The Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF) announced that national law firm Polsinelli has achieved the 2015 WILEF Gold Standard Certification, which awards firms that promote women as business leaders in the legal field.  Polsinelli is one of only 44 firms recognized nationally for its emphasis on women in leadership.

“It’s wonderful to see our firm recognized as a company that places significant value on women as leaders in meaningful areas of management,” said Shareholder Karen Glickstein, who leads Polsinelli’s Women’s Initiative. “The women leaders at Polsinelli positively impact our business and our clients’ businesses, and the WILEF designation is an exclamation point on our continued commitment to the promotion and advancement of our female attorneys.”

“The WILEF Gold Standard Certification is a nod to our strategic and concerted priority to promote the professional development and advancement of women leaders at the firm, and it reinforces the philosophy that diversity in leadership simply makes good business sense,” said Polsinelli Chairman Russ Welsh.

For 2015 Gold Standard Certification, WILEF evaluates the percentages of women engaged in meaningful firm-wide leadership positions in the following areas:

  • Equity partners
  • Office managing partners
  • Governance and compensation committees
  • Highest leadership positions
  • Mostly highly compensated partners
  • Practice leadership

Polsinelli has female leadership spread among its offices as well as various practice areas. The firm’s offices in Atlanta, Denver and Los Angeles have female office managing partners: Shareholder Lisa Quateman in Los Angeles, Shareholder Nancy Rafuse in Atlanta and Shareholder Jennifer Evans in Denver (beginning at end of June).

In addition to managing the Atlanta office, Rafuse leads the firm’s national Labor and Employment Practice. She was recently selected by Benchmark Litigation for inclusion in the Benchmark Top 250 Women in Litigation, a distinction she has now achieved in each of the last three years.

Denver-based Shareholder Stacy Carpenter is currently Polsinelli’s Commercial Litigation Practice Chair, while fellow Shareholder Mary Clare Bonaccorsi leads the firm’s Health Care Litigation Practice out of Chicago. Out of Washington, D.C., Shareholder Dawn Lurie leads the EB-5 Foreign Investment Practice.