Gender Diversity
At McDermott Will & Emery, we work in an atmosphere of gender inclusiveness. Our commitment to gender diversity is in our tradition, having hired and promoted women partners since 1957 when we were the second major U.S. law firm to elect a woman to our partnership.
Our Gender Diversity Committee develops policies and initiatives to ensure our colleagues understand the value of a diverse Firm; to formalize our long-standing commitment to acceptance of gender differences; and to hire, promote and retain the most talented lawyers regardless of gender.
The committee also assures work/life balance remains a Firm priority. For example, the committee recently updated the Firm’s reduced time policies to allow for promotion of reduced time lawyers to the highest levels of partnership. McDermott also provides Firm-sponsored back-up child and elder care to employees to help them balance the demands of work and family.
As a lead signatory of the Chicago Bar Association’s Alliance for Women’s “Call to Action on Women’s Leadership in the Legal Profession,” we are committed to improving gender diversity in our Firm and in the legal profession. Our goal is to assist women lawyers in their professional development throughout their careers at our Firm. In this effort, our Gender Diversity Committee regularly hosts Women’s Leadership and Mentoring Network events. These internal programs give our women lawyers an opportunity to network with one another and discuss the unique challenges faced by women in our profession. We also promote a top-down, Firm-wide culture that strongly encourages our women colleagues to participate in client development activities and that assists them in their efforts to attend networking and marketing activities, to speak and write, to observe partners in business origination activities and to participate in client pitches.
In our effort to improve gender diversity in the legal profession, we are members of gender diversity organizations and sponsor professional development programs. Our women lawyers have spoken at several National Association of Women Lawyers events, participated in the Greater Washington Area Chapter Women Lawyer’s Division National Bar Association and sponsored a variety of Women’s Bar Association programs.
