A report from the American Bar Association and ALM Intelligence, authored by Roberta Liebenberg and Stephanie Scharf, "Walking Out the Door" addresses why senior women are far more likely than men to leave the practice of law. Women surveyed were far more likely than men to report factors that blocked their "access to success," including lacking access to business development opportunities, being perceived as less committed to career and being denied promotion.
Download - nowWould you like high-quality printed copies of "Walking out the Door" for your law library or CLE materials? Contact Commission on Women marketing specialist Jennifer Sawicz at jennifer.sawicz@americanbar.org There is a small fee to cover the cost of printing.
ALM Intelligence, a division of ALM Media LLC, supports legal, consulting, and benefits decision-makers seeking guidance on critical business challenges. Our proprietary market reports and analysis, rating guides, prospecting tools, surveys, and rankings, inform and empower business leaders to meet business challenges with confidence.
Achieving Long-Term Careers for Women in Law was an initiative of ABA President Hilarie Bass (2017 through 2018). The Commission has now taken up its mantle. The initiative features innovative research on legal careers using life cycle models from the fields of sociology, social psychology, and economics. The focus is on the many benefits of remaining in the profession and highlighting the career paths of senior women lawyers who continue to practice, exercise power, and inspire future generations of women lawyers.
The Initiative will release three more research reports: (1) a representative survey of law school alumni who graduated 20+ years ago, in order to generate a systematic understanding of the course of long-term careers for women and men in the legal profession and the professional, social, and personal factors that enhance or impede legal careers; (2) a national focus group study to understand in greater depth the personal, social, and professional factors that affect long-term careers for women lawyers and (3) a national study focusing specifically on women lawyers of color using group and individual data.
Sign up to be notified when the next reports from the Initiative on Long-Term Careers become available. You will be the first to review the findings and discover ways to improve the profession for women lawyers.
Share your reactions to "Walking out the Door" in the Commission on Women in the Profession's ABA Connect Communities and join the conversation with other women in the legal profession.
Women's Caucus
