Career advanCement into PartnershiP: Law Firm self

Career Advancement into Partnership:
Law Firm Self-Assessment
Data Collection, Measurement and Training
1. Does your firm measure:
a. The composition (diversity) of its workforce?
b. Ratios of men to women in equity partner, income partner, associate, and other roles?
c. Attrition rates of professionals by gender?
2. Has your firm taken steps to minimize the impact of unwritten, subjective factors affecting women’s career advancement (eg. women’s
exclusion from traditionally male social and professional networks; women’s underrepresentation in client/business development
activities, etc.)?
3. Does your firm offer diversity and inclusion training to its professionals?
a. Does your firm offer gender bias training to its professionals?
Commitment to Advancing Women
1. Does your firm have a diversity committee with active participation and/or support from senior male and female partners in the
firm?
2. Is there senior management awareness and support for initiatives to promote women’s career advancement in the firm?
3. Has your organization published a statement affirming its commitment to support the advancement of women lawyers into the
partnership?
4. Has your firm adopted any measure in its partner compensation framework that is tied to promoting gender equality and diversity
and inclusion in the workplace?
Talent Management
1. Does your firm have a formal performance evaluation (review) process?
a. Are formal reviews conducted at least annually?
b. Does the review process track attainment of goals relative to the criteria for partnership admission?
2. In evaluation of female associates and partners for compensation and other purposes, does your firm rely on pro-rated and annualized
statistics (for those professionals working on alternative arrangements)?
3. Does the firm have a formal process for communicating with each associate whether she is on track to partnership, and specifying
areas of substantive and professional growth needed to stay on track?
4. Does your firm promote active career planning for professionals and provide the tools and resources to help lawyers plan their careers
(e.g. goal setting templates, etc.)
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5. Does the firm have a formal mentoring program in place?
a. Do mentors in the firm play a formal role in providing feedback and career planning advice to junior lawyers?
b. Does the mentoring program offer flexible or alternate mentoring options such as mentoring circles, peer-to-peer mentoring,
external programs, etc. (Particularly where a firm has a small number of women partners and access to a woman mentor may be
limited)?
6. Are coaching/sponsorship opportunities available for women lawyers both inside and outside of the firm?
Retention & Leadership
1. Are there leadership opportunities for women in your organization (in addition to partnership)?
a. Are those opportunities (e.g. representation on firm committees; client team leadership roles, etc) clearly defined/communicated in
your organization?
Advancement in Partnership
1. Does your firm have a written policy on admission to partnership?
2. Are the criteria for admission to partnership clearly and comprehensively set out in the policy, e.g. years of practice; billable and nonbillable hours expectations; financial contribution; management, leadership and business development skills, etc?
3. Has your firm actively considered the issue and taken step to ensure that partnership evaluation criteria are as gender neutral as
possible?
4. Does the policy set out who will be involved in the selection, review and assessment of partnership candidates and the steps involved
in the process?
a. Does the firm have clearly defined rules around the composition of the partnership selection/admission committee?
b. Does the composition of the committee reflect the diversity of the firm?
c. Are women adequately represented on the committee?
5. Are the steps involved and the time lines for making partnership admission decisions clearly communicated?
6. Does the policy outline the financial implications of becoming a partner?
7. Does the policy specifically address issues relating to leaves of absence, flex-time, alternative working arrangements, etc.?
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