David Wilkins

Female lawyers work on average four more hours a week than their male counterparts do, are more likely to not have children and are vastly more likely to work part time or leave the profession altogether once they do have a child, according to a Harvard Law School survey of its graduates, released Monday...“It is painfully evident that female lawyers still bear the overwhelming burden of the legal profession’s continuing struggles to integrate work and family,” the study’s authors said...It is titled “The Women and Men of Harvard Law School: Preliminary Results from the HLS Career Study” and was authored by David B. Wilkins, Bryan Fong and Ronit Dinovitzer.

It’s well-known that women in nearly every sector earn less than their male peers, but in the legal profession the gap appears to actually have grown starting in 1975. That news comes from an empirical study conducted by Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession...“The most important explanatory factor appears to be the fact that men are far more likely than women to work in business (not practicing law), particularly in more recent [classes], and that when they do, they earn total compensation that is far in excess of even their highly paid law firm peers,” the report’s authors wrote. According to the study, authored by David Wilkins, the Lester Kissel Professor of Law at HLS, and also Bryon Fong, assistant research director at HLS’s Center on the Legal Profession, and Ronit Dinovitzer, an associate professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, men from the class of 1995 whose incomes fell in the 75 percentile of those that participated in the survey, made in excess of $1.625 million. Since women in that class were less likely to work in the business sector than their male classmates, they were less likely to earn such outsized compensation, the report notes.

Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession on Monday released the results of a widespread survey of its graduates which suggests women work more hours on average than men, among other potentially myth-busting findings. Through a survey of HLS graduates from the classes of 1975, 1985, 1995 and 2000 and other research, it provides a detailed portrait of the gender gap within the legal profession, including all the ways women have advanced or failed to advance. Entitled, “The Women and Men of Harvard Law School,” it collected data on the four HLS classes through a survey that was sent by mail between 2009 and 2010 and is also available online...The authors include David Wilkins, who is the Lester Kissel Professor of Law at HLS, and also Bryon Fong, assistant research director at HLS’s Center on the Legal Profession, and Ronit Dinovitzer, an associate professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto.

Where is the legal star power on this year’s law school commencement circuit? It seems the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court will sit out the 2015 graduation grind. ... Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, seems the 2015 law school graduation MVP. He is slated to deliver remarks during the University of California, Berkeley School of Law’s May 15 ceremony, followed by graduations at Pace Law School on May 17 and New York University School of Law on May 21. Bharara is a veteran on the law commencement scene—he earned rave reviews along with actress Mindy Kaling when they spoke together during Harvard Law School’s class day in 2014. For this year’s class day event, Harvard law students will hear from former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly. The couple has advocated gun control since Giffords was wounded in a 2011 mass shooting. ... At least three Harvard law professors will address students at other schools: Cass Sunstein at the University of Pennsylvania Law School; Charles Fried at Columbia Law School; and David Wilkins at the University of Iowa College of Law.

“There is widespread agreement that the legal profession is in a period of stress and transition; its economic models are under duress; the concepts of its professional uniqueness are narrow and outdated; and, as a result, its ethical imperatives are weakened and their sources ill-defined.” That’s the premise put forth in a paper presented at Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Profession conference today. Authored by former general counsel of the General Electric Corporation Benjamin W. Heineman, Jr., Wilmer Hale partner William F. Lee, and Harvard Law School Vice Dean of the Legal Profession David B. Wilkins, the paper contemplates lawyers’ ethical responsibilities and their role as the profession grows increasingly competitive.

The Standard Indian Legal Citation (SILC) standard has been recognised by Harvard Law School as one of six citation standards and the only citation manual from Asia. The style which had been accepted by around 32 law schools in 2014 shortly after its launch, as reported by Legally India at the time, has seen an adoption and been downloaded by more than 100 colleges...In a press release, Professor David B Wilkins, Harvard Law School’s vice dean for global initiatives on the legal profession and faculty director of the Center on the Legal Profession, said: “In 1926, Erwin Griswold and his student colleagues at the Harvard Law Review published the first edition of “A Uniform System of Citation,” today commonly referred to as “The Blue Book.”

David Wilkins, professor of law at Harvard University and Director of the Center on the Legal Profession, said partners are increasingly switching firms in groups — as demonstrated by at least 12 Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman partners who are joining Winston & Strawn. Wilkins explained what’s driving this trend, and why he expects it to continue at major law firms.

The best law firm websites are complete destinations, not pit stops. Many law firms focus more on the design aspect of their websites, rather than looking at the big picture...It is said that people hire attorneys as much as they hire law firms, and that they deeply value thought leadership. I interviewed Prof. David Wilkins of Harvard Law School and he had this to say about leading with content and ideas. “So I think that thought leadership is very important and I think it’s increasingly important and this is something I think is true at all levels, wherever a lawyer is practicing. That’s because clients understand that the world is becoming increasingly complex and that they are looking for lawyers who can demonstrate an understanding of that complexity and also an ability to help them to navigate that complexity.

Amid the quarterly reports of law firm performance and rankings in various league tables, three vaunted lawyers are calling on firms, in-house counsel and law schools to re-evaluate their priorities and obligations. Ben Heineman Jr., the former general counsel of General Electric Co.; William Lee, a partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP; and David Wilkins, a professor at Harvard Law School, have co-written “Lawyers as Professionals and as Citizens: Key Roles and Responsibilities in the 21st Century.” The essay, prompted by a discussion with Harvard Dean Martha Minow, is intended to address the current state of legal practice and education. The three write that there is “widespread agreement that the legal profession is in a period of stress and transition; its economic models are under duress; the concepts of its professional uniqueness are narrow and outdated; and, as a result, its ethical imperatives are weakened and their sources ill-defined.”

Harvard Law School’s Center on the Legal Professionnhas announced the release of their revamped website and the launch of the first-of-its-kind digital magazine, The Practice

In the economically stressful environment most companies face today, in-house lawyers—all lawyers, in fact—owe ethical duties to four key entities: clients and stakeholders, the legal system, their institutions and society at large. That’s the message in a new essay coauthored by Benjamin Heineman Jr., the former general counsel of General Electric Co. and now a senior Harvard fellow. The new essay appears on the website for the Harvard Center for the Legal Profession...The paper's other authors are William Lee, a partner and former managing partner at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, and Harvard law professor David Wilkins, the faculty director of the Center for the Legal Profession.

The nation's 350 largest law firms showed the biggest headcount growth during 2013 since the nosedive of the recession years, with a respectable 3.9 percent increase...Among leaders of the bigger firms, an international game plan is the focus, said Harvard Law School professor David Wilkins. "It is so clear that all the growth is going to come from outside the U.S.," said Wilkins, whose scholarship focuses on law firms. "Everyone is trying to figure out what their strategy is."