According to a post today on The AmLaw Daily ("What Women Want: Partnership Details") women and minority lawyers are unhappy that law firms dissed a request by the National Association for Law Placement (NALP) for details about partnership structures -- specifically, a breakdown of equity versus non-equity partners in their ranks -- for inclusion in NALP's annual Directory of Legal Employers:
In May 2008, several national organizations dedicated to promoting women and minorities in the law sent a formal proposal to NALP about collecting more precise information on law firm promotions.
The groups included the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), National Association of Women Judges, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas, and various bar associations. NALP's board approved the plan last November and then launched its partner data collection effort in mid-January.
The effort was halted when a majority of NALP members refused to provide the breakdown. Most firms used privacy concerns as a rationale for not providing the requested information, suggesting that in small firms in particular nonequity partners would be easily identified and stigmatized. Michele Dauber, a professor at Stanford Law School, pushed back: "It's not about protecting women, it's more about protecting billing rates," Dauber says. "They don't want clients to know who's equity and who's not; ambiguity allows them to bill at higher rates."
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