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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n In 2014, a small group of women running some of the world\u2019s biggest law firms gathered for dinner at the Michelin-star restaurant Per Se in New York.<\/p>\n Jami McKeon, the first female chair of US law firm Morgan Lewis, had recently been elected and was seeking allies in the industry. Over French-American cuisine, the six women formed what would go on to become a \u201cfantastic network\u201d, says McKeon.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I was looking for at the time was just to get the advice of other people who had been in the position,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve kept that group going as more women have become .\u2009.\u2009.\u2009chairs.\u201d<\/p>\n While McKeon\u2019s appointment as a female chair still felt exceptional a decade ago, that is less true now. When the FT\u2019s Innovative Lawyers series expanded to North America in 2010, there were only a handful of female leaders in the top 200 US law firms. Today, five of the top 10 firms listed by revenue in American Lawyer\u2019s Am Law 100 ranking have women at the helm \u2014 and all have revenues of more than $3bn.<\/p>\n The greater representation of women in senior positions in law firms speaks to wider change in the industry generally.<\/p>\n Law firms believe it makes business sense for them to reflect better the people they serve. And there is also greater understanding that diverse leadership leads to diversity of thought and, potentially, better management practices that will translate into profits.<\/p>\n The result has been a wave of female \u201cfirsts\u201d in the leadership of law firms. All the women in the $3bn law firm club were the first to be appointed as chair in their organisations.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe face of leadership today \u2014 in law firms and global organisations \u2014 is more inclusive,\u201d says Yvette Ostolaza, chair of Sidley Austin\u2019s management committee, and one of the elite group of women running some of the world\u2019s biggest firms. \u201cBig Law leadership is reflective of the clients we serve and the talent we seek to recruit and retain.\u201d<\/p>\n With a younger generation entering the profession and wanting to be managed more holistically and who have career goals that extend beyond making partner, female leaders are taking the reins at a key moment.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of things that people used to call \u2018soft skills\u2019 and that everybody used to talk about being more commonly strengths of women\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009whether that\u2019s communication, compassion, creativity, a different way of looking at things,\u201d says McKeon. \u201cThose skill sets have become very, very important for every leader.\u201d<\/p>\n For Julie Jones, chair of Ropes & Gray, communication has been key during her tenure.<\/p>\n When Jones took the helm in 2020, she asked ex-Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein what she should do if the firm ever hit a crisis \u2014 a timely query given the Covid-19 pandemic would strike months later.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said, \u2018talk to your partners, talk to your partners every week\u2019,\u201d says Jones. \u201cWhen I ultimately took over the role of chair, what I thought a lot about was communication. I wanted to be the communicator-in-chief.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, there is also an<\/strong> unspoken tension about celebrating women leaders at this time.\u00a0<\/p>\n Four of the five chairs have had to grapple with an attack on Big Law by US President Donald Trump this year, after receiving letters from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in March that raised concerns about the firms\u2019 diversity, equity and inclusion employment practices.<\/p>\n None of the group of women interviewed wanted to speak about the letters. But it is clear from their responses \u2014 in some cases minimal \u2014 that although they recognise that their appointments are landmark moments in terms of women\u2019s advancement, they do not want to emphasise a narrative that refers to their gender.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m mindful of the fact that [the appointment of a female chair] is a groundbreaking position for us as a firm,\u201d says Heather McDevitt, chair of White & Case. \u201cBut, you know, I\u2019ve come up in our profession, starting in the 1990s as a litigator in a large New York firm where I was very comfortable oftentimes being the only woman in a room.\u201d<\/p>\n The significance has not gone unnoticed by the industry, however. In a sector where women make up the majority of law school attendees yet just under 25 per cent of equity partners in the US are female, it is likely they reached the top against the odds. <\/p>\n Barbara Becker, chair and managing partner of Gibson Dunn, the only firm in the women-led group not to be targeted by the EEOC, says that she does not view her role through the lens of her gender \u2014 but she does recognise its significance to others.<\/p>\n \u201c[When I was elected], a colleague in our Singapore office who works in the copy centre told me he showed the announcement to his young daughter because he wanted to show her an example of what was possible for her own future,\u201d says Becker. \u201cMoments like that are such tangible examples of how much representation matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Barbara Becker, Gibson Dunn \u2018A colleague in our Singapore office showed the announcement [of my appointment] to his young daughter\u2019<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Heather McDevitt, White & Case \u2018I started in the 1990s as a litigator in a large New York firm where I was very comfortable oftentimes being the only woman in a room\u2019<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Jami McKeon, Morgan Lewis<\/strong> \u2018We\u2019ve kept that [fantastic network] going as more women have become chairs\u2019<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Julie Jones, Ropes & Gray<\/strong> \u2018When I took over the role of chair, what I thought a lot about was communication. I wanted to be the communicator-in-chief\u2019<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n Yvette Ostolaza, Sidley Austin<\/strong> \u2018Big Law leadership is reflective of the clients we serve and the talent we seek to recruit and retain\u2019<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n *Revenue source: Law.com 2025 Global 200<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. In 2014, a small group of women running some of the world\u2019s biggest law firms gathered for dinner at the Michelin-star restaurant Per Se in New York. Jami McKeon, the first female chair of US<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[339,4631,661,3841,175,4712,3949,1168,418],"class_list":{"0":"post-36504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-club","9":"tag-elite","10":"tag-firms","11":"tag-growth","12":"tag-law","13":"tag-leading","14":"tag-quiet","15":"tag-top","16":"tag-women"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>Chair, managing partner since 2021<\/em>
Revenue: $3.6bn<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Chair since 2023<\/em>
Revenue: $3.3bn<\/p>\n
Chair since 2014<\/em>
Revenue: $3.1bn<\/p>\n
Chair since 2020<\/em>
Revenue: $3.4bn<\/p>\n
Chair of management committee, elected 2021<\/em>
Revenue: $3.4bn<\/p>\n