Bird Marella Associate Jessica Kornberg , a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession, discusses recent trends in law school applications and the related “pipeline” issue for law firms in the Daily Journal December 13, 2013 cover page article, “Proportion of female associates continues 4-year slide”.
In the early 2000s, women represented around 49 percent of law school students but the number has declined to around 46 to 47 percent since 2006, according to ABA data. Some second-tier schools are finding it difficult to reach even the 40 percent mark, Kornberg said.
“The number of women applying to law schools started to decline, and the number of women attending law school started to decline, and that’s the pool of folks we’re drawing these associates from for big law firms,” she said. “With the law school numbers we’re seeing, we’re on a path right back to the 1950s.”