Perkins Coie Again Named to Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers’ "Best Law Firms For Women" List

SEATTLE (August 11, 2009) – Perkins Coie announced today that it has been named one of the "2009 Best Law Firms for Women" by Working Mother magazine and national consulting firm Flex-Time Lawyers LLC. This is the second year in a row that the firm was recognized for its commitment to the retention and advancement of women.

Working Mother magazine's "Best Law Firms for Women" list recognizes a select group of U.S. law firms that are proactively developing and implementing women-friendly policies, including flex-time, child care, and women-focused mentoring, leadership and networking programs.

"We have focused on attracting, retaining and promoting women attorneys and professional staff for years and are thrilled to be recognized for the second year in a row, ," said Theresa Cropper, the firm's Director of Diversity and Professional Development.

Perkins Coie is dedicated to providing an inclusive work environment that provides all employees the opportunity to succeed. For seven consecutive years, the firm has been named on FORTUNE magazine's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For". The firm also recently 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 2009 Corporate Equality Index and Best Places to Work Survey and named as one of the Yale Law Women 2008 Top Ten Family Friendly Firms.

"This is a testament to the initiatives on which we at Perkins Coie have been focusing ," said Laura Whitaker, chair of the firm's Executive Committee. "We are pleased to be recognized by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC as one of the "Best Law Firms for Women."

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

• Establishment of affinity groups for women lawyers;
• Training programs relating to marketing and business development and mentoring programs designed to help women advance their careers and sharpen their skills;
• Telecommuting options;
• 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;
• The firm provides 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;
• Women's Forum: In 2006, the firm established the Women's Forum 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 senior partners, Mary Rose Hughes and Judy Weiss, the Forum has four subgroups: Mentoring and Professional Development; Work/Life Balance; Leadership; and Marketing, and has enjoyed broad participation from women attorneys throughout the firm. The Forum holds retreats for all women attorneys, the most recent focusing on leadership, which was held in Palm Springs in February 2009. It also created an intranet site and blog to provide up-to-date information about opportunities and resources on a continued basis.

"The recession has created a shift in the legal industry and now is the time to push through mutually-beneficial, cost-effective reforms that directly benefit work-life balance and allow working moms to succeed both at home and in the court room," said Carol Evans, President, Working Mother Media. "We salute the 2009 Best Law Firms for recognizing that making the legal profession work for women is good business for everyone."

Perkins Coie is profiled in the August/September issue of Working Mother and online at www.workingmother.com and www.flextimelawyers.com. On September 15, Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers will hold a forum in New York City to report the findings of their national research on the trends and share best practices of work/life balance and women in the legal profession. The forum will be followed by a luncheon at the Pierre Hotel to honor the firm.

Methodology: The 2009 Best Law Firms for Women application was developed in a partnership between Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers. 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. The 50 winning firms were selected based on their workforce profile, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation, advancement and retention of women, among other criteria utilizing 2008 data.

About Working Mother Media: Celebrating 30 years, Working Mother magazine reaches 2 million readers and is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers while workingmother.com brings to the Web a broad range of insight and solutions served to working mothers every day. Working Mother’s 24-year signature research initiative, Working Mother 100 Best Companies, is the most important benchmark for work/life practices in corporate America. With offices in New York and Washington, D.C., Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corp., includes the National Association for Female Executives, Diversity Best Practices, the WorkLife Congress, and the Multicultural Women’s Conference and Town Halls. Working Mother Media’s mission is to champion cultural change.

About Flex-Time Lawyers LLC: Flex-Time Lawyers LLC® is a national consulting firm advising the legal profession on work/life balance, law firm restructure, and the retention and promotion of women.  It hosts a membership organization with chapters in New York and Philadelphia, offering networking opportunities, 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 on work/life balance and women's issues 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.