For years, women have faced gender barriers as they pursue roles within the legal profession. As a student at Harvard Law School in the 1950s, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was asked by the dean why she was “here occupying a seat that could be held by a man” (1). Meanwhile, the first woman appointed as a justice to the Supreme Court was Sandra Day O’Connor in the 1980s – around 200 years after it was created (2). Even now, “men in the legal profession make an average of $108,000 a year while women make $101,000 a year” (3). Within the law school setting, “there are 50% more male law school deans than female deans” (4). However, great progress has been made over time. Today, women comprise around 55% percent of law students (5). For the first time ever, women are also the majority of law firm associates (6). This sets a promising trend when it comes to female representation in the legal field.

Despite this, women continue to be underrepresented in higher leadership positions within large, transactional law firms. As of a 2024 article from the American Bar Association, women were only “27.76% of all partners and 23.7% of equity partners” (7). Various factors are cited as contributing to this, including “a lack of mentors, gender discrimination, work-life balance, and not being taken as seriously” (8). Moreover, it has been noted that it is difficult for women to secure “high profile opportunities as a result of high work hour demands, at-home caregiving responsibilities, and firm leaders having a general tendency to not consider women for such opportunities” (9). Yet, women are increasingly gaining more ground within the legal profession. Despite trends reflecting a lack of women at the highest echelons of the legal profession, women have increasingly been appointed to some of the highest positions at law firms. This article will look at the women breaking barriers within the legal profession, with a specific focus on those who attain the designation of managing partner. It will contain an overview of women amongst the top one hundred law firms according to the Vault 2024 rankings.

To begin, it should be noted that law firms structure the highest levels of leadership within their respective workplaces quite differently. This makes it difficult to determine specific data in regard to how many women hold the highest positions within their respective firms. Some firms have only one managing partner, while others have a role shared between multiple people. At multiple firms, such as Jenner & Block and Sheppard Mullin, these roles are shared between one man and one woman (10). Other firms like Davis Wright Tremaine LLP have a male managing partner, but their executive committee is headed by a woman (11). In other situations, there is no role labeled managing director, but the firm may have a Chairman or CEO, as is the case at Duane Morris (12). Other firms have a variety of managing directors across office locations but do not appear to have one managing partner overseeing the entire firm.

Considering the level of nuance when it comes to individuals in leadership roles at law firms, it is also difficult to determine what a person’s specific role might be. As a result, I will focus on firms that have elevated women to the highest levels of their leadership ranks without overly touching upon their specific responsibilities. This data is especially interesting considering there has been a notable rise in the number of women occupying the highest level of leadership positions at law firms as of late.

The first female managing partner at any V100 law firm was Regina Pisa at Goodwin Procter in 1998 (13). She specifically “used her role to promote female success while helping the firm open new offices nationally and internationally” (14). Pisa helped pave the way for women who aspire to reach the highest levels of firms, but her role did not lead to any instant rise in female representation at the managing partner level (15). In fact, a National Association of Women Lawyers study revealed that “only three top U.S. law firms were headed by women in 2015” (16).

Since that time, it does not appear that many research studies have been conducted on women in law firm leadership roles. As a result, I took the initiative to research the V100 law firms and compile a list of every firm’s leadership (17). I found fifteen female managing partners in the V100 law firms as of April 2024 (18), which demonstrates that the amount of women occupying the highest level of leadership positions at large transactional law firms has increased by over four times within the last ten years (19).

It also is interesting to look at female representation in top roles across different industries. Based on the data I compiled, 15% of the top leadership at firms was female. Comparatively, as of 2023 “women CEOs comprise 10.4% of Fortune 500 companies” (20). This was celebrated by certain news outlets, with Forbes running an article using the headline “New Year, New Glass Heights” to commemorate women representing 10% of Fortune 500 company leaders for the first time ever (21). Looking at this data, it appears that the legal field may be outpacing Fortune 500 companies slightly in regard to female representation. At the same time, I acknowledge that this conclusion is based on different sized data sets and thus cannot lead to any ultimate conclusions.

Looking at the top twenty law firms in 2024 according to the Vault rankings, four out of twenty managing partners are female. Multiple female managing partners at these firms also are women of color. For example, Faiza Saeed, the presiding partner at Cravath, is the first woman to lead the firm and she is Pakistani (22). It is especially notable that Cravath, historically one of the highest ranking and most prestigious law firms, has a woman appointed to the highest position at the firm. Meanwhile, Yvette Ostolaza at Sidley Austin is also the first woman to lead her respective firm, as well as the first Hispanic individual to occupy the highest role at Sidley (23). Ostolaza is the “first Hispanic female chair of any AM Law 100 firm” (24). The top twenty firms overwhelmingly have an appointment structure featuring only one managing partner, with a few exceptions. Quinn Emanuel and Sullivan & Cromwell both feature two male managing partners (25).

