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By Jesse Greenspan
Law360, New York (April 29, 2010) -- Nearly one-third of female partners have been bullied or threatened by male colleagues to back down from origination point disagreements, an example of the many compensation challenges they still face, according to a new study.
The study, titled “A Survey of Women Partners on Law Firm Compensation,” was unveiled Wednesday at a summit in Philadelphia for female in-house counsel. It said 55 percent of respondents reported being occasionally or frequently denied their fair share of origination points.
At most firms these disputes are resolved between the partners, but at some firms the compensation committee decides. An appeal is possible at many firms, but at some firms the attorneys must simply live with the original decision, the study found.
“When origination points are disputed, there is no clear, objective way that such disputes are settled,” the study said.
Almost 30 percent of respondents reported having been subjected to intimidation, threats or bullying to back down from origination point disagreements with their male partners, and 39 percent reported being dissatisfied with how such disagreements are resolved at their firms, according to the study.
Meanwhile, women partners have generally found themselves shut out from inheriting key clients when a partner retires.
Of the nearly 700 female law firm partners who responded to the survey, 30 percent said at their firm the retiring partner selects his or her successor for the client, 32 percent said there is no consistent approach, 16 percent don't know how the successor is chosen, 6 percent said firm management chooses the new partner, 2 percent said there is no objective selection process, and only 2 percent said the client chooses the next management partner.
“All these challenges affect partners’ compensation,” the study said.
It pointed out that women were “severely underrepresented” on management committees and compensation committees, and that there were also not many women managing partners, chairwomen or presidents.
“In compensation committees alone, few white women were members, and minority women were largely absent from these key committees and positions,” the study said.
When surveyed as to how someone gets a seat on the compensation committee, 7 percent of respondents said they didn't know.
The study furthermore revealed that over 92 percent of respondents believed revenue generation — in the form of billable amounts collected, billable hours worked, new client origination and client cross-selling, among other things — was the key factor for promotion to equity partner.
The study was completed by Veta Richardson, executive director of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, and Cynthia Calvert, co-director of the Project for Attorney Retention at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.
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