CBA Record July-August 2019

Y O U N G L A W Y E R S J O U R N A L

compensation, including: negotiating their salary, investing time and marketing dollars in cultivating business, creating social capi- tal for themselves, advocating for origina- tion credit for business they generate, and developing a realistic understanding of the impact of family leave and flexible work schedules. Women in the Workforce at Large The programming also covered the slightly broader perspective of the state of women in the workforce at large. This included a series of presentations on legislation, workplace policies, and social impediments and resources. Legislation A discussion entitled “Existing, Pending and Needed Legislation,” was led by Lydia Bueschel, a partner with Valentine, Aus- triaco, Bueschel and member of the board ofWomen Employed, andMelissa Josephs, the Director of Equal Opportunity for Women Employed. They focused on legis-

men work are, on average, better compen- sated; and (viii) women are more likely to drop out of the workforce temporarily as a result of parenting or other family choices. Participants identified a variety of solu- tions to close the gap. To improve pay outcomes for female attorneys, law firms and legal employers should: (i) have a transparent compensation system with a fair and accurate allocation of billing and origination credit; (ii) eliminate the practice of using prior salary history to set wages of new employees; (iii) ensure that compen- sation committees are sufficiently diverse; (iv) implement formal client succession protocols; (v) develop a system to resolve allocation disputes promptly and equitably; (vi) require unconscious bias training for evaluation and compensation committees; (vii) provide equal access to clients, business generation, and social capital; (viii) measure the use of marketing dollars; and (ix) value firm citizenship. Additionally, women can engage in a number of measures to improve their own

by Major, Lindsey &Africa found that the average male partner’s total compensation was 53% more than the average woman partner’s total compensation, up from the 44% differential reported in the 2016 survey. Likely causes of the pay gap include: (i) the predominant compensation model in Big Law rewards partners for origina- tion and WAR, which fails to recognize women’s wider contributions to their firm; (ii) women tend to cluster in less profit- able practice areas; (iii) women’s lack of access to mentors; (iv) partners in closed and lockstep compensation systems report lower compensation versus open compen- sation systems; (v) employers use women’s prior salary history to set their wages in new jobs, compounding the pay gap over time; (vi) gendered expectations mean men and women take different path through education and training on their way to the workforce; (vii) men and women are steered toward different industries and occupa- tions, and typically sectors and jobs where

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