Gender in the legal market.

• Position: BRIEFLY LEGAL

A recent study conducted by LMA member Dr. Silvia Hodges Silverstein, vice president of strategic market development at Sky Analytics, showed the differences between women and men in the law firm setting. Here are some of the key findings:

* Women are billed at significantly lower rates per hour than men, no matter what tier of firm they work at. The average female partner's hourly rate is 10 percent less than her male colleagues.

* Men are more likely to get rewarded for additional years of experience In the legal profession. Men with more years of experience bill at higher rates.

* Based on task codes and billing, there are specific "female" jobs and "male" jobs. (In this calculation, tasks were calculated In which the male or female billings were substantially off from average by the database.) Four jobs were "female" jobs: word processing, fact Investlgatlon/fact development, depositions and "other." By comparison, 177 jobs were "male"...