Over the last three years, London-based research firm Acritas has collected more than 10,000 nominations of “stand-out” attorneys made by senior in-house lawyers worldwide. As part of the study, the firm also asked the in-house counsel to describe why they chose to nominate the attorneys as “Stars.”
In an article published by the firm on January 17, 2018, Acritas noted that the most recent nominations demonstrated a “gender bias” in that “male clients were half as likely to nominate a female Star lawyer.” Specifically, “only 15% of male-nominated Stars were women,” as compared with “29% of female-nominated Stars being women—almost twice the level.” According to the CEO of Acritas, Lisa Hart Shepherd, “the effect of this bias is multiplied when you consider four out of five senior in-house counsel are male.”
To read the entire article on the American Bar Association website, click here.