Perkins Coie Named to National Association for Female Executives & Flex-Time Lawyers’ "Best Law Firms For Women" List for Third Time

SEATTLE – September 13, 2011 – Perkins Coie announced today that it has been named one of the "2011 Best Law Firms for Women" by the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC. This is the third time in four years that the firm was recognized for its commitment to the retention and advancement of women.

The 2011 NAFE & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women are continuing to redefine the standards of success, with written reduced hour policies at 100 percent of the winning firms and 78 percent who are offering full-time telecommuting. Now in its fifth year, the Best Law Firms for Women have increased support for programs that encourage networking, training and mentoring.

"Perkins Coie makes it a top priority to attract and retain women attorneys and professional staff," said Theresa Cropper, the firm's Chief Diversity Officer. “From our flexible options, affinity groups, and mentoring programs to our efforts to advance women to leadership positions within the firm, we are committed to helping our women attorneys to attain a healthy work/life balance."

Perkins Coie is dedicated to providing an inclusive work environment that provides all employees the opportunity to succeed. For nine consecutive years, the firm has been named to FORTUNE magazine's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For." Also, for the past three years, the firm has received a perfect 100% rank by The Human Rights Campaign Foundation, the educational arm of the nation’s largest advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans, in the Corporate Equality Index and Best Places to Work Survey. In addition, the firm has been named to the Yale Law Women’s “Top Ten Family Friendly Firms” list in 2008, 2010 and 2011. Earlier this year, the firm received a Gold Standard Certification from The Women in Law Empowerment Forum.

"We are honored to once again be recognized as one of the best law firms for women," said Laura Whitaker, chair of the firm's Executive Committee. “The firm management strives to create an environment where all lawyers can pursue successful careers and we are extremely proud of how our women attorneys have excelled in every aspect of the firm.”

Some of Perkins Coie's practices and policies relating to women include:

• The establishment of an affinity groups for women lawyers;
• Marketing and business development training programs and mentoring programs designed to help women advance their careers and sharpen their skills;
• Telecommuting options;
• A reduced hours program that allows attorneys to work part-time while developing professionally and remaining on track for partnership. Under this program, attorneys need to work only 50% for benefits eligibility;
• Leaves of absence for parental, adoption and elder care purposes;
• Lactation rooms;
• Subsidized emergency in-home and sick child care for lawyers;
• Full billable credit for all approved pro bono work, allowing working mothers to meet their billable hour demands while honoring their commitments to community service;
• The establishment of the Women's Forum in 2006, to attract, retain and promote women in the firm and provide leadership and support on all issues impacting the firm's women attorneys. Led by two partners, Jessica Everett-Garcia and Sarah Crooks, the Forum has four subgroups: Marketing and Professional Development; Work/Life Balance; Leadership; and Retention and Mentoring, and has enjoyed broad participation from women attorneys throughout the firm. The Forum holds regular events for women attorneys across all offices, including an annual firmwide women attorneys' retreat. It also utilizes an intranet site to provide up-to-date information about opportunities and resources on a continued basis.

“Our research team has seen an increase in the number of female partners working at the Best Law Firms within the past five years, with 19 percent of female Equity Partners employed compared to the national average of 15 percent,” said Dr. Betty Spence, President, NAFE. “We are proud to recognize the 2011 Best Law Firms for Women and their unwavering dedication to creating programs and policies that support women in the legal profession.”

Perkins Coie and the 50 Best Law Firms for Women and their work/life and women-friendly policies will be featured in the fall 2011 issue of NAFE magazine and are profiled at nafe.com, www.workingmother.com and http://www.flextimelawyers.com/best.asp. Winning firms will be honored in New York on September 21. NAFE is a division of Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corporation.

Methodology: The 2011 Best Law Firms for Women application was developed in a partnership between Working Mother Media and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC. Firms with at least 50 lawyers were eligible to apply and the application included detailed questions about the issues that are most important to the retention and promotion of female lawyers. Completed applications were collected online from November 12, 2010 to January 21, 2011. All data for the 2011 survey was collected from the full year of 2010. The 50 winning firms were selected based on their responses to an application measuring areas such as workforce profile, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation, advancement and retention of women.

About Working Mother Media: Working Mother magazine reaches 2.2 million readers and is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers; WorkingMother.com (www.workingmother.com) gives working mothers @home and @work advice, solutions, and ideas. This year marks the 26th anniversary of Working Mother’s signature research initiative, Working Mother 100 Best Companies, and the ninth year of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women. Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corporation (www.bonnier.com), includes the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE, www.nafe.com), Diversity Best Practices (www.diversitybestpractices.com), and the Working Mother Research Institute. Working Mother Media’s mission is to serve as a champion of culture change. 

About Bonnier Corporation: Bonnier Corp. (www.bonniercorp.com) is one of the largest consumer-publishing groups in America and is the leading media company serving passionate, highly engaged audiences, through 50 special-interest magazines and related multimedia projects and events. Bonnier Corp. is the U.S. division of the Bonnier Group (www.bonnier.com), a 200-year-old, family-owned media group based in Sweden with business operations in 25 countries.

About Flex-Time Lawyers LLC: Flex-Time Lawyers LLC® is a national consulting firm advising the legal profession on workplace restructure, talent management, work/life balance, and the retention and promotion of lawyers, with a focus on women.  It hosts a membership organization with quarterly chapter meetings for legal employers and lawyers, offering networking opportunities, employer advice, support, career guidance, education and information sharing to effect change.  Flex-Time Lawyers LLC is a resource to the press and legal community at large and also provides recruiting services.  It has been covered extensively in the national and legal press, including The New York Times, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, National Public Radio, National Law Journal, and numerous others.  For more information, please visit www.flextimelawyers.com.