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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Cynthia Thomas Calvert is the Director of Research and co-founder, with Joan Williams, of the Project for Attorney Retention. She is also Deputy Director of WorkLife Law and a lawyer. She was with the D.C. litigation firm of Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, L.L.P. (now part of Baker Botts LLP) for fourteen years, six as a partner. At MCLL, she worked full-time, part-time, and flex-time. She thereafter had her own employment law practice for eight years, in which she counseled businesses on employment law compliance.

Ms. Calvert is co-author, with Joan Williams, of Part-Time Lawyer, Full-Time Success: A Lawyer’s Guide to Balanced Hours (forthcoming 2010). She also authored, with Williams, WorkLife Law’s Guide to Family Responsibilities Discrimination Law (WLL Press 2006) and Solving The Part-Time Puzzle: The Law Firm's Guide to Balanced Hours (NALP, October 2004). She has written numerous articles that have appeared in publications such as the ABA's Law Practice Management, The Legal Times, Corporate Counsel, Women Lawyers Journal, The San Diego Lawyer and Raising The Bar, and on the Internet (including Kiplinger.com, HR Daily Advisor, and law.com). She has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABA Journal, Associated Press, National Law Journal, New York Lawyer, Legal Times, Financial Times, Diversity & the Bar, Working Mother, Maryland Daily Record, and other publications.

Ms. Calvert speaks frequently about the retention and advancement of women attorneys, flexible work arrangements, and family responsibilities discrimination. She has spoken at NALP annual conferences, ABA and other bar association meetings, law firms, law departments and law schools, and she has testified before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress and the EEOC.

Ms. Calvert is a 1985 graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center. After graduation, she clerked for the Honorable Thomas Penfield Jackson, United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She is married and has two children.