Tear Down the Window-Dressing: Big Law Policies That Actually Support Women

A "piling on" of slights and inequities over time drives women from law firms, a study by ALM and the ABA shows. At the same time, men and women vastly differ in how they view the success of firms' policies to address the problem.

January 10, 2020 at 03:54 PM

1 minute read

By Leigh Jones
Deputy editor-in-chief, Law.com

By Vanessa Blum
VP, Innovation

The original version of this story was published on Law.com

This week, we're taking a close look at the culmination of factors that drive women attorneys out of Big Law and—importantly—how to stem the exodus.

To explore the issue, Law.com reporter Dylan Jackson talks with Michelle Browning Coughlin, a partner at Wyatt Tarrant & Combs who is also the founder of MothersEsquire, a nonprofit group focused on advancing women in the legal profession. The starting point of their conversation is the release of a study late last year by Law.com affiliate ALM Intelligence and American Bar Association, which found a huge gender divide when it comes to lawyers' satisfaction with their firms' operations and policies for women's advancement.

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