Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Female Lawyers Less Likely to be First Chair, Especially in High-Dollar Cases
From The Legal Intelligencer (by Gina Passarella, July 14, 2015):
Women comprise a disproportionately low percentage of lead trial counsel compared to their representation in the overall legal profession, a study for the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession has found.
While women make up at least 36 percent of the profession, according to the study, they comprise 24 percent of first-chair roles in civil cases. And those numbers are lower when looking at tort cases or the representation of businesses and individuals. Women are more highly represented in lead counsel roles on behalf of government entities or by working as prosecutors, the study found.
The study was performed by former commission chair Roberta Liebenberg of Fine, Kaplan and Black in Philadelphia and current commissioner Stephanie Scharf of Scharf Banks Marmor in Chicago. The two litigators based their survey on data from case filings in 2013 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in an effort to capture a large district with a diverse caseload.
For more, click here.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/civpro/2015/07/female-lawyers-less-likely-to-be-first-chair-especially-in-high-dollar-cases.html