Just in time for Thanksgiving, the New York law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced, last week, its new partnership class, together with the proud by-the-way comment that "for the first time, the new partnership class was comprised of a majority of women."
Now why - as a lateral recruitment strategy - would Weil want to trumpet such a thing? Do they mean to suggest that this statistic compensates for the years when the numbers cut the other way? Do they mean to suggest that it is recruiting and promoting women more actively then its competitors? Anyway you slice it - the announcement raises a number of uncomfortable questions and ultimately sounds a tad defensive.
Even odder was the use of this press release to announce the creation of a new partnership category, "flex-time partner", for new partners (male or female) making a long-term career choice to work on a flexible schedule - and that among the newly minted partners were included two flex-time partners. The problem here is that the concept of "flex-time partner" already exists in a number of large New York firms - begging the question as to what Weil has been doing up all of this time.
As another lateral hiring matter - why is the New York legal recruiter community discovering this information via sundry blogs and press-releases, rather then via a directed announcement designed to alert us to this information- particularly given the imminent onset of the "let's swap Peter for Paul" lateral-hiring season for junior-and mid-level associates of which Weil hopes to be significant beneficiary? You would think they would want us to know about it...
