Ropes & Gray Publishes Newsletter Highlighting Latest Activities of Women’s Forum

In The News
March 6, 2018

Ropes & Gray has released its latest issue of Women’s Forum News, which celebrates a banner year for gender diversity at the firm. This edition features an interview with Julie H. Jones, who will become the first woman chair in the firm’s history when she succeeds current chair R. Bradford Malt upon his retirement at the end of 2019. The issue also pays tribute to retired partner Ruth Reardon O’Brien, winner of the 2017 iRelaunch “Pioneering Relauncher Award,” and provides a roundup of noteworthy news, awards and events from the past year that reflect the firm’s commitment to gender diversity and equality.

Read the March 2018 Issue of Women’s Forum News 

The Women’s Forum at Ropes & Gray was established in 1996 to promote the professional growth of women lawyers at the firm. Today, it plays a vital role in fulfilling the firm’s commitment to diversity and inclusion by providing educational, professional development, mentoring and networking opportunities to nurture the pipeline of women lawyers at the firm and increase the number of women in senior and leadership positions.

Ropes & Gray has long been at the forefront of recruiting, retaining and advancing the careers of women in the law. More than 40 percent of the firm’s lawyers are women and that percentage continues to grow. Women lawyers hold significant leadership positions in the firm, serving as department heads, practice group leaders and policy committee members. Since 2010, the firm has consistently been recognized as one of the top five firms for diversity for women by the Vault survey of the 150 most prestigious law firms in the country.

In 2017, Ropes & Gray was named to Law360’s list of “Best Law Firms for Women” and made it onto the publication’s “Ceiling Smashers” list of the top five large law firms with the highest percentage of women equity partners. The firm was also recognized for gender equity by Yale Law Women’s annual survey of family friendly firms, and achieved its highest ranking ever—number two—on The American Lawyer’s elite “A-List” of the top 20 U.S. law firms, which last year included gender diversity among its ranking criteria for the first time.