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Someone told me that if you're looking to get into big law, being a woman is an advantage. Is it a known thing that women are given an advantage when applying to these jobs?

Thank you

Maybe slightly, to get your foot in the door. A lot of firms have been hiring more women than men in recent years because they're trying to fix the dearth of female partners. (I think it's like 15% nationwide.) However, women leave biglaw at even higher rates than men do.

rinkrat19 wrote:Maybe slightly, to get your foot in the door. A lot of firms have been hiring more women than men in recent years because they're trying to fix the dearth of female partners. (I think it's like 15% nationwide.) However, women leave biglaw at even higher rates than men do.

You mean the amount of women they hire is 15% more than the amount of men?

rinkrat19 wrote:Maybe slightly, to get your foot in the door. A lot of firms have been hiring more women than men in recent years because they're trying to fix the dearth of female partners. (I think it's like 15% nationwide.) However, women leave biglaw at even higher rates than men do.

Or you mean nationwide it's only 15% of partners who are women?

yankeesjn wrote:

rinkrat19 wrote:Maybe slightly, to get your foot in the door. A lot of firms have been hiring more women than men in recent years because they're trying to fix the dearth of female partners. (I think it's like 15% nationwide.) However, women leave biglaw at even higher rates than men do.

Or you mean nationwide it's only 15% of partners who are women?

This is what she means.

yankeesjn wrote:

rinkrat19 wrote:Maybe slightly, to get your foot in the door. A lot of firms have been hiring more women than men in recent years because they're trying to fix the dearth of female partners. (I think it's like 15% nationwide.) However, women leave biglaw at even higher rates than men do.

Or you mean nationwide it's only 15% of partners who are women?

Yes. Women may start out as 55% of the summer hires or whatever, but they leave biglaw at faster rates than men throughout the biglaw career path, so by the time you get to the partner level, only a few women are left. And there's some miniscule number of female managing partners (I want to say it's single digits, but could be making that up.)