CHICAGO – Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP is pleased to announce that it has been ranked as one of the nation’s Top Ten Family Friendly Firms by Yale Law Women (YLW) for 2009. The firms honored by YLW are recognized for their continued commitment to establishing family-friendly policies that promote flexible work arrangements and a positive work-life balance. This ranking follows Katten’s selection earlier this month as one of Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC’s Best Law Firms for Women. YLW is Yale Law School’s student organization devoted to promoting the interests of women in law school and the legal profession.
Selection of the Top Ten Family Friendly Firms resulted from a YLW survey of firms listed in the 2008 Vault Top 100 Law Firms list. Results from the 2009 survey, which are available at www.yale.edu/, indicate that more law firms are embracing flexible career paths and that part-time and other alterative work options are more widely accepted. The survey also indicated that the promotion of women to leadership positions and compensation for women are on the rise.
The survey requested information on the percentage of female attorneys in various areas of each firm, access to and use of parental leave, emergency and on-site childcare, part-time and flextime work policies, usage of part-time and flextime policies, billable hours and compensation practices, and alternative career programs. Firm responses were weighted based on a 2009 survey of Yale Law School alumni who were asked about the importance of each category of family-friendly policies and practices. The reported statistics are based on the aggregate responses received from all firms responding to the survey. Responses from individual firms are kept strictly confidential.
“We believe that the desire to maintain a challenging and engaging career while spending meaningful time with one’s family is and should be a gender neutral issue,” said Emily Oldshue, co-chair of the YLW committee that selected the Top Ten Family Friendly Firms. “As the legal profession, and large law firms in particular, strives to meet new expectations and economic imperatives, we hope to see firms taking steps to retain and engage the top talent they have spent such valuable resources to recruit and train. The adoption and promotion of gender neutral leave and flex-time policies are an important component of this evolving vision.”
YLW believes that the discussion of family-friendly firm policies remains salient in the midst of the current recession. As the prototypical law firm model changes to accommodate new market demands, YLW hopes leading firms will use this period of transformation as an opportunity to develop more flexible work arrangements and career paths for their attorneys. With this focus, firms can respond to market forces and, at the same time, reap the benefits of retaining the top talent in whom they have invested.
