Holland & Hart LLP received Gold Standard Certification from the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF) for the fourth year in a row.
The certification recognizes firms that have integrated women into the highest leadership positions in the firm. Only 45 firms in the country met this year’s qualifying criteria, and Holland & Hart is one of only seven firms that met all six of the qualifying criteria.
“At Holland & Hart, women have long been encouraged to take an active leadership role within the firm and the broader legal community,” said the firm’s chair Liz Sharrer. “We place tremendous value on a culture of fostering and maintaining a work environment in which the diversity of each individual is valued and celebrated.”
Law firms with 200 or more practicing lawyers in the United States are eligible for the 2014 WILEF Gold Standard Certification if they successfully demonstrate that women represent a meaningful percentage of their equity partners, of their highest leadership positions, of their governance and compensation committees, and of their most highly compensated partners.
WILEF Certification is determined by the following criteria:
- Women account for at least 20% of equity partners or alternatively, 33% or more of the attorneys becoming equity partners during the past twelve months.
- Women represent at least 10% of firm chairs and office managing partners.
- Women make up at least 20% of the firm’s primary governance committee.
- Woman represent 20% or more of the firm's compensation committee.
- Women make up at least 25% of practice group leaders or department heads.
- Women represent at least 10% of the top half of the most highly compensated partners.
Holland & Hart not only met all six of the criteria for certification, in most categories it far exceeded the minimum requirements. For example, 60 percent of the firm’s governance committee and compensation committee are women; 39 percent of the firm’s practice group leaders and/or department heads are women; and 26 percent of the firm’s equity partners are women.
About WILEF
Founded by its National Chair, Elizabeth Anne “Betiayn” Tursi, with the support of successful senior corporate executives and women attorneys, and subsequently law firm and corporate sponsors, WILEF is dedicated to assisting women in law to assume leadership roles within the National Law Journal 250 law firms, in Fortune 1000 legal departments and in their respective communities. WILEF presents cutting edge programming that provides an educational and networking forum for women in law and women law school students.