Every year, the popular legal website Law360 publishes the gender breakdown of attorneys in private practice. The numbers are usually depressing. Law360’s annual 2018 Glass Ceiling Report surveyed more than 300 national law firms on the gender demographics of their attorneys and found little change over the last five years. Women make up 35% of the workforce in private law firms; only 21% of equity partners are women and 12% of firm leadership roles are held by women. The average representation of female attorneys is fairly consistent across firm size, at 34.8% (firm size of 20-149 attorneys), 33.7% (150-299 attorneys), 34.1% (300-599 attorneys), and 37.0% (over 600 attorneys).
These numbers seem bound to change eventually. 2016 was the first year when national statistics showed more women enrolled in law school than men. In 2017, women constituted 51.3% of law school enrollment nationally. In Rhode Island, women make up 52% of law school enrollment.
The strongest indicator that under-representation of women at law firms will change in Rhode Island is the percentage of women passing the bar exam. Graduating from law school is half the battle; to practice law in a jurisdiction, a law graduate needs a law license, and to get a law license, the law graduate needs to pass the bar exam. The bar exam is held each year in February and July in Rhode Island. Combining the results from the last two exams, July 2017 and the just-published results from February 2018, 111 people passed the Rhode Island bar exam within the last year. By RICourtBlog’s calculations (which are inexact because RICourtBlog counted based on the likely gender from the person’s name, supplemented by the power of the internet), women made up 61 of the 111, or 55%, of all bar exam passers. This is higher than the current percentage of the private practice workforce nationally who are women (35%), and also higher than female law school enrollment in Rhode Island (52%).
According to Law360’s 2018 Glass Ceiling Report, historically women have made up 40% of law school enrollment. It’s only in recent times that they crossed over 50% of enrollment. Despite the uptick, the percentage of private practice attorneys who are women has remained around 35%. Law360’s companion report on the best national law firms for female partners quotes one senior female partner as observing that the legal profession is continuing to see significant attrition of women. With the percentage of women entering the legal profession now above 50% in Rhode Island, here’s hoping the attrition stops.
The percentage of women passing the Rhode Island bar should also have a long-term impact on the number of female judges. At the Rhode Island federal district court, there are currently 3 men and 1 woman, with one other woman currently going through the U.S. Senate confirmation process. In the state judicial system, according to the Rhode Island Judiciary roster, men occupy 39 judicial spots and woman hold 25 spots (not counting magistrates, except the Traffic Tribunal):
- 4 men and 1 woman on the Rhode Island Supreme Court;
- 13 men and 8 women on the Superior Court;
- 5 men and 5 women on the Family Court;
- 5 men and 7 women on the District Court;
- 7 men and 2 women on the Workers’ Compensation Court; and
- 5 men and 2 women at the Traffic Tribunal.
Combining the state and federal courts in Rhode Island, women constitute 38% of the Rhode Island judiciary. This is similar to the 35% of women who make up the private practice workforce nationally.
With more women enrolling in law school and passing the Rhode Island bar exam, these numbers should change. The word should is used here in the logical and moral sense.