Womble Bond Dickinson recognised for gender diversity efforts

Womble Bond Dickinson has been recognized as a “Tipping the Scales” law firm by the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance for the firm’s efforts to promote women attorneys to partner.

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance’s New Partner Report acknowledged firms, like WBD, that had 50 percent or more women in their 2022 U.S.-based new partner classes. The firm promoted eight attorneys, four of whom are women, to Partner in 2022. 

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance New Partner Report revealed that 40.2 percent of new partners from 206 major U.S. law firms in 2022 were women, which represents a decrease from last year’s figure of 40.9 percent. Further, when looking at a representative sample (only AmLaw 100 and Alliance member firms), 40.3 percent of new partners were women in 2022, which represents a substantial drop of 2.1 percent from last year’s figure of 42.4 percent. More information on the report can be found here.

“We know that goal-setting and benchmarking are essential to making diversity and gender equity gains in the workplace, and we appreciate the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance’s guidance in this area,” said Womble Bond Dickinson Partner Cathy Hinger, the leader of the firm’s Women of Womble Bond Dickinson affinity group. “We are proud to be recognized as a law firm that is ‘Tipping the Scales’ for gender equity, while acknowledging that more work needs to be done to continue this process.”

The recognition comes less than a month after Womble Bond Dickinson was honoured as a Mansfield 5.0 Certification Plus firm. 

Mansfield 5.0 Certified firms are those at which at least 30 percent of candidates for equity partner, senior lateral and firm leadership positions are women lawyers, LGBTQIA+ lawyers, lawyers with disabilities, and underrepresented racial and/or ethnic lawyers. Certification Plus status is achieved by firms that not only took deliberate steps to expand the list of those considered for these positions within their organisation, but also achieved diverse representation in key positions during this past year.