A report from legal recruiting heavyweight Major, Lindsey & Africa shows a widening gender wage gap among partners overall, but the details of the data bring to light strategies women lawyers can use to close it. The “old boys’ network” that could be to blame has already accounted for many of a large law firm’s institutional clients. As long as the firm is keeping current clients happy, more senior partners are likely to get the lion’s share of the origination credit, causing other, more junior partners to fall behind financially. But the report calculates that women partners earn 40% higher on average after making a lateral move than they did prior. This is a larger boost than male lateral partners experience, which may be a signal that the market is paying a premium for some women partners. Women lawyers who have built up books of business worth $750,000 or more should be especially open to considering a lateral move.
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