Thompson Coburn recognized for major jump on NLJ’s Women in Law Scorecard

Thompson Coburn was ranked among the top law firms nationally for its percentage of women attorneys, as surveyed in the National Law Journal’s Women in Law Scorecard. Thompson Coburn’s jump to 75th from a previous rank of 190 was the highest upward movement of all 271 firms that appear on the 2019 Scorecard, according to the NLJ.

The Women in Law Scorecard is produced as part of the annual NLJ 500 report and is calculated by adding each firm’s total percentage of women lawyers with the percentage of women partners.

In 2018, women comprised 33% of Thompson Coburn’s total attorneys, 24.1% of equity partners, and 42.5% of associates. Of the seven attorneys promoted to partnership in 2018, four were women.

Labor and employment partner Laura Jordan, the chair of Thompson Coburn’s Total Commitment Women’s Initiative, spoke with the National Law Journal about the firm’s success in promoting gender diversity. It’s “not just about bringing women into the firm, but keeping them here,” Laura said. “And that means we are seeing women who started as associates getting promoted as partners because we have done a better job at keeping them.”

The Women’s Initiative aims to foster an inclusive culture while celebrating the unique strengths, abilities, and contributions of our women lawyers. The Initiative holds annual networking events, discussions about professional advancement, and provides mentoring networks across the entire firm.

“When I started, I looked for other women that I wanted to emulate,” Laura said. “So, being here, and investing, and showing the path of how to practice law in a very vigorous profession — and that it’s an achievable goal — is important."