Holland & Knight Recognized as One of the 50 "Best Law Firms for Women"

MIAMI (June 22, 2021) – Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media) has named Holland & Knight among the 50 Best Law Firms for Women, recognizing the firm for using best practices in recruiting, retaining, promoting and developing women lawyers.

"During the past year, we've seen just how critical flexible work hours and caregiver support are during difficult times," said Judy Nemsick, chair of Holland & Knight's Women's Initiative. "We are grateful to our women attorneys for their incredible contributions in the face of significant disruption and to Seramount for setting industry-leading standards that help us all achieve success."

"We know that women have left the workplace in droves since the onset of COVID-19," said Subha V. Barry, CEO of Seramount. "But the fact that representation of women equity partners, and women lawyers overall, has increased during this turbulent time just shows how supportive our Best Law Firms for Women are to parents and caregivers. They stepped up and offered increased flexibility and new benefit programs to help this critical talent pool balance both work and home life."

The full list, available here, highlights law firms that averaged 25 percent women among equity partners, compared with 23 percent last year, and women represented 40 percent of all lawyers overall (up from 39 percent in 2020). Of all female equity partners, 16 percent were multicultural, and multicultural women represented 27 percent of overall women lawyers (up from 26 percent).

A few key parental-leave, work-life and career-advancement initiatives taking place at firms featured on the list:

• One-hundred percent of firms let new parents come back to work at reduced hours.
• The average number of paid parental leave offered is 13 weeks, the same as the previous year.
• Eighty-six percent of firms offer subsidized in-home backup childcare.
• Seventy-two percent of the firms on the list have formal sponsorship, and 74 percent have formal succession planning.
• Seventy percent tie partner compensation to women's advancement.

Seramount's 2021 Best Law Firms for Women application includes more than 300 questions about attorney demographics at different levels, schedule flexibility, paid time off and parental leaves, and development and retention of women. This year, in light of COVID-19, several questions were added about the success of working from home for lawyers.