Drinker Biddle & Reath to merge with Gardner Carton
Philadelphia's oldest law firm Drinker Biddle & Reath plans to merge with Chicago-based firm Gardner Carton & Douglas on January 1, 2007.
The new firm will comprise 651 lawyers and 26 other professionals across 12 offices. The firm will maintain the name as Drinker Biddle, except for its offices in Illinois and Wisconsin, where it will be known as Drinker Biddle Gardner Carton until 2008. Alfred W. Putnam, Jr., from Drinker Biddle will be chairman of the merged firm.
With this recent development, Drinker Biddle will now have offices in three of the five biggest markets for bankruptcy filings: New York, Delaware, and Chicago, along with Texas and California. For Gardner Carton & Douglas, a larger Chicago presence would help the firm's national litigation group, particularly in the products liability sector.
Minority women given less preference as Partners: study
Law firms across United States are playing safe when it comes to retaining women, especially minorities, as partners in the firm. The under-representation of minority women continued in 2006 with prominent regional disparities.
According to a survey conducted by NALP Directory of Legal Employers, law firms prefer minority women as associates and summer interns rather than partners. Minority women constitute just 1.48% of partners, while minority men accounted for 3.53% of partners in the nation's major law firms. However, the scenario is different in big city firms of Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Washington, DC, where women, minorities, and minority women account for higher percentage.
Overall, looking at all the lawyers represented, minorities now make up nearly 10% of lawyers at major law firms, women make up under one-third of lawyers at these firms, and minority women make up about 5% of lawyers.
