For Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.:
Kelly Griffith, Marketing Manager
(612) 492-7514, email: kgriffith@fredlaw.com
For NAFE/Working Mother Media:
Leah Goodman, The Rosen Group
212.255.8478 or leah@rosengrouppr.com
For Flex-Time Lawyers:
Deborah Epstein Henry, Esq., Founder & President
610.658.0836 or dehenry@flextimelawyers.com
For Immediate Release
Fredrikson & Byron Named One of the Best Law Firms for Women by
National Association for Female Executives & Flex-Time Lawyers
Minneapolis, MN September 13, 2011 – – Fredrikson & Byron has earned the honor of being named one of the Best Law Firms for Women in 2011 by the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) & Flex-Time Lawyers. The Best Law Firms for Women award recognizes the leading law firms that successfully retain and promote outstanding talent, and honors 50 firms across the U.S. for supporting female lawyers with policies that focus on development, promotion and success of women. Firms are measured on a variety of factors, including: representation; flexibility; childcare; leadership, compensation, development and advancement of women; and time off and leaves, among others.
“We are pleased to be recognized by NAFE as one of the best firms in the country for women lawyers. I am proud of Fredrikson’s reputation as a place where women can be successful and hold leadership positions,” states Mary Ranum, Chair of Fredrikson & Byron’s board of directors. “This honor validates the efforts the firm has taken to ensure that we provide an environment that fosters and develops women at all levels of their career.”
Fredrikson & Byron has received other national recognitions for its positive workplace culture for women lawyers, including:
- MultiCultural Law Magazine’s Top 100 Law Firms for Women - 2011 (ranked 55th nationally)
- MultiCultural Law Magazine’s Top 25 Law Firms for Native-Americans - 2011 (ranked 9th nationally)
- The National Law Journal’s most recent Top 20 U.S. Law Firms Based on Highest Percentage of Women Partners - 2009 (ranked 3rd nationally, and 1st for law firms headquartered in Minnesota)
Partner Ann Ladd, a member of Fredrikson & Byron’s board of directors and executive committee, believes that the firm’s leadership and culture has made a difference in recruiting, retaining, and promoting female attorneys. “The ranking bolsters our long-held core value of the importance of a diverse workplace. Diversity of thought, experience, and background makes us more creative and innovative, and better able to develop and sustain long lasting relationships with our clients.” Ladd states that “in addition to chairing seven of the firm’s practice areas, women hold several key leadership positions and are members of many of the firm’s committees, including the compensation committee.”
Fredrikson & Byron has a long history of embracing diversity and flexibility. The firm was a leader in the market by instituting formal flex-time policies in the 1980’s, and has a long-standing diversity committee responsible for identifying and recommending steps for the firm to take to enhance the recruitment and retention of attorneys of diverse backgrounds in the associate, senior attorney, and partner levels. Through its attorney-led Counsel for Women program, the firm also supports women business owners and executives, and sponsors a variety of women-focused programs in the business community. To read more about the firm’s diversity initiatives, see http://www.fredlaw.com/firm/diversity.htm.
The 2011 NAFE & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms for Women are continuing to redefine the standards of success, with written reduced hour policies at 100 percent of the winning firms and 78 percent who are offering full-time telecommuting. Now in its fifth year, the Best Law Firms for Women have increased support for programs that encourage networking, training and mentoring.
“The 2011 Best Law Firms for Women are encouraging the retention and promotion of women, in addition to creating conducive work environments for all lawyers to thrive,” said Deborah Epstein Henry, Founder and President, Flex-Time Lawyers. “By offering leadership and business development opportunities for women, along with generous flexibility, parental leave and childcare programs, these firms are better poised to retain and promote the brightest legal minds, with the goal of reaching parity for women in the profession.”
Fredrikson and the 50 Best Law Firms for Women and their work/life and women-friendly policies will be featured in the fall 2011 issue of NAFE magazine and are profiled at nafe.com, www.workingmother.com and www.flextimelawyers.com. Winning firms will be honored in New York on September 21. NAFE is a division of Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corporation.
Methodology: The 2011 Best Law Firms for Women application was developed in a partnership between Working Mother Media and Flex-Time Lawyers LLC. Firms with at least 50 lawyers were eligible to apply and the application included detailed questions about the issues that are most important to the retention and promotion of female lawyers. Completed applications were collected online from November 12, 2010 to January 21, 2011. All data for the 2011 survey was collected from the full year of 2010. The 50 winning firms were selected based on their responses to an application measuring areas such as workforce profile, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation, advancement and retention of women.
Fredrikson & Byron is a 240 attorney law firm based in Minneapolis, with offices in Bismarck and Fargo, N.D.; Des Moines, Iowa; Monterrey, Mexico; and Shanghai. With a reputation as the firm “where law and business meet,” Fredrikson & Byron brings business acumen and entrepreneurial thinking when working with clients and by operating as business advisors and strategic partners as well as legal counselors. The firm’s primary areas of practice include advertising, banking, corporate, corporate governance, employment and labor, energy and renewable energy, government relations, healthcare, intellectual property, international, life sciences, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, real estate, securities and tax. Fredrikson & Byron serves a broad range of clients including multinational corporations, public companies, privately-held businesses, entrepreneurs, government agencies and family businesses. The firm’s attorneys also work with individuals on estate planning, family law and immigration matters. Fredrikson & Byron is the exclusive Minnesota law firm member of the World Services Group, a worldwide network of professional service providers. More information is available at www.fredlaw.com.
About The National Association for Female Executives (NAFE): NAFE was founded in 1972 and is one of the largest women’s professional associations in the United States. The organization has a rich history of providing education, networking and public advocacy to empower its members to achieve career success and financial security. Members are women executives, professionals, business owners and others who are committed to NAFE’s mission: the advancement of women in business. Through the annual NAFE Top Companies for Executive Women list and NAFE Women of Excellence Awards programs, NAFE recognizes the outstanding work done on behalf of the advancement of women. NAFE also offers the Women of Excellence Interview Series, NAFE Leadership Summits, and International NAFE. NAFE is a division of Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corporation.
About Working Mother Media: Working Mother magazine reaches 2.2 million readers and is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers; WorkingMother.com (www.workingmother.com) gives working mothers @home and @work advice, solutions, and ideas. This year marks the 26th anniversary of Working Mother’s signature research initiative, Working Mother 100 Best Companies, and the ninth year of the Best Companies for Multicultural Women. Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corporation (www.bonnier.com), includes the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE, www.nafe.com), Diversity Best Practices (www.diversitybestpractices.com), and the Working Mother Research Institute. Working Mother Media’s mission is to serve as a champion of culture change.
About Flex-Time Lawyers LLC: Flex-Time Lawyers LLC® is a national consulting firm advising the legal profession on workplace restructure, talent management, work/life balance, and the retention and promotion of lawyers, with a focus on women. It hosts a membership organization with quarterly chapter meetings for legal employers and lawyers, offering networking opportunities, employer advice, support, career guidance, education and information sharing to effect change. Flex-Time Lawyers LLC is a resource to the press and legal community at large and also provides recruiting services. It has been covered extensively in the national and legal press, including The New York Times, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, National Public Radio, National Law Journal, and numerous others. For more information, please visit www.flextimelawyers.com.