Women Attorneys Are Leaving Big Law and Moving In-House

Veteran women attorneys are leaving Big Law in favor of in-house positions at a high rate, hitting top law firms at a time when they’re fighting to improve their diversity. In 2021, only 35% of women who left one of the top 200 law firms in the United States joined another Big Law firm. That number has shrunk to 28% through the first nine months of 2022. Big Law firms intending to improve their diversity need to consider the factors driving women away. This may mean taking a harder look at how firms are structured and operate, and the generational shifts in people’s expectations of the way they work, how they work, where they work and why they work. Sonya Olds Som, global managing partner at Diversified Search Group says, “In-house jobs value emotional intelligence skills instead of just bringing in new business. If you want to actually be valued for your ability to be a business counselor, to be a strategic adviser, be a mentor and leader of other people, and not just be valued as a revenue-generating individual contributor, you will or probably have considered going in-house.”