Women Law Partners Achieve Landmark Majority at Perkins Coie

I graduated from law school in 2002 ready to take the legal world by storm, starting my career with two federal clerkships. Once I joined my first firm, it became readily apparent that women partner role models were few and far between.

Although women had achieved near parity among law school graduates, there seemed to be only one or two women partners in any given practice group. I quickly developed a two-year plan to stay for initial training and make the jump to greener pastures in-house that promised more of a future for a woman lawyer.

I didn’t imagine I would make partner at a big law firm—let alone become managing partner of a leading firm’s San Francisco office where the majority of partners are women.

Indeed, our office’s women partners are among our firm’s top revenue drivers, lead teams working on cutting-edge issues, and hold national firm leadership positions, including on our firm’s management and executive committees and as practice group chairs.

Far From the Norm

Unfortunately, a majority of women partners in any big law office is far from the norm. Big law firms have generally assumed that gender parity can be achieved solely through law school recruitment and efforts to retain women associates. After more than two decades of firms taking this approach, it’s time to recognize it has failed.

Since 2002, the percentage of women partners at large law firms has barely budged. For women of color it is even less encouraging. The partnership of major law firms still does not reflect the parity women achieved at law schools decades ago, as highlighted by a National Association of Women Lawyers survey showing women comprise only 22% of equity partners across the Am Law 200 firms that provided data.

Instead, the focus should be on how to attract, retain, and promote women partners. Studies and articles highlighting the root causes for the large attrition of women in big law are plentiful, and they often consist of findings tied to lack of equal opportunities, unequal compensation, both explicit and implicit biases, and sexual harassment.

Time to Create Wider Pathways

Increasing gender diversity within a law firm delivers innumerable benefits, which—unsurprisingly—creates much wider pathways for women to succeed and thrive at all levels.

In my view, there are key factors that paved the way for our San Francisco office to achieve a majority of women partners and receive the benefits that such gender parity delivers, including for our many male colleagues.

Firstly, our success in recruiting and retaining women talent was not an accident. Under the leadership of my predecessor, Barbara Schussman, there was a focus on leveraging the strength of our existing women partners to recruit and promote women partners. This office-level effort aligned with a strategic goal of the firm to take meaningful action and boost the overall number of women, and other diverse partners, in leadership positions.

As the momentum towards gender parity increased, it helped our office recruit more accomplished women lawyers, including those from a younger generation. Of our 69 partners, counsel, and associates—41 are women and 28 are men.

Another crucial factor was the strong group of supportive male allies in the office’s partnership, who genuinely support and celebrate the successes of the women partners and respect their many contributions to the firm and our clients.

Our partner-focused approach has had immense benefits on recruiting and retaining talent. Our incoming fall associate class, 2L summer associate class, and 1L summer associate class are entirely women, people of color and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community. We’ve also attracted diverse talent among our business professionals.

Inclusive Culture

Achieving gender parity has notably contributed to our inclusive office culture, something I witness daily. Male, female, and non-binary members of our office are comfortable being themselves, which increases work quality, job satisfaction, morale, and mental health. It’s no surprise that lawyers and business professionals who can bring their authentic selves to work then naturally devote more energy to serving our clients.

The women partners in my office are a team. We cross-sell each other, we support each other, we laugh together, and we are there for each other when life throws us curveballs.

I experienced this personally one day when driving to my veterinarian’s office to pick up my sedated dog who had been diagnosed with cancer that morning while still trying to navigate the emotional fog of my mother passing from cancer just two weeks earlier.

As I reached the vet’s office, a driver of questionable sobriety crashed into my car. I wasn’t hurt but my car was not functional, and my husband was out of town several hours away.

I texted some of my fellow women partners asking for help. Within 20 minutes, one of the partners pulled into the parking lot with a dog bed in the back of her family minivan for my woozy pet. That’s the same responsiveness and dedication these women show to our clients and colleagues every day.

Because of the continued lack of progress towards gender parity, it is important to share our office’s story for women who question whether they can make partner like I once did. It can be done, but we need each of you to drive much-needed change within the legal industry. Let’s work together, along with our male allies, to make it a reality for everyone. The future of our profession depends on it.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg Industry Group, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Author Information

Laura Zagar is managing partner at Perkins Coie, where she focuses her practice on multijurisdictional water, energy, and infrastructure projects, and complex litigation.