For the second year in a row, Berry Appleman & Leiden leads the Women in Law Scorecard rankings. Of the firm's 200 lawyers in 2019, 59.5% were women, according to data submitted to The National Law Journal. Women also comprised 60% of the firm's associates (up from 57.8% in 2018), 63.6% of the firm's partnership (up from 60% in 2018) and 42.9% of the firm's equity partnership (the same as in 2018).

Firms best known for practices that have traditionally attracted more women lawyers—namely, immigration and labor and employment—remained leaders on the 2020 Women's Scorecard. And according to data made available for the first time this year, many of these firms leading in gender diversity also reported having the highest percentages of minority women partners among their U.S. partner ranks: Fragomen, which landed the No. 2 spot on the Scorecard, reported 15.8% of its U.S. partners are minority women and Berry Appleman reported that 13.6% of its U.S. partner ranks are minority women.

Editor's note: Law firms submitting data for the Women's Scorecard reported on women partners globally. Firms separately submitted U.S. minority women partner data for ALM's Diversity Scorecard. See more in the "Women's Scorecard 2020: A Top 25 Snapshot" and "U.S. Female Minority Partners Among the Top 25" charts.

"We have worked very hard to ensure that our firm represents the diverse communities where our offices are located and the clients we serve," said Berry Appleman managing partner Jeremy Fudge. "We're proud to be a leader in gender equity, and also understand that when you have women and people of color in leadership positions as we do, there's a ripple effect that attracts and encourages greater diversity throughout the firm."

Diverse women leaders at the firm include global immigration practice leader Vernadette Antonio and senior partner Frieda Garcia.

Antonio said the firm "is committed to genuine inclusion, diversity and empowerment. Women are well-represented at all levels of the firm where decisions are made, and this inevitably creates a positive effect on firm policies toward inclusion and diversity."

Additionally, firm policies like "remote working and flexible schedules, may be particularly attractive to women who are often juggling multiple priorities along with their careers," she added.

The Women in Law Scorecard ranks the U.S.'s largest law firms by representation of women attorneys. Scorecard rankings are calculated by adding each firm's percentage of total women lawyers with the percentage of partners who are women.

In all, 265 of the country's 350 largest firms by head count reported data for the scorecard. Among the respondents, women accounted for 37.2% of the firms' 143,454 lawyers in 2019, and 47.7% of 68,250 associates.

Hanson Bridgett; Littler Mendelson; Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete; FordHarrison; Wood Smith Henning & Berman; Manning Gross + Massenburg; Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart; and Jackson Lewis rounded out the top 10 of the Women in Law Scorecard. Four of those firms—Wood Smith; Manning Gross; Ogletree Deakins; and Jackson Lewis—are at the top of the rankings for the first time.

Representation Gains

Many firms that responded to this year's survey reported making gains in the portion of their head counts composed of women. Three firms—Fragomen (65.7%); Berry Appleman (59.5%); and Littler Mendelson (50.4%)—said their overall head count was majority women, while more than 40 firms said their ranks were at least 40% female.

Female representation at the partner level once again lagged in 2019: across the board, women comprised only 24.2% of all partnerships, out of 59,176 total partners, and only 20.5% of the equity partnership ranks.

Some firms say they are laying the groundwork for greater gender diversity at the top ranks by giving women lawyers more opportunities, highlighting the success of women internally and externally, and validating nontraditional paths to partnership, all of which can inspire female lawyers earlier in the pipeline.

"Once you see women partners in leadership, other women attorneys can look around and say, 'If they can do this, I can do it, too,' and not necessarily at the sacrifice of other things you want in your life," said Lisa Bebchick, a partner at Ropes & Gray and co-chair of the firm's Women's Forum. Ropes & Gray cracked the Women in Law Scorecard's top 20 for the first time in 2020 (up from 32nd the previous year), and the firm reported its head count to be 43.3% women, with female lawyers accounting for 46% of its associates and 28.8% of its partners.

