Infobit: Since 1985, law schools have been graduating classes of new lawyers that are 40% or more female. Yet in 1996, only 14.2% of law firm partners were women, and in 2005, only 17.2% were women. (Note: this figure is for all partners; the number of equity partners is lower.) Source: Catalyst. At this rate of increase, women should make up half of law firm partners by the year 2115.

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Holly Cohen Cooper has practiced law full-time and part-time in a variety of settings in Washington, DC, and Denver, Colorado. In Denver, Ms. Cooper worked for the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund and the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and clerked for Justice Mary J. Mullarkey of the Colorado Supreme Court.

After moving to Washington, she worked as a fair housing attorney at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), where her projects included trying HUD's first fair housing case before an Administrative Law Judge. She subsequently practiced at Bogin & Eig, a small law firm focusing on special education law. Immediately prior to joining PAR, Ms. Cooper took a break from the practice of law to focus on her family and on volunteer work, including serving on the Montgomery County Commission on Child Care and the Harbor School Board of Trustees.

Ms. Cooper was graduated from the Harvard Law School, cum laude, in 1985. During law school, she helped found the Harvard Children's Rights Project. She is a co-author with Professor Joan Williams of the article The Public Policy of Motherhood, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Social Issues. Ms. Cooper is married and has one child.