Thompson Hine Named Best Law Firm for Women by Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers for Second Year

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Thompson Hine LLP has been selected as one of 2012’s 50 Best Law Firms for Women by Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers. The firm is recognized for maintaining family-friendly policies and business development initiatives designed to retain women and advance them in the leadership pipeline. This is the second year in a row Thompson Hine has received this honor.

“By putting Deborah Read in place as the newest managing partner late last year, Thompson Hine shows that it’s walking the walk – making sure that women get the experiences they need to rise to the top, and then putting them there.”

Carol Evans, president of Working Mother Media, noted, “By putting Deborah Read in place as the newest managing partner late last year, Thompson Hine shows that it’s walking the walk – making sure that women get the experiences they need to rise to the top, and then putting them there.” Continued Evans, “Nearly one-third of women lawyers are leaving the legal workforce independent of maternity leave. The Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers 50 Best Law Firms for Women have led the way in creating new models for the rest of their profession in promoting women and developing more generous work/life policies. These firms deserve recognition for working to improve women’s advancement and to equalize their compensation and access to business development.”

Thompson Hine scored particularly well in areas related to flexible schedules. Many of the firm’s female lawyers were promoted to partners while working on flexible schedules. “Thompson Hine continues to be a pacesetter for law firms on diversity and women’s issues, and we are proud of this meaningful recognition,” said Heidi B. Goldstein, partner and chair of the firm’s Women’s Initiative, Spotlight on Women^®. “From flexible schedules to mentoring and every issue in between, we’ve seen the benefits of this focus for our clients, for the legal profession and for our own people.”

Deborah Z. Read, Thompson Hine’s managing partner, emphasized, “To deliver superior client service continually, we know we must recruit and retain the best lawyers in the profession from a diverse field of talent. By creating a truly inclusive culture within our firm and offering the flexibility required to retain great talent, we can provide the best resources to our clients.” Read is one of only five percent of female lawyers in the role of managing partner at AmLaw 200 firms.

Thompson Hine, through the efforts of Spotlight on Women and its Diversity & Inclusion Initiative, is committed to attracting, retaining and supporting a diverse workforce. The strength of that commitment is most evident in the makeup of the firm’s leadership, with a woman serving as the firm’s managing partner and 50 percent of its Executive Committee comprised of women and minorities. Women and minorities also serve as practice group leaders and office partners-in-charge. In addition, the firm’s Spotlight on Leaders program provides nonpartner women lawyers with leadership development opportunities through a series of intensive meetings, events and workshops with the firm’s senior leadership, renowned subject experts and successful executives.

The Working Mother/Flex-Time Lawyers recognition is the latest in a series of accolades Thompson Hine has received for its commitment to the professional development of women. Earlier this year, the inaugural Euromoney Legal Media Group Americas’ Women in Business Law Awards honored Spotlight on Women as the best gender diversity initiative by a national firm and shortlisted the firm in two other categories. In addition, the firm was recently ranked as a Top 100 Law Firm for Women by MultiCultural Law magazine. Thompson Hine has also been recognized by the Project for Attorney Retention as a top-tier firm for the promotion and advancement of women and selected by The Women in Law Empowerment Forum as one of only 50 U.S. law firms to receive its Gold Standard Certification for the promotion and advancement of women.

Thompson Hine, which has won a number of awards for its diversity efforts, was the first law firm to receive the Best-in-Class award for Middle Market Senior Management Diversity from the Commission on Economic Inclusion, a program of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, for “building and maintaining a diverse and inclusive organization,” as well as two inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Innovation Awards presented by the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association.

The full list of the 2012 Working Mother and Flex-Time Lawyers 50 Best Law Firms for Women includes the percentage of female equity and non-equity partners and the percentage of each firm’s lawyers who work reduced hours. The companies are featured in the December/January issue of Working Mother and on workingmother.com and flextimelawyers.com.

Deborah Epstein Henry, president of Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, stated, “These firms understand that their efforts toward women need to expand to not only focus on work life issues but also on women gaining access to sponsors as well as business development and leadership opportunities. 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.”

About Spotlight on Women. Spotlight on Women is a multifaceted initiative created to foster professional opportunities for women, both within and outside Thompson Hine, through the development of programs, partnerships and events designed to open doors for women to advance, excel and lead. The initiative has been and continues to be a leader in the advancement and promotion of women within Thompson Hine, the legal profession and the business community. With partner-level chairs in each office and lawyer and staff members, Spotlight on Women supports women’s personal and career development and facilitates their advancement and promotion. For more information, please see the Women’s Initiative page on Thompson Hine’s website.

About Thompson Hine LLP. Established in 1911, Thompson Hine is a business law firm dedicated to providing superior client service. The firm has been recognized for ten consecutive years as a top law firm in the country for client service excellence in The BTI Client Service A-Team: Survey of Law Firm Client Service Performance. With offices in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, New York and Washington, D.C., Thompson Hine serves premier businesses worldwide. For more information, please visit www.ThompsonHine.com.

About Flex-Time Lawyers. Flex-Time Lawyers LLC is an international consulting firm founded by Deborah Epstein Henry in the late 1990s, providing advisory, training and speaking services to employers and professionals on work life balance, retaining and promoting women and new models of legal practice. It provides speaking services at law firms, in-house legal departments, professional service firms, corporations, nonprofits, bar associations, law schools, national conferences, events, and retreats. Flex-Time Lawyers also hosts a membership organization with a chapter in New York, offering quarterly events on timely issues with prominent speakers. Membership also provides resources, networking opportunities and education about legal industry norms. For more information, please visit http://www.flextimelawyers.com.

About Working Mother Media. Working Mother Media (WMM), a division of Bonnier Corporation (www.bonnier.com), publishes Working Mother magazine and its companion website, www.workingmother.com, and operates the Working Mother Research Institute. The National Association for Female Executives (www.nafe.com) and Diversity Best Practices (www.diversitybestpractices.com) are also units within WMM. Working Mother Media’s mission is to serve as a champion of culture change. Working Mother magazine reaches more than 2 million readers and is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers; workingmother.com gives working mothers @home and @work advice, solutions and ideas. This year marks the 27th anniversary of the magazine’s signature research initiative, the Working Mother 100 Best Companies, and the 10th year of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.