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DAILY BUSINESS REVIEWJUNE 30, 2017

Female Lawyers Seeing Rise in Leadership Positionsby Monika Gonzalez Mesa

When two dozen female lawyers gathered in Tallahassee at a dinner for Florida State University’s female law dean a few weeks ago, the host suggested they all share anec-dotes from their law school days or practice.

Nancy Linnan, chair of the board of directors at Carlton Fields, at first expected it to be a hokey exercise for the multigenerational group. But their differing experiences quickly under-scored how the business of law is changing for women.

“The younger people … couldn’t believe that just being unwelcome had ever been part of the law school experience. They had been treated as co-equals all the way through,” Linnan said. “There seemed to be a generational gap and the older group was thrilled to hear that people just coming through were amazed that it had ever been any different.”

It was a welcome moment in a legal market that last year was forced to address a survey conducted by the Florida Bar Young Lawyer’s Division that found pervasive gender bias within the state’s law firms. The sur-vey sampled more than 400 Young Lawyers Division female members and found that respondents felt held back by gender stereotypes, with 43 percent of respondents reporting

they had experienced gender bias during their career. The study found 42 percent cited difficulties balancing work and life responsibilities, 32 per-cent reported a lack of advancement opportunities, and 17 percent said they had resigned due to the inability to advance.

Since the study, at least three Florida firms have appointed women as firm managing partners, and lawyers have noticed an anec-dotal increase in the number of women rising to leadership.

A little over a handful of Am Law 200 firms are led by female managing

“You have the pool of talent and ability, but I also think that the profession has become more diverse and more inclusive,” said Carlton Fields’ Nancy Linnan.

partners. Speaking with women law firm and office leaders in Florida, one trait stood out: Despite a plethora of statistics and anecdotes that point to evidence of gender bias, women who have obtained leadership positions were upbeat about the progress for women in law and the opportunities that exist for those who follow them. The world looks different depending where one sits, after all.

The critical study prompted the Florida Bar to begin offering an online

Rebecca Kibbe was named partner in charge of Manion Gaynor & Manning LLP's Miami office.

continuing legal education course on

the lack of gender equality in the legal

profession, based on presentations

Jennifer Altman of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman calls founding managing partner-ships a greater advancement over a typical office managing partner position because of added recruiting and startup responsibilities.

Female Attorneys

Firms Ranked by Percentage

Rank Firm Name Attorneys Firmwide

% Female Attorneys

% Female Partners % Female Associates

% Female Other Attorneys

Main Office

1 Roig Lawyers 85 55.3% 26.3% 62.5% 100.0% Deerfield Beach

2 Bilzin Sumberg 84 38.8% 26.0% 50.3% 57.3% Miami

3 Broad and Cassel 150 37.0% 20.3% 39.5% 66.6% Orlando

4 Greenspoon Marder 197 36.0% 20.4% 51.7% 40.0% Fort Lauderdale

5 Akerman 595 33.6% 25.3% 43.2% 48.5% Miami

6 Greenberg Traurig 1884 32.6% 21.4% 46.1% 41.2% NA

7 Gunster 180 31.3% 21.6% 61.5% 15.0% West Palm Beach

8 Carlton Fields 320 29.0% 25.0% 40.8% 28.8% Tampa

9 Shutts & Bowen 252 25.9% 16.8% 52.2% 40.6% Miami

10 GrayRobinson 300 24.0% 17.9% 45.3% 19.2% Orlando

Minority Attorneys

Firms Ranked by Percentage

Rank Firm Name U.S. Attorneys Minority Attorneys Minority PercentageMinority Percentage

of PartnersAsian-American

NonpartnersAsian-American

PartnersAfrican-American

NonpartnersAfrican-American

PartnersHispanic

NonpartnersHispanic Partners

Other Racial or Ethnic Group Nonpartners

Other Racial or Ethnic Group Partners

1 Roig Lawyers 85 37 43.5% 26.3% 4 0 8 1 16 4 4 0

2 Bilzin Sumberg 84 21 25.0% 13.7% 0 0 4 1 10 5 1 0

3 Carlton Fields 320 20.0% 17.9% 3 6 5 8 12 19 5 5

4 Greenspoon Marder 197 38 19.1% 10.8% 7 1 3 1 13 8 5 0

5 Shutts & Bowen 252 48 19.0% 15.5% 0 2 2 3 14 23 2 0

6 Gunster 180 28 15.4% 15.5% 0 2 1 3 8 11 1 2

7 Akerman 595 91 15.3% 11.2% 9 2 15 7 27 27 3 2

8 Greenberg Traurig 1626 240 14.8% 11.7% 52 21 28 24 43 54 13 6

9 Broad and Cassel 150 19 12.7% 7.4% 2 1 2 0 9 3 1 1

10 GrayRobinson 300 34 11.3% 8.7% 0 2 4 1 10 9 4 4

METHODOLOGYAttorney totals are based on the average number

of full-time equivalent, or FTE, attorneys reported by law firms for Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2016. Surveys were sent to more than 900 law firms nationally. Some at-torney totals do not match category numbers due to statistical rounding. A firm must have more lawyers based in the U.S. than in any other single country to be included on the list.

