Pillsbury Earns Gold Standard Certification from Women in Law Empowerment Forum

Each year, WILEF offers large law firms of 300-plus lawyers practicing in the United States, a chance to become Gold Standard certified. To become certified the firm must comply with at least four of six benchmarks, and one mandatory benchmark, meant to drive women lawyers to success in business development and leadership. The criteria for certification includes:

• 20% of equity partners or 33% of the attorneys becoming equity partners during the past 12 months are women (mandatory)
• 15% of the firm and U.S. branch office heads are women
• 20% of the firm’s primary governance committee are women
• 20% of the firm’s compensation committee or its equivalent are women
• 15% of the top half of the firm’s equity partners in terms of compensation are women
• 10% of women equity partners are women of color, or 4% of women equity partners are LGBT

Notably, Pillsbury was one of just 23 firms to meet all six qualifying benchmarks in 2020.

Pillsbury takes great pride in its steadfast commitment to building a diverse and inclusive culture. The firm was among the first to promote women to partnership and the first large, national firm in the U.S. to elect a woman as its top leader. Year after year, Pillsbury’s inclusion efforts are recognized by Vault.com, the National Association of Female Executives and the Human Rights Campaign, among other organizations. The firm was also one of just 17 selected to Working Mother’s inaugural law firm Hall of Fame. To learn more about Pillsbury’s inclusive culture, click here.