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If you’re a new subscriber, on Thursdays I write an issue called What I’m Reading and Thinking. Generally I collect articles and books of interest in one place. Sometimes I skip to the next week if I don’t find much on a given week. I’ve been thinking about replacing this issue with a regularly-updated ticker on my website, but haven’t decided yet. If you have a preference, drop me a line!

Female Associates Now Outnumber Male Ones

Law360 [paywall] reported on the National Association for Law Placement’s Report on Diversity in U.S. Law Firms, which found that, for the first year ever, there were more female associates than male associates. While that generated a big headline, as you can see below, the 50.3% is hardly something to scream about.

And, as we all know, those numbers are nowhere near duplicated at the partner level. (There was a 1.1% increase at the partner level, which sadly is characterized as “record annual growth” in the report.)

Sadly, as Bloomberg Law reports, due to the backlash in DEI programs (thank you, U.S. Supreme Court), we may see even these admittedly modest gains reverse course this year.

However, I was admittedly excited to see Quinn Emanuel’s announcement that 70% of its 2024 partnership class are women.

Women Continue to “Make History” with Law School Enrollment

Similarly, Above the Law reported that there are now more women in law school than ever before. 2023 data show that 56.25% of the law school population were women, another 0.36% identified as another gender identity, and 0.54% declined to report their gender.

According to Enjuris, most of the U.S. News top law schools now have more women than men:

More on the Advantages of Remote Work

In last week’s issue I discussed the widely-reported study in Nature that concluded, based on an examination of 50 years of patent applications, that remote work stifles innovation. Fortune magazine did a great article highlighting a follow-up study completed in January 2023 by the same authors that found that, due to modern technologies, the previously-reported chasm between the innovative outputs of in-person and remote teams had been steadily narrowing and, beginning in 2015, actually reversed. You don’t say …!

Perhaps this is why, as CNN reports, CEOs are beginning to let up on demands to return to the office five days a week.

Proposed Anti-Workplace Bullying Legislation in Massachusetts

The Boston Globe [paywall, but 30-day free registration] reported that Massachusetts is currently considering a Workplace Psychological Safety Act. While Massachusetts employment law currently provides protections against discrimination of workers who are considered part of a protected class (defined as a person’s race or ethnicity, disability, gender, age, or religion), the new Act would provide a cause of action for occupational bullying that would be available regardless of membership in a protected class. Massachusetts legislators are still debating the final scope of the bill.

A Coup for the Women’s Law Center of Maryland

In the realm of super great news, Hon. (ret.) Katie Curran O’Malley will lead the Women’s Law Center of Maryland., a legal nonprofit that advocates for the rights of women.

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