At the end of 2021, the Leopard Solutions team was preparing our annual round-up of lawyer hiring and departure trends.
As we sifted through the data, we noticed something startling about the numbers of women lawyers who had left their positions at law firms and other legal employers during the previous year.
We noticed that a smaller percentage of women were returning to Big Law. We then analyzed our entire 2021 dataset of attorney moves and discovered that we could not say for certain where 2,509 women had landed after they left their jobs. They had not, at least at the time of our inquiry, re-entered one of the more than 4,000 law firms and 8,000 companies that we track.
This discovery begged the question: Where had those women gone? Especially knowing that women outpace men in joining top law firms in entry-level positions.
We began a research project to find out more about what happened to women lawyers who left a top 200 firm. We saw that some rejoined Big Law with a bit of a gap while others left Big Law and joined smaller firms or went in-house or into academia.
Leopard Solutions then launched a survey of women who departed their law firms, particularly those who had exited a top 200 firm, to gather insights about their decision-making.
The results and comments by the women we surveyed gave us pause.
Common wisdom may suggest that the COVID pandemic or family concerns are the key drivers for the exodus of women from legal jobs, the women we surveyed were far more likely to cite job satisfaction and a lack of support and opportunities at their law firms.
Digging even deeper, we interviewed women who have had successful careers at top 200 firms, leading women’s initiatives and have been innovating gender diversity issues on behalf of their firms for their valuable perspectives.
In June, we conducted a webinar featuring women leaders in the legal profession to discuss the issues we had identified in the Women Leaving Law report, as well as strategies for addressing the problems facing women lawyers.
The Leopard Solutions’ Women Leaving Law report provides a snapshot of the complex cultural and business landscape that women lawyers and their employers face in the ongoing effort to achieve gender equity in the legal profession. On a macro level, the changing nature of the workplace, driven by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, provides an unprecedented opportunity for legal employers to make changes that will improve the retention of female lawyers.
Who Took the Women Leaving Law Survey?
200 women lawyers across 36 states, including Washington, D.C. and eight percent based outside of the U.S. took the Women Leaving Law survey.
The women who responded to the survey were largely law firm veterans. More than 90 percent worked for a law firm during their careers; 78% of those women had worked within Big Law. Most of the respondents were in the middle of their careers. More than 60 percent were between the ages of 35 and 55, the prime time to advance to partnership and law firm leadership.
Why Are Women Leaving Big Law?
The reasons cited in the survey by respondents on why they left their Big Law positions included what you would expect – gender biases, microaggressions, billable hour target pressure, preservation of mental health, lack of mentorship, unequal pay, as well as isolation, long hours and unpredictable schedules, lackluster career trajectory prospects and insufficient work-life balance, among others.
The most frustrating work aspect for our respondents was a perception that their law firms did not support them, followed closely by the lack of work-life balance.
As one woman told us, “Female attorneys have to work harder to achieve the same goals and show twice the commitment of their male counterparts. Work-life balance is more difficult to attain for female attorneys because they often have more obligations both inside and outside of work without the same amount of support.”
90 percent of survey respondents said that workplace culture was the main reason why they quit, with 82 percent blaming lack of flexibility and work/life balance. 74 percent said that the trajectory of their careers drove them to leave their current firms, a signal that many women feel shut out of advancement opportunities. This is although more than 60 percent of the women we surveyed said they had wanted to become partner early in their careers.
It’s interesting to note that approximately 65 percent of the women associates who left a top 200 firm did not return to other large law firms. One survey respondent said, “Fundamentally, large law firms were built to serve white male lawyers and their white male clients. The business model is one that requires lawyers to prioritize work above everything else in a way that has simply become untenable and unappealing for many. Efforts to promote and support women (and other underrepresented groups) will always fall short as long as the billable hour and 24/7 availability are measures of success.”
It's Not About Motherhood After All…
Perhaps the most eye-opening insight from the survey – while three-quarters of survey respondents said they are mothers, women lawyers are not leaving the legal field due to childcare barriers resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 70% of respondents reported that staying home with their children had little or nothing to do with their decision to leave their legal jobs.
The pandemic wasn’t the main reason why they left Big Law either as only 20% of survey respondents flagged it as a key factor in deciding to leave their positions.
Laura Leopard, Founder and CEO of Leopard Solutions says, “Common wisdom suggested that women left law firms during the pandemic due to family concerns, but the women we surveyed predominantly left due to a lack of support and opportunity at their law firms.”
What Can Law Firms Do to Retain Women Lawyers?
Although many firms believe they have effective practices in place to support women lawyers, our research suggests otherwise. This is a good time to reevaluate whether they are truly successful.
As Christy Tosh Crider, partner and leader of the women’s initiative at Baker Donelson, said in the Women Leaving Law report, "Law firms are at an inflection point. Either we're going to adapt and be the place where people, who are in touch with what they want in their career and with what they want in their life, see a path that feels successful to them, or we're going to get passed by."
Start by analyzing your retention and acceptance rates, and audit your current diversity initiatives.
Through our research on the Women Leaving Law report, we have identified 11 steps that firms can take to help retain and elevate women. The steps, which are explored in detail in the report, include:
- Letting women speak and amplify their voices
- Ensuring that the firm is giving women opportunities
- Providing women with a seat at the decision-making table
- Having a zero-tolerance policy for sexism
- Uncovering unconscious bias
- Offering equal paternity care
- Offering flextime schedules and remote work
- Acknowledging women’s successes
- Guaranteeing fairness in promotions
- Hiring more women laterals
- Providing greater mentorship for women
The women who responded to our survey have provided the legal field with a clear message: Law firms must make fundamental changes to stem the tide of departures by women or risk falling even farther behind when it comes to gender equity. The time for those firms to act is now.
Women Leaving Law Report [download here] answers questions like, why women are leaving Big Law? What are the ongoing systemic barriers women still face in the legal profession? How firms can improve retention?