Analyzing the career trajectory of these women reveals interesting insights into how women rise to the highest ranks within their respective law firms. White & Case’s Chair of the firm is Heather McDevitt. She has practiced law since “1993, but has been at White & Case since 2002” (26). She was elected as Chair of White & Case in June 2023 (27). This was a highly contested election involving a run-off against White & Case’s male mergers & acquisitions head, John Reiss (28). Yet, McDevitt prevailed – helping break barriers regarding women in leadership roles at some of the most prestigious law firms.

Interestingly enough, Heather McDevitt’s rise to Chair was marked by Law360, a legal news service, being criticized over their portrayal of the news. They described how “White & Case elected a female litigator as the next chair without mentioning her name whatsoever, thus rendering her nameless” (29). Ironically enough, the same article simultaneously mentioned the name of the man she was replacing (30). Such incidents show how gender can influence portrayal of individual achievements within the legal profession (31). Not providing McDevitt with personal credit and instead reducing her to a generalized “female litigator” diminishes her achievement (32). Moreover, it prevents her from accumulating the public presence of a man who has his managing partner role covered more extensively and specifically by news outlets (33).

Faiza Saeed, meanwhile, has been at Cravath, Swaine & Moore her entire career (34). She “became a summer associate in 1990, became a partner in 1998, served as Co-Head of the M&A Practice from 2013-2016, and was appointed as the firm’s first female presiding partner in 2016” (35). Saeed broke barriers in that she was the first person of color to occupy the position of presiding partner at Cravath (36). As seen through her trajectory, Faiza Saeed has increasingly taken on more responsibility within Cravath, moving up through the ranks. However, it should be noted that Cravath Swaine & Moore is notoriously difficult to lateral to, making it likely that almost anyone who becomes a presiding partner would have spent their career at the firm (37). In fact, the firm states on its website “because we do not hire associates laterally, it is very important to us that we make offers to candidates who have the potential to excel in our challenging environment” (38).

However, Saeed does not oversee the “day-to-day management of Cravath in her role, as these responsibilities are the responsibility of the firm’s executive director” (39). At the time that Saeed was named presiding partner, Cravath’s executive director was also a woman – Donna Rosenwasser (40). Looking at Cravath’s website, Donna Rosenwasser is currently serving as Chief Operating Officer of Cravath and continues to oversee management of the firm (41). As a result, Cravath currently has two women in likely the highest level leadership positions overseeing the firm. Moreover, women comprise the majority of administrative roles at Cravath, showing the potential impact of years of female leadership at the highest levels (42). The Chief Operating Officer, Chief Legal Talent Officer, Chief Hospitality & Workplace Experience Officer, Chief Legal Recruiting Officer, Chief Human Resources Office, Chief Business Development Officer, and Chief Real Estate & Business Services Officer are all women (43).

Sidley’s Management Committee Chair, Yvette Ostolaza, is unique in that she spent over twenty years of her career at a different big law firm (44). She started out at Weil, Gotshal and Manges after graduating from law school (45). She then spent over twenty years practicing there, eventually becoming the head of its Complex Commercial Litigation Group and a member of the Management Committee (46). As a result, she had already proven her ability to lead in various capacities before joining her current firm. She then made the transition to Sidley in 2013 (47). She began her career there as a member of the Management and Executive Committees (48), and by 2017, she had become the Global Co-Leader of the Litigation Group. In 2021, she was made Chair of the Management Committee (49).

Meanwhile, Ostolaza has been breaking barriers throughout her career. Considering that Latina lawyers only comprise 2% of the profession, her advancement to Management Committee Chair is commendable (50). As mentioned, she is the “first Hispanic female leader of any Am Law 100 firm” (51). She is also interesting in that her law school falls outside of the typical “T14” or top 14 law schools that are the most represented amongst big, transactional law firms (52). Ostolaza attended the University of Miami School of Law after graduating from the University of Miami (53). She is also a mother to three children (54). This is especially notable given longstanding debates and concerns revolving around women and their ability to both have families and pursue the path to partnership (55).

