As is the case every time we produce this special section, there is a striking level of insight in the Q&A responses these accomplished lawyers took the time to share with us. A couple of particularly instructive points are raised by Galit Kierkut of Greenberg Traurig: "By weighing schedules and the billable hour so heavily in advancement decisions we are losing women at firms and failing to recognize that children will get older and schedules will change but talent will not just return," she told us, adding that "the way some firms handle origination and compensation detrimentally affects women in both compensation and advancement to equity partner."

As ever, much of what's needed comes down to law firms changing or at least reexamining their business models and ways of doing business. The reason issues such as gender disparity in compensation and partnership continue to arise is because those continue to be areas in which significant progress could be made. The numbers we see bear it out. The anecdotes we hear bear it out. In the answers below, there are probably about 100 good places to start.