Absence of women in senior legal positions reason legal industry is lagging

Recent articles on the absence of women in leading legal positions is just more proof that our profession is totally out of touch with the times.

Latest comes from Carolyn Elefant at Legal Blog Watch about how few women have Supreme Court clerkships or biglaw partnerships. “While big firms’ first-year classes are split 50-50 between women and men, only 17 percent of women hold partnerships 10 years down the line.”

And I don’t buy that women don’t have the legal intellect or have chosen other life styles as the reasoning for the disparity as suggested by some. I practiced law for 17 years and found some of the commentary on women in the profession to be shocking. Comments like ‘My Gal’ when referring to legal assistants were routine. Law firms now brag about diversity based on the number of female lawyers they have like the women have been landed as trophies to show off. Legal marketers, dominated by women, are often treated as second tier citizens by lawyers in the firm.

Any wonder that this profession of ours is so behind others in innovation?