Top Firms For Women Invest For The Long Haul

By Erin Fuchs

Law360, New York (December 11, 2009) -- Fifteen years ago, Sandra L. Rappaport landed a summer associate position at San Francisco firm Hanson Bridgett LLP. She was later promoted to senior counsel while on maternity leave and made partner while pregnant with her second son.

“The culture of the firm is to really support, mentor and grow the folks who are here, and that was very much my experience,” Rappaport told Law360. “At certain times, you have other priorities in your life ... We're there to support the whole career — not just a snapshot.”

A Law360 survey of more than 200 firms employing at least 100 lawyers has turned up three firms with the highest concentration of women partners: McDonough Holland & Allen PC with 34.78 percent, Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP with 31.82 percent and Hanson Bridgett LLP with 30.67 percent.

The three firms, all of which have fewer than 80 partners, say they're able to attract and retain women leaders because they invest in attorneys throughout the span of their careers.

At the top three, women can start as associates and climb the ranks to partner and still adjust their schedules to accommodate children or other priorities, firm partners say. Moreover, the top three boast a cooperative — rather than a cutthroat — attitude that attracts and keeps women.

Hanson Bridgett has a total of 75 partners, 23 of whom are women. Rappaport, who's chair of recruiting at the firm, attributes its relatively high number of female partners to its ability to recruit women as associates and support their development.

At some firms, “they have an equal number of men and women and the women seem to drop off as you get higher in the ranks,” Rappaport said. “I don't think that happens with us.” The mother of two added, “We make it a place where women can succeed. It's not difficult to succeed as a woman here.”

Hanson Bridgett offers a flexible schedule where partners can commit to fewer hours than other senior partners and work from home, she said. “I come home, we do homework, I put my kids to bed. And technology makes it that I can be totally responsible to my clients and manage their needs as well,” Rappaport told Law360. And Rappaport never felt like she was “letting the firm down” by not being chained to her desk, she said.

Davis Graham & Stubbs partner Patricia Peterson echoed many of Rappaport's sentiments. Her own firm — where 21 out of 66 partners are women — has a “long-term view” of lawyers, which she says is “more conducive for women to go through the stages of their career while they're having their families.”

Peterson, who's a member of her firm's executive committee, said that she knew she would have the full support of her firm when she adopted a nine-month-old from China in 1994. She had made partner five years earlier and adopted her baby as a single parent. “It was somehow never a question in my mind that this was going to be possible," she said. "I knew there would be support, on a personal and professional level.”

This support for work-life balance — which benefits both women and men — has evolved over time, she said. “It's not something that happens over night,” said Peterson, referring to cultivating a strong female partnership. “Most of our women partners have come through the ranks ... This isn't a taste of the month. This is what we're about: making opportunities available for people with talent, men and women.”

McDonough Holland & Allen, which has 16 female partners out of a total of 46, also boasts a commitment to working to develop talented attorneys and to affording them flexibility. But the firm's executive director, Gerry Holt, also mentioned that the firm's cooperative atmosphere is a draw for women.

“Having worked at large firms — I was at Morrison & Foerster for a number of years — I've really noticed that you don't see the kind of ruthless competition (at McDonough) that you see at other firms,” Holt said.

Peterson made a nearly identical comment about her own firm. “It tends to be a more cooperative atmosphere than a competitive atmosphere,” she said.

“We don't succeed on the backs of another, and I think it makes it more conducive to women feeling comfortable,” Peterson added.