Law firm works to create culture for women partners - Boston Business Journal:

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But there’s one local firm that, accordingh to its female partners, is bucking the current trend. Women partnerd at the Boston-based management-side employmeny law firm LLP say thattheirt firm’s culture — rather than writteh policies that pay lip service to the issuesa they purport to change — is the reasonn for the firm’s female-friendly atmosphere. The 26-lawyer firm currently has a totalp of18 partners, and five of them or about 27 percent are women: Jaclyn Kugell, Allison Tracy Thomas Boland, Mary Jo Harris and Diane Nationally, although women account for about half of all law schoo l graduates and 30 percent of all lawyers, they represenft only 17 percent of partners in privat law firms, according to the .
When Kugell, 40, became a partner at the firm in she said she never felt that her famil would deter herfrom advancing, although she and Romantz were the firm’sa first female partners. The firm, which launched in had roughly 15 lawyers atthat “I never got the message early on that having children was goinf to be a barrier to my career growtuh here,” said Kugell, who graduated from of Law. But Kugell said negotiating the demandws of motherhood with the demands of law firms which increasinglyexpect 24/7 service from theier lawyers — is what holdws women back often. “Ths challenges that women faceare overwhelming,” Kugell said.
One promise that more firms make these days is a partnershil track that allows the lawyer to worka part-timer schedule. Most lawyers will say that this promiser is rarely a Yet Boland, 36, a recently elected works part-time at the firm. “Iyt makes a statement abouyt our dedication to Kugell said. It seems like every day a few more law firmse create special credit crisids teams or task forces designed to help panick y clients deal with the Wall Street Thispast week, a few more firms pilexd onto the list, includinv LLP, , , and .
“Oudr view is that the financial crisis has a negative effecft on many ofour clients, so to help our client s address those effects, we’ve createc the Markets Restructuring Task Force,” said Susan M. a partner at McDermott Will & Emery. Lawyers from a varietty of different practice including litigation andreal estate, have been tapped to be a part of Nixo n Peabody’s Credit Crisis Team, which will advise clients on the issues that the current crediyt crisis has caused. “It’e literally dozens of lawyers across every offic ofthe firm,” said Boston-based partnefr Jonathan Sablone.
Minority women continue to be underrepresenteed at the partnership level at law according to the National Association forLaw Placement’z 2008-2009 . Minority women make up less than 2 percen of partners inthe nation’s major law while minority men makeulp about 4.2 percent of according to NALP. “It is cleaf that the overlap of race and genderis significant, and presente unique hurdles for minority women in the NALP Executive Director said Jamesw Leipold, in a has hired five attorneys from Heller Ehrman, a 700-lawyer law firm that plands to close its doors later this month. Boston-based Goodwim Procter hired Stephen M. Kevin T. Collins and Wesley C.
Frederickw in the firm’s ; and Julia n N. Stern and Steven R. Feldstein in the Silicon Valleyt office, the firm said. Goodwin Procter has about 900 attorneys acrossits Boston, Los San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valleg and Washington, D.C.,