Working Mother Honors Quarles & Brady as One of the 2018 “Best Law Firms for Women”

MILWAUKEE — The national law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP today announced that it was named by Working Mother as one of the 2018 “Best Law Firms for Women,” in recognition of using best practices in retaining and promoting women lawyers. The annual list recognized 60 U.S. Law firms for their policies in the advancement of women and for the implementation of work-life balance initiatives.

The full list, available here, highlights law firms where on average almost half of associates and more than a third of partners are women, while one-fifth of equity partners are women. These firms also increasingly offer extended parental-leave benefits and encourage more lawyers to work remotely and use flexible hours.

A few key parental-leave, work-life balance, and career-advancement initiatives taking place at various firms featured on the list:

• Several firms offer generous parental leave policies. One firm, for example, offers a gender-neutral parental-leave policy, giving all lawyers and professionals 26 weeks off with up to 18 weeks at full pay.
• Another firm created a formal sponsorship program that identifies junior women and ethnically diverse attorneys and pairs them with senior firm members; that same firm began offering to ship home breast milk for attorneys who travel for work.
• Backup care and in-home care for family members of all ages, from infant through elderly, is offered by a firm, where up to 80 hours may be used at an affordable rate.
• Access to a Balanced Hours employee-resource group provides guidance on mentoring and development of attorneys with reduced hours at one of the firms.

“We are proud of the crucial role that our women attorneys play in the success of our firm,” says Adie Olson, head of the firm’s women’s initiative. “It’s an honor to be recognized by Working Mother for our policies and initiatives in retaining and promoting women attorneys.”

“The law firms that make Working Mother's list are remarkable for their long-term commitment to retaining and promoting women lawyers," said Meredith Bodgas, editor-in-chief of Working Mother. "One hundred percent of these firms provide flexible work arrangements and 57 percent of them offer sponsorship programs for high-potential women lawyers. That's resulted in a jump in the number of women equity partners to 21 percent."

“The ABA Journal has been exploring diversity issues in the profession for decades and is continually surprised to see how little progress women have made with pay equity and at top positions in law firms,” said Molly McDonough, editor and publisher of theABA Journal. “Collaborating with Working Mother gives us another way to explore what firms can do to bring gender parity to firm leadership.”

About the Methodology

The 2018 Working Mother Best Law Firms for Women application included more than 300 questions about attorney representation, schedule flexibility, paid time off and parental leaves, and development and retention of women. Profiles are culled from the applications and reflect 2017 data. The ABA Journal acts as a partner in recruiting participant firms and publicizing results.

About Working Mother Media

Working Mother Media (WMM), a division of Bonnier Corporation, publishes Working Mother magazine and its companion website, workingmother.com. The Working Mother Research Institute, the National Association for Female Executives, and Diversity Best Practices are also units within WMM. WMM’s mission is to serve as a champion of culture change and Working Mother magazine is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.