Kirkland & Ellis Named One of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women by Working Mother Magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is pleased to announce that Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers have included the Firm on their list of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women. The honor recognizes U.S. law firms for their family-friendly policies and business development initiatives designed to retain women and advance them into the leadership pipeline.

Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers established the 50 Best Law Firms for Women list in 2007 to celebrate the law firms that are most successful in retaining and promoting women lawyers. In surveying firms for this list, Working Mother measured and assessed their representation of women in leadership roles, compensation and benefits, parental leave, and flexibility policies and programs to help train, retain and advance women as well as their overall treatment of female attorneys and staff.

"Kirkland is deeply committed to supporting and promoting our talented female professionals, and proud of our dedication to encourage a strong work-life balance. We are honored to be recognized by Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers," said Kirkland corporate partner Linda K. Myers, a member of the Firm's Global Management Executive Committee and one of the founders of Kirkland's Women's Leadership Initiative (WLI), a mentoring and professional development program for women attorneys.

In addition to the global expansion of WLI programming, Kirkland's Firmwide Diversity Integration Task Force, consisting of the chairman of the Firm's Global Management Executive Committee and other senior leadership, is active in determining policy and structural enhancements to institutionalize Kirkland's commitment to diversity and in providing sponsorship, targeted professional development and leadership roles on Firm committees to women and other diverse attorneys.

Kirkland's progressive benefits, services and programs also help the Firm's female attorneys balance the way they manage their careers to achieve success. They include generous maternity, paternity and adoption leave, flexible work schedules, same-sex domestic partner health care coverage and Parenting Link, monthly presentations held in Kirkland's offices that provide Kirkland attorneys, their spouses, partners and clients practical information from parenting experts.

"We hope these firms will lead the charge to further improve the status of women in the profession by creating structural change within the law firm model as well as empowering women to take the individual action steps they need to make sustainable change," said Deborah Epstein Henry, president of Flex-Time Lawyers, an international consulting firm.

Kirkland's inclusion on the list of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women is featured in the December/January issue of Working Mother, and on workingmother.com and flextimelawyers.com.

Kirkland & Ellis LLP is a 1,600-attorney law firm representing global clients in complex litigation, dispute resolution and arbitration, corporate, restructuring, tax and intellectual property and technology matters. The Firm has offices in Chicago, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Shanghai and Washington, D.C.