are now women.

Last year, CWL embarked on a statewide effort to extend the commitments advanced by the Bar Association of San Francisco’s No Glass Ceiling Task Force. The No Glass Ceiling Commitments ask firms to take specific steps in order to:

• Have at least 25% women at the partnership level by the end of 2004;
• Have at least one female chair or managing partner, either firm-wide or in a branch office, by the end of 2005;
• Retain men and women attorneys at approximately equal rates by 2004;
• Embrace the concepts of part-time partners and flexible work schedules, including ensuring that alternative schedules are an equitable and viable option

Since BASF adopted the initiative in 2002, 66 California law firms and corporate and governmental legal departments have committed to the goal of breaking the barriers to women serving in leadership positions. In a recent survey of firms who have signed the Commitments, 28 reported an average 18% increase in women partners and a 26% increase in the number of women in management positions. In November 2003, BASF and CWL honored Thelen Reid & Priest LLP with the new annual Breaking the Glass Ceiling Award for making the most progress in both partnership and management ranks. Folger Levin & Kahn LLP was recognized as a pioneer in breaking the glass ceiling based upon the firm’s remarkable 25-year effort, which has resulted in 44% of the firm’s partners being women, and in 50% of the partners in the firm's Los Angeles office being women. By recognizing these law firms' achievements and advocating for change in the profession as a whole, CWL has played a leadership role in advancing the status of women in the business law community. Also, in an effort to ensure that the commitments are achieved, CWL recently co-sponsored a San Francisco forum targeting Bay Area firms' managing partners, to encourage the sharing of best practices for achieving the initiative's goals.

CWL has worked to extend the No Glass Ceiling Initiative statewide by hosting events to encourage other counties to develop similar initiatives and to obtain the commitments of legal agencies, law firms and corporations to breaking their own glass ceilings. To learn more about extending the No Glass Ceiling Initiative to your community, contact Andrea Carlise at acarlise@pwblaw.com.