Law Firm Pay Schemes Mean the Kiss-Off for Women

It's no secret that women earn less than their male colleagues at law firms — the National Association of Women Lawyers concluded last year that female equity partners make an average $66,000 less a year.

An extensive study released this week surveyed more than 700 women partners about their views of the compensation gap and analyzed the factors that lead to disparity in pay. The study, "New Millennium, Same Glass Ceiling: The Impact of Law Firm Compensation System on Women," was undertaken in partnership between the Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) and the Project for Attorney Retention, an arm of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law.

The National Law Journal spoke with PAR Director Joan Williams about possible solutions to the law firm gender pay gap. Her answers have been edited for length.

For more on the report, see this report in the NLJ-affiliated blog, The Careerist. 

NLJ: What do law firms need to do to make their compensation system fair to women and minorities?

Joan Williams: First of all, law firms need to improve transparency. A large percentage of the women partners we surveyed had no clear understanding of the way their firm's compensation system works. A significant part of that, I suspect, is because a lot of the decisions are made informally and behind closed doors.

The next thing is, law firms need to start measuring. I was speaking with a lawyer who said that when her firm counted where women fell in terms of compensation, two-thirds of the women were in the bottom third. Firms aren't going to know that or be abl ...