The Arent Fox Women’s Leadership Development Initiative strives to facilitate mentoring and training programs that contribute to the retention of our women lawyers; to ensure that women continue to serve and be represented on firmwide committees, with the ultimate goal of advancing even more of them into leadership roles; and to create networking opportunities for our lawyers and their counterparts in the business world.
In 2008 and 2009, Arent Fox was named as one of the Best Law Firms for Women by Working Mother magazine, the authoritative source for career mothers, and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, a national consulting firm advising attorneys and legal employers on work/life balance. We were recognized as one of only 50 law firms in the nation that, according to Working Mother and Flex-Times Lawyers, "understand that when the market improves, the war for talent will return and they will be better positioned to recruit and retain the best and brightest.” For further information, see our press release and Working Mother article. For the 2008 article, please click here.
Approximately 37 percent of Arent Fox lawyers are women, and 25 percent of partners are women. Since 2006, 57 percent of lawyers promoted to partner have been women. Women lawyers at Arent Fox serve as practice group leaders as well as on numerous firmwide committees – and several are the lawyers responsible for a number of our largest clients.
We are proud to be able to say, too, that our women lawyers are committed to and recognized by the legal and business communities outside Arent Fox. In August 2009 the American Bar Association selected two Arent Fox partners – Linda Baumann and Marylee Jenkins – to serve as chair-elect of the ABA’s Health Law Section and Intellectual Property Law Section, respectively. In June 2009 Bernice Leber completed her term as president of the 75,000-member New York State Bar Association, the nation’s largest voluntary state bar. Deborah Froling serves on the executive board of the National Association of Women Lawyers. Leah Eisenberg is an executive officer of the Women’s Division of the New York Institute of Credit.
In addition to supporting our lawyers, Arent Fox is committed to the advancement of women outside the firm. Among other organizations, we support the National Women’s Law Center and the Women’s Bar Association. Moreover, we were a lead sponsor of the Washington Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business program – which honors the most influential business women in the Washington, DC, region – from 2004 to 2008.
Miller-Jenkins v. Miller-Jenkins. June 7, 2008, Arent Fox LLP won a historic ruling from the Supreme Court of Virginia in a nationally watched custody battle testing whether states like Virginia that bar legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships, will enforce judgments and judicial orders from states like Vermont, which do recognize same-sex unions. Click here for press release and background information.
Love v. Johanns. Arent Fox has teamed with the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and others to represent women farmers who were denied farm loans and loan servicing by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) based on their gender. The discrimination lawsuit Love v. Johanns, Secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture, Case No. 1:00CV02502 (D.D.C.) was filed on October 19, 2000, by a number of women farmers who are seeking to have the class certified as a class action on behalf of women farmers and prospective women farmers nationwide who were discriminatorily denied farm loans or loan servicing by the USDA from 1981 to December 1996 and from October 19, 1998, to the present.
At present, the plaintiffs are awaiting a decision from the DC Circuit on their appeal of the district court's denial of class certification. The women farmers seek damages and injunctive relief as a result of the department's actions. Seven lawyers and two legal assistants work on this case. See Womenfarmers.com for more information regarding the case.
Georgetown University International Women's Human Rights Clinic. In conjunction with this clinic run by Georgetown University, an Arent Fox associate traveled to Uganda in 2004 to supervise a team of law students on a human rights fact-finding mission on the frequency of the practice of female genital cutting. The students then drafted a human rights report with critical feedback from the Arent Fox associate, which will be used by local advocates to lobby for the passage of legislation banning the practice.
For more information about our Women’s Leadership Development Initiative, please feel free to contact the co-chairs:
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