around the state by former bar presi-dent Ramon Abadin, who had called himself naive for being surprised by the study.

In the 18 months since the study became public, visible change has occurred. Mayanne Downs has become head of GrayRobinson and the highest-ranking female law firm leader in the state. Brinkley Morgan attorney Roberta G. Stanley secured the managing partner title at her firm, and Rebecca Bratter was promoted to deputy managing shareholder at Greenspoon Marder.

In addition, West Palm Beach law-yer Michelle Suskauer was elected to lead the Florida Bar as president starting in June 2018. And Patricia Menendez-Cambo became a Green-berg Traurig vice president and chair of its global practice.

Moreover, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman opened a new Miami office and installed former Boies Schiller partner Jennifer Altman as founding managing partner. Likewise, national litigation firm Manion Gaynor & Manning installed former K&L Gates partner Rebecca Kibbe as partner in charge of its new Miami office. Altman calls founding managing partner-ships a greater advancement over a typical office managing partner posi-tion because of added recruiting and startup responsibilities.

Women actually held leadership roles in Florida before the release

of the study in 2016. Patricia Lebow became the founding and manag-ing partner of the West Palm Beach office of Broad and Cassel in 1983. Lila Jaber has been leading Gun-ster’s government affairs practice since 2010. (She was also appointed regional managing shareholder of the firm in September 2016, several months after the study was released.) Women lead some offices at Akerman and elsewhere throughout Florida. Four of Tampa-based Carlton Fields’ 10 offices —New York, Miami, Orlando and Tallahassee—are led or co-led by women. Seven of that firm’s 20 board members are women, including the chief operating officer and the chair.

But that doesn’t mean women don’t continue to face gender bias. Nneka Uzodinma, an associate with Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin’s Fort Lauderdale office and a former Miami-Dade pros-ecutor, laid out some bothersome courtroom examples: Male lawyers who assume she isn’t an attorney and ask where her court reporting equipment is, or ask her to get them coffee. A few years ago one lawyer physically moved her out of his way, then told her she was beautiful and shouldn’t be a prosecutor.

“You have a few instances where people have earned these positions, and people obviously want to cel-ebrate that because it’s important for people to see this,” said Leora Freire,

a shareholder at Richmond Greer in West Palm Beach and the immediate past president of the Florida Associa-tion for Women Lawyers. “But over-all, the numbers are going be in the range that they were a year and a half ago. I don’t know that there is systemic change that quickly.”

Like other women interviewed, Freire said even in her own experi-ence, she generally has seen a differ-ence in how male lawyers of different generations relate to her. She said men attending law school with an equal number of women are more apt to treat female lawyers as equals.

Meanwhile, the battle for equality is being fought on multiple fronts.

Managing shareholder Marie Tomassi has led Tampa-based Tre-nam Law for four years. More women are now earning leadership opportu-nities in part because of more work-place flexibility —both in hours and the ability to work from home,, she said.

“Law firms have done a better job of retaining their valuable talent,” said Tomassi, who over the years has seen many bright, top female law school graduates start at large firms but leave for less time-demanding jobs. “You see more women in leadership positions because you have a higher number of women staying at law firms long enough to reach leadership.”

Societal evolution in family roles also plays a part in the lives of the women

Minority Attorneys

Firms Ranked by Percentage

Rank Firm Name U.S. Attorneys Minority Attorneys Minority PercentageMinority Percentage