Gibson Dunn’s Chair and Managing Partner is Barbara Becker (56). Before assuming this role in 2021, she “served as Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group for over a decade, and also created and led the firmwide Diversity Committee” (57). In 2023, Becker was “named Managing Partner of the Year by The American Lawyer” (58). Like many other recently appointed female managing partners, Barbara Becker is similarly “the first woman to lead Gibson Dunn since its founding in 1890” (59). Along the same lines as Yvette Ostolaza, she occupies this role while also being a mother and has four children (60). This again helps counter stereotypes revolving around big law female attorneys and their capacity to pursue their careers while having families.

Other law firms with women in their highest leadership positions include Cooley, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Morgan Lewis & Bockius, Shearman & Sterling, Reed Smith, Troutman Pepper, Seyfarth Shaw, and Faegre Drinker LLP (61). Many of the women at these firms became the first females to hold a managing partner role in their firm’s history within the last few years. For instance, Cooley’s newest CEO is Rachel Proffitt (62). She was a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for fifteen years and then made the shift to Cooley as a partner. In September 2023, she was announced as the first female leading her respective firm (63). Similarly, Reed Smith’s Casey Ryan also is the “first woman to hold the global managing partner role in the firm’s 146 year history, having been appointed in August 2023” (64). Similarly, Seyfarth Shaw elected Lori Almon as its next Chair and Managing Partner in December 2022 (65). The firm’s announcement detailed how Almon is the “first woman chair and managing partner in the firm’s 77-year history” (66). Faegre Drinker, meanwhile, announced Gina Kastel as its first female chair in April 2023 (67). Such trends reflect growing opportunities for women interested in occupying high level leadership positions within their big law firms. Recent precedent set by numerous large transactional law firms in elevating women to managing partner level indicates that women can succeed in such roles and should be actively considered for such opportunities.

Looking at some of these women’s careers more in depth, Reed Smith’s Casey Ryan is yet another example of a woman who has spent her entire career at her firm (68). She has worked there since she was a summer associate (69). She has occupied various positions within Reed Smith, moving up through the ranks of the firm (70). Ryan specifically “served as a member of the Senior Management Team, acted as head of legal personnel, was the head of the Labor & Employment Group, and served as vice chair of Reed Smith’s Litigation Department” (71). As evidenced through Ryan and other women who have been elevated to managing partner, many of them take on other leadership roles within their respective firms before being promoted to their ultimate role. Overseeing other departments within the firm can help these individuals prove that they are fit to serve as managing partner.

It is also interesting to take note of women who have been in these high level leadership roles for longer periods. Akin Gump and Morgan Lewis both have had women in these top leadership positions for at least ten years. Akin Gump’s Chairperson, Kim Koopersmith, has been in this role since 2012. In one article, it was mentioned how “her daughters would wait until she was back from work for routine 9:30PM dinners, with one of her daughters remarking how her mother wouldn’t have been able to accomplish everything had she been home at 5PM” (72). This firsthand account shows how families may have to make concessions of some kind as a result of parents who are in such high level, big law roles. However, one interesting aspect of Koopersmith’s journey is that she temporarily worked as a part-time partner at Akin Gump for a few years to take care of her children when they were younger (73). Koopersmith detailed how “she was concerned this would derail her career in an industry that frowns upon that type of behavior” (74). Considering this, her rise to chairperson of the firm is even more commendable. Women such as Koopersmith taking advantage of firm policies like part-time partnership makes this appear like a more viable option. This should help promote a better sense of work-life balance within firms, as well as show women that they are able to take a temporary step back and continue to flourish within their big law firms.

Morgan Lewis’ Jami McKeon became the first female to lead the firm in 2014 (75). She has spent her entire career there (76). Considering the size of Morgan Lewis, she oversees the largest firm in the country (77). In 2018, “she was reelected to her role unanimously for another five year term” (78). Interestingly enough, both Morgan Lewis’ Jami McKeon and Akin Gump’s Kim Koopersmith started a friendship as a result of being some of the only women in these high level leadership positions at big law firms. At a 2018 event hosted by the Harvard Association of Law and Business (HALB), Koopersmith remarked how “[she] anxiously awaited some word that there were other people like [her], saw an update saying Jami McKeon elected chair of Morgan Lewis, felt like a dream had come true, and emailed her to say congratulations” (79). Instances such as these show the importance of female representation throughout big law firms.

As seen through this data, big law firms have come a long way in regard to female representation. As female managing partners become more common, this will help women feel like they belong in these roles and envision themselves in these positions someday. While there is still more work to be done, current trends are an encouraging start, normalizing women holding the designation of managing partner.