The Rise and Success of Women-Led Law Firms
Illustration by Hanna Barczyk
Over the last few years, we have witnessed more women breaking off from Big Law and starting their own women-owned law firms and more large firms being women-led.
For example, in 2016, Beth Wilkinson left Paul Weiss and co-founded Wilkinson Walsh + Escovitz, now Wilkinson Stekloff. In July 2017, Roberta Kaplan left Paul Weiss and founded Kaplan & Company, LLP, which later expanded in June 2018 into Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP. In 2019, Crain’s listed Kaplan as one of the most Powerful Women in New York. In February 2018, Faith Gay left Quinn Emmanuel to found Selendy & Gay, with over 50% female equity ownership. In December 2020, Tracy Miner, former Mintz Levin Partner, opened the first all-women white collar boutique firm in Boston, Miner Siddall LLP. Miner told Law360 at the time: “Women are starting to say, 'Hey, wait a second. We can do that ourselves.' There's more women networking. There are more women in power in law. It's just taken us a long time to get there."
Two pioneers who were ahead of their time, Penny Cooper and Cris Arguedas, joined forces in 1982 and quickly gained a national reputation as a powerhouse defense team representing clients all over the United States. Then over 20 years ago, in 1998, Susan Brune, Founder of Brune Law, an all-female firm, founded and led Brune Richard LLP, a female founded and majority female law firm. In a New York Times firm feature in 2013, Brune said of the firm’s female attorney majority, “It just happened, and then it became kind of a thing.”
These are just a few examples of women who have forged ahead to build their own law firms, which either include or are primarily focused on white collar defense. But what is even more inspiring is that the numbers of women leading law firms keep increasing. When I entered private practice there were very few women in the criminal or white collar defense field. And there were even fewer who had their own law firms. In 2000, when my female law partner and I started a criminal defense law firm in Miami we were an anomaly. Now, in 2021, there are more and more women-led law firms in Miami and around the country. Bozorgi Law, PLLC (formerly Marrero Bozorgi) is now made up of four women lawyers who specialize in white collar and regulatory defense.
As more women rise to leadership positions or found their own firms, the industry has taken note. This year, in an article for Law360, Joel Stern, CEO of the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms, stated, “Women-owned law firms are a source of tremendous optimism for those of us concerned about gender equity in the legal profession.” He also emphasized, “Corporate legal groups must have concerted strategic efforts to give women- and minority-owned law firms the opportunity to compete for and win the business in all practice areas and geographies.”
In early 2019, we posted about the 170 GCs who signed an open letter to law firms demanding that law firms improve the diversity of their teams or lose their business. Other similar open letters from GCs have since followed. We hope that these letters have the intended impact and that increased diverse and female attorney-led teams at law firms will follow, as well as more female corporate leadership.
As evidenced by the success of the women in the examples provided above, women-led firms and teams are proliferating and are proving that they deliver great results for their clients.
When the late Justice Ginsberg was asked ‘When will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court]?’ she would respond ‘When there are nine.’ We feel the same way about women-led law firms. The answer is simple, there will be enough women-led law firms when all law firms have women leaders.