(CHICAGO) Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP announced today that the firm is ranked among the Yale Law Women's Top Ten Female Friendly Firms.
"We're thrilled for Katten to be recognized as a leader in elevating and empowering women in the legal industry," said Katten's Chief Diversity Officer Leslie D. Minier. "Our aim is to offer our female attorneys a choice of programs and other initiatives tailored to address issues they've identified as barriers to success. Our goal is to support them and nurture their professional development because we know that when individual partners, men and women, are successful, so is the firm."
This year marks the first time the top female-friendly firms list was issued by Yale Law Women, an organization that works to advance the status of women at Yale Law School and in the legal profession at large.
The group monitors trends among law firms, raises awareness of gender disparities, highlights progress in the legal industry and identifies areas that need improvement. Additionally, group leaders say the list can be a tool used by law school students during the job search process in helping select firms where they would like to work.
The 2018 report, released this week, focuses on professional development and spotlights firms that encourage the advancement of women based on data and responses to a survey of demographics, policies and practices, including gender equity, mentoring programs and representation of women in firm leadership.
"At Katten, we are dedicated to creating a path to professional success for our women that allows them to thrive outside the workplace," said partner Laura Keidan Martin, member of the firm's Board of Directors and Executive Committee and national chair of Katten's Women's Leadership Forum. "We want our female attorneys to rise through the associate and partnership ranks, have leadership opportunities and reach their full potential."
Katten's Women's Leadership Forum is one of a number of programs at Katten that provide female lawyers with support, guidance for career advancement and opportunities to build leadership and professional development skills to help accomplish their career goals.
The Forum focuses on advancing and retaining women attorneys through mentoring, external networking, internal relationship building and career development programs. It also serves as a sounding board to address work-life balance concerns, professional development hurdles and other issues faced by women in the workplace.
Last year, Katten launched the forum's National Mentoring Panel to establish strong relationships among female attorneys to further provide support and encouragement.
Additionally, Katten formed the Partner Pipeline Committee to identify women considered as rising stars and to offer them additional mentoring, coaching or training needed to help overcome any potential obstacles for advancement. Another committee, which vets potential candidates to be elevated to partner, helps guard against any selection bias in the promotion process.
Moreover, Katten is an active participant in the Diversity Lab's Women in Law Hackathon, a competition among legal leaders to work together in creating innovative ideas and solutions to boost retention and advancement of women in law firms.
The firm was also commended in the Yale report for its parental and family accommodations as being among the top three surveyed firms with the greatest percentage of associates taking paid primary caregiver leave.
For 11 consecutive years, Katten has been named to Working Mother magazine's list of 100 Best Companies for the firm's strong leadership in creating progressive programs for its work force in the areas of advancement of women, child care, flexibility and paid parental leave.
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