The Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF) has released its list of Gold Standard Certification recipients for 2017. A total of 44 law firms throughout the United States were chosen for the leadership roles achieved by their equity women partners. Frost Brown Todd (FBT) was recognized as a “five-time Gold Standard firm,” having received its initial certification in 2011.
“We are proud to be a five-time winner of the WILEF award,” says Kim Mauer, chair of FBT’s Women’s Initiative. “This award shows that we are moving in the right direction. But, even as the requirements to win this award continue to move up, we know that we also need to continue to work even harder to create a firm where everyone is encouraged to be their full self and, as a result, to be able to work even more effectively for our clients.”
To be considered for inclusion, firms had to meet at least four of seven criteria regarding the percentage make up of women in firm leadership and compensation:
- 20% of equity partners or, alternatively, 33% or more of the attorneys becoming equity partners during the past 12 months are women
- 15% of firm and U.S. branch office heads are women equity partners
- 20% of the firm’s governance committee are women equity partners
- 20% of the firm’s compensation committee or its equivalent are women equity partners
- 25% of the firm’s practice group/department heads are women equity partners
- 15% of the top half of the firm’s equity partners in terms of compensation are women
- 7% of women equity partners are women of color or 3.5% of women equity partners are LGBT (new criteria for 2017)
