Meghan Tribe writes, "While large law firms make strides in increasing gender diversity amongst their ranks, a recent study found that women still lag significantly behind their male counterparts in certain key Big Law practice areas.
The study by ALM Intelligence (ALI) titled “ Where Do We Go From Here? Big Law’s Struggle With Recruiting and Retaining Female Talent” found that among women working at Am Law 200 firms, niche practice groups, such as education, family law, health care, immigration and labor and employment were those with the greatest proportion of women.
Other areas in Big Law like banking, corporate and litigation had the lowest number of female lawyers, according to the study. The ALI analysis also found that female talent is underrepresented in states with large law school talents pools.
“It really is striking how much attention this problem is getting without any movement whatsoever,” said Daniella Isaacson, a senior analyst for legal intelligence at ALI and an author of the study. “The only real way to solve this is [for] law firms to understand what their data looks like and where does the problem really lie.” "
