Kelley Drye & Warren has announced it is appointing Dana Rosenfeld as its next managing partner, starting Jan. 1, 2020, propelling Rosenfeld into a role that is still rare for a woman to hold.

Rosenfeld will be the first woman in Kelley Drye's 183-year history to serve as managing partner, taking over for Lew Rose, who is set to retire at the end of the year. Rosenfeld was chair of the New York-based firm's privacy and information security practice for nine years and has served on multiple committees within the firm.

"It is a shame that there aren't more women managing partners nationally," Rosenfeld said in an interview.

She said she has been able to meet recently with a number of managing partners—both men and women—and learn from their experiences.

"I think women have a particular experience, which is a little bit different," Rosenfeld said. "I'm grateful to learn from other women who have come before me."

Rosenfeld has been working alongside Rose to learn how the firm operates since the beginning of this year. Firm chair Jim Carr said he began looking for Rose's replacement in 2018 after Rose told him he planned to retire at the end of 2019. By the end of last year, Carr had picked Rosenfeld as Rose's successor, a decision that was approved by the firm's executive committee.

"Dana was the most qualified candidate out of everyone I considered, and it happened also that Dana is a woman," Carr said. "It's important to note that this role is not just going to Dana because she is a woman; it's going to Dana because she is the most qualified candidate at Kelley Drye."

There aren't many managing partners like Rosenfeld, if the survey statistics from the National Association of Women Lawyers are any indication. Women make up 25% of firm governance roles and 22% of firmwide managing partners, according to the 97 law firms that responded to NAWL's survey in early 2018.

Women make up 20% of office-level managing partners and 22% of practice group leaders, the survey found. The organization stated that "this is the area of the most progress, but the numbers still lag behind the representation of women in the legal profession as a whole."

Rosenfeld touted the efforts of Carr and Rose over the past five to seven years to improve the firm's diversity. Four of the nine people on the firm's executive committee are women, while the managing partner of the firm's second-largest office, in Washington, D.C., is also a woman.

According to ALM's data, Kelley Drye from 2011 to 2016 ranked between No. 33 and 42 on the Am Law 200′s diversity rankings. But in 2017, the firm's ranking slipped to No. 86, and it is currently in 76th place. In terms of gender, Kelley Drye is ranked at No. 149, but the firm last year reported its highest percentage of female attorneys working at firm—38.2%—since 2011.

Kelley Drye reported in 2019 that 18.3% of its partners are women, and Rosenfeld said that number is set to grow. Women make up 53% of the firm's associates and 58% of its special counsel, which at Kelley Drye is a position between senior associate and partner, Rosenfeld said.

"As you can see, we have women in the position to grow and be elevated to partnership over time," Rosenfeld said. "We're well-positioned, growing organically, to move high numbers of women into partnership."

Carr noted that Kelley Drye had an exclusively all-white, all-male partnership and an associate pool that was "almost exclusively" white men when he joined in October 1988.

Kelley Drye's revenue grew 0.4% last year to more than $243 million. Both Carr and Rosenfeld indicated they're satisfied with the firm's overall financial performance, with Carr pointing out that the firm has taken steps to cut costs and boost overall profits, including relocating its New York office to a cheaper space.

"At the end of the day, it's not the bottom line in terms of revenue," Carr said. "It's the type of firm that we are."