Women help each other up the ladder at this Beltway-based law firm, where female executives, partners and senior lawyers actively monitor the career opportunities afforded to junior associates. Creating avenues for women to advance is a priority of the firm’s director of professional development, Vickie Kobak, a mother of two, who dialogues with practice heads to make sure associates are upgrading their skills. Female attorneys connect at networking events and dinners hosted by the firm’s Women’s Forum and learn how to raise their profiles by attending its sessions on public speaking, advocacy training and client development. The forum’s new mentoring groups, which were launched in 2010, bring attorneys together from different practices and tenure bands.

Chair, Management Committee Timothy Hester

Chief HR Officer Annette Wigton

Women managers/execs 45% 

Women among top earners 43% 

Women hires in 2010 59% 

Average weeks of fully paid maternity leave offered 18 

Allows new moms to “phase back” into work with reduced hours? Yes

Offers affinity group for new mothers? No

Offers backup childcare? Yes

Employees working flexibly 100%

A champion of alternative work schedules, this Washington, DC–based firm has a special alternative-schedule advisor in each of its eight offices, and associates working flexible schedules are eligible for partnership. Says regulatory partner Grail Sipes: “As a working mother on a part-time schedule, I can attest that the firm is extremely supportive of these alternative arrangements and affords individual attorneys tremendous flexibility in making their schedules work.” Covington & Burling also provides many benefits that promote work life balance, including a generous 18 weeks of paid birth/adoption leave, lactation rooms, domestic partner benefits and emergency backup child and elder care. Another big perk: The Washington office offers a full-service child-care center, Covington Kids, for children from infancy to preschool, right across the street.

Female Equity Partners 22%

Lawyers Working Reduced Hours 9%

Covington & Burling’s dedicated health advocates help employees and their families make the most of their health insurance benefits.

When you're knee-deep in legal briefs, it helps to know that your children are being cared for just a block away. Parents at this law firm's headquarters find its near-site day care, which serves 85 kids from infancy through age 5, a huge stress reliever–but no matter where they work, they'll find support: The firm's backup-care program charges just $6 to $8 per hour for in-home help and $15 to $30 per day for center based babysitting. Mothers form tight bonds with one another in the Women's Forum, which sponsors get-togethers, professional training and volunteering projects; luncheons held by the Work-Family Balance Group give parents a place to trade tips on child care, benefits and working part time (as 40 lawyers do). Moms get 18 fully paid weeks off for a birth or adoption; non primary caregivers get six.

Chair, Management Committee Timothy Hester

Executive Director John Waters

Women managers, senior managers and corporate execs 43%

Women among top earners 41%

Women on board of directors 29%

Women corporate executive hires in 2009 0%  

Women participating in management or leadership training in the past year* 4%

Women participating in formalized executive succession planning last year* 1%

Women promoted last year who utilized a formal flexible work arrangement 88%

Do formal compensation policies reward managers who help women advance? Yes

*Percentages reflect number of women participants versus company’s total female workforce.

Offers a phase-back program for new moms.

Guiding the career paths of associates is one way this firm helps women achieve personal and professional growth. The Washington, DC–based firm’s professional development team and practice group leaders have created “portfolios” that describe the knowledge, skills and work experiences lawyers need for particular areas of practice. Associates are then encouraged to set strategic goals to advance their career. In addition, a quarter of the firm’s business development budget goes to training women and developing women-specific networking events.

Female equity partners: 22%*

Female counsel: 32%

Female associates: 50%

Female lawyers promoted to equity partner, 2004–2008: 29%

Lawyers working reduced hours: 5%

Lawyers working reduced hours, 2004–2008: 6%

Weeks paid maternity leave: 18

Weeks paid paternity leave: 6

Weeks paid adoption leave: 18

Offer phase-back program for new moms?: Yes

Offer reentry program for lawyer moms?: Yes

Offer formal flextime program for associates & counsel?: Yes

Lawyers working flextime schedule: 100%

Offer support groups for reduced-hours lawyers?: Yes

*Law firm does not offer nonequity partnership

Covington & Burling’s Work-Family Balance Group hosts monthly luncheons and lectures that foster discussion about parenting and careers.

Lots of lawyers would laugh if you told them they could make partner while working reduced hours—but not at this DC-based firm. “We recognize that alternative schedules allow talented attorneys to remain in practice,” says Grail Sipes, a working mom and regulatory law partner who works reduced hours. The freedom to design an individualized schedule stands out here, as demonstrated by another partner-mom, Carolyn Taylor, who worked until dinnertime when her daughters were little but now shifts her hours to suit her teens’ more complicated schedules. The firm tries to make flex requests painless: “I simply sent an email to notify the appropriate people of my intent to reduce my schedule—and that was it,” explains special counsel Wendy Feng, who worked reduced hours for nearly a year after her twins were born. “When I decided to increase my schedule, I just sent another email.”

Chair, Management Committee: Timothy Hester

Executive Director: John Waters

Women managers/execs: 47%

Women among top earners: 25%

Women on the board of directors: 14%

Women corporate executive hires in 2008: N/A

Women participating in management or leadership training in the past year: 75%

Women participating in formalized executive succession planning last year: 53%

Women promoted last year who utilized a formal flexible work arrangement: 0%

Formal compensation policies reward managers who help women advance: Yes