of PartnersAsian-American

NonpartnersAsian-American

PartnersAfrican-American

NonpartnersAfrican-American

PartnersHispanic

NonpartnersHispanic Partners

Other Racial or Ethnic Group Nonpartners

Other Racial or Ethnic Group Partners

1 Roig Lawyers 85 37 43.5% 26.3% 4 0 8 1 16 4 4 0

2 Bilzin Sumberg 84 21 25.0% 13.7% 0 0 4 1 10 5 1 0

3 Carlton Fields 320 20.0% 17.9% 3 6 5 8 12 19 5 5

4 Greenspoon Marder 197 38 19.1% 10.8% 7 1 3 1 13 8 5 0

5 Shutts & Bowen 252 48 19.0% 15.5% 0 2 2 3 14 23 2 0

6 Gunster 180 28 15.4% 15.5% 0 2 1 3 8 11 1 2

7 Akerman 595 91 15.3% 11.2% 9 2 15 7 27 27 3 2

8 Greenberg Traurig 1626 240 14.8% 11.7% 52 21 28 24 43 54 13 6

9 Broad and Cassel 150 19 12.7% 7.4% 2 1 2 0 9 3 1 1

10 GrayRobinson 300 34 11.3% 8.7% 0 2 4 1 10 9 4 4

who have reached leadership roles. Bratter and Stanley, both firm leaders, said tangible logistical support from their spouses played a big role in facili-tating their careers.

“Thank God that I have such a loving and supportive husband who adjusted his schedule so that he could share in the parental responsibilities with me,” Bratter said.

With working women’s needs in mind, Bratter’s husband, an OB/GYN, opens his practice early on one day and stays open later on another, making it easier for patients to schedule appoint-ments around work.

“You have the pool of talent and ability, but I also think that the pro-fession has become more diverse and more inclusive,” said Carlton Fields’ Linnan, who, in addition to being chair of the firm’s board of directors is also head of its government law and consulting practice. Earlier this year, Linnan handed over her former posi-tion as the Tallahassee office manag-ing shareholder to another woman, Christine Davis Graves.

Pillsbury’s Altman points to the variety of cultural bar associations—Asian, Black, Cuban, Venezuelan Russian, LGBT—as a sign of more inclusivity. In time it will translate to all aspects of law practice, Altman said, including who becomes partner,

who becomes managing partner, or who gets a spot on a committee.

“If you look at my contemporaries or younger, there’s a greater implicit acceptance of diversity in general,” Altman said. “Things that were really so rare when I started practicing are very commonplace now.”

Although compensation rates clearly show women lagging behind men, women are gaining some ground. A different study, the 2016 Partner Compensation Sur-vey, found that at large firms male partners continue to significantly outpace female partners in compen-sation. The average differential of 44 percent was slightly lower than the 47 percent differential reported in 2014. But while male partners reported average originations of nearly $2.6 million—a gain of 18 percent over 2014—women part-ners posted a gain of 40 percent, rising to $1.7 million in that time frame.

Differences in compensation lev-els, according to the study, are in part due to the fact that women are not equally represented in practice areas with the highest compensa-tion and focus within Big Law, such as banking, intellectual property and litigation. Women made up only 35 percent of Am Law 200 litigation

departments, 31 percent of bank-ing and taxation practices, and accounted for 27 and 23 percent of IP and M&A teams, respectively. Niche practice groups, such as education, family law, health care, immigration and labor and employment, have the greatest proportion of women.

Tammy Knight, an equity partner at Holland & Knight in mergers and acquisitions who is on the firm’s direc-tor’s committee and chairs its initia-tive to increase women partners, said many women often don’t choose M&A because the hours are unpredictable and difficult to schedule around.

A growing number of niche orga-nizations are now helping women network for practice referrals, meet clients and otherwise develop their books of business. Yet, taking advan-tage of business development oppor-tunities while achieving a work-life balance can be more challenging for women, Altman said. They often feel frowned upon when they make choices relating to family, and they feel guilty no matter what.

“There’s a difference inherently in how you mentor women lawyers,” Altman said. “You have to get them to the place that works for them.”

Contact Monika Gonzalez Mesa at mgmesa@alm.com. On Twitter: @MonikaMesa1

Reprinted with permission from the 6/30/17 edition of the DAILY BUSINESS REVIEW © 2017 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. Contact: 877-257-3382 reprints@alm.com or visit www.almreprints.com. # 100-07-17-01

LGBT Attorneys

Ranked by Percentage

Rank Firm Lawyers LGBT Attorneys Percent LGBT Attorneys LGBT Partners LGBT Associates LGBT Other Attorneys

1 Bilzin Sumberg 84 7 8.30% 5 0 2

2 Akerman 595 20 3.40% 7 12 1

3 Greenspoon Marder 197 4 2.00% 4 0 0

4 Greenberg Traurig 1626 29 1.80% 15 11 3

5 Roig Lawyers 85 1 1.20% 0 1 0

6 Carlton Fields 320 2 0.70% 2 0 0

7 GrayRobinson 300 1 0.30% 1 0 0

LLP