Ropes & Gray also elected its first woman chair in 2017, a rarity among Am Law 100 firms. Other firms are finding gender diversity success by promoting women to practice group leader, office managing partner, and management committee positions.

"What we've done not only last year, but over the last few years, is grow a greater gender representation among our board of directors, which is elected by partners," said Jackson Lewis co-chair Kevin Lauri. "Currently, four of 10 board members are women, and we're very proud of that. We're looking for the best people, and women at the firm are given every opportunity to succeed."

Jackson Lewis ranked 10th on this year's Women in Law scorecard, up from 17th in 2019. The firm said its head count was 44.9% female, and women made up 33.5% of its partnership and 30.2% of its equity partnership.

A Spotlight on Diversity

In addition to scoring among the top firms on the 2020 Women in Law Scorecard, the third- and fourth-ranked firms, Hanson Bridgett (8.7%) and Littler Mendelson (7.2%), also had relatively high representation of minority women at the partner rank.

How have they steered ahead of many of their peers? "I think we've successfully attracted women attorneys because it becomes clear early in the recruiting process that we're committed to seeing them thrive—and we've retained them because they do," said Kristina Lawson, managing partner-elect of Hanson Bridgett, which placed third on the 2020 Women in Law Scorecard rankings, with women lawyers comprising 48.8% of the firm's attorneys in 2019. Lawson, along with Tom Bender and Jeremy Roth, co-presidents of Littler Mendelson, said their firms have worked to invest in leadership training, business development and mentorship for women, including women of color.

"As a firm, our role is to foster an environment where that success is imminently achievable. That means continuing to invest in and support diversity and inclusion initiatives, including mentorship, business development and training programs," Bender and Roth said in a statement. "It means providing leadership opportunities … and it means creating a culture in which we're always listening, learning and looking for new ways to make this a firm where everyone can truly thrive."

Jackson Kelly was one of four firms among the top 25 that did not submit stats for minority women partners during ALM's data gathering process for this package. They did share in a subsequent interview with a reporter that the firm has one minority woman partner, meaning that minority women partners at the firm comprise 0.1% of the firm's U.S. partners. Of the firms that reported their data for the scorecard, Fredrikson & Byron scored the lowest on the list with 0.6% of their U.S. partner ranks composed of diverse women partners. Three other firms—Wood Smith; Verrill Dana; and Ropes & Gray—did not disclose the number of women of color among their partnership ranks. And they did not respond to requests for comment on the data by our early June press time. After publication, Ropes & Gray confirmed they had 22 minority partners making up 8.6% of their partnership.

Flexibility Is Key—Especially Now

Many firms topping this year's Women in Law Scorecard have reaped the rewards of prior years spent laying a strong gender-diversity foundation.

"Over the past year, we've done a really phenomenal job of building on an infrastructure we've had for some time now to support our women and diverse lawyers," said Michelle Wimes, chief diversity and professional development officer at Ogletree Deakins. The firm ranked ninth on the 2020 Women in Law Scorecard—up from 14th a year ago—and the firm's head count was 46% women lawyers, with 32.6% of the partnership and 24.3% equity partnership women. Wimes said that in the past year, the firm's women's initiative and family groups have built a sponsorship program to support female nonequity partners advancing to the equity level, and have championed flexible work schedules, parental leave and backup child care—of increased importance to moms who are taking on the majority of child care responsibilities in addition to billables, as the coronavirus pandemic has upended the legal industry.

Ogletree Deakins managing shareholder Matthew Keen said that compared to the last economic downturn period in 2008, both his firm and the profession are "further along … in terms of flexible working arrangements, reduced-hour attorneys and flex-time attorneys," which allows the firm to be "better positioned [to be] be flexible to help our lawyers succeed," he said.

Wimes said she sees the pandemic as an opportunity for women. "I look at it as a glass-half-full situation, where once we're over the bump of child care in the interim, there are more opportunities for women to be more involved," she said. "This levels the playing field, where everyone works remotely, and women are stepping up in a big way."