Keywords: law-firm diversity, recruitment, retention, diversity in law, women lawyers, work-life balance, flex time, telecommuting

The law industry has traditionally not been known as family friendly, but in an effort to attract and retain top female recruits, firms are responding to the needs of women lawyers, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Even though women have accounted for at least half of law-school graduates and new hires at the nation's biggest firms for the past 20 years, they tend not to stay around long enough to make partner. About 42 percent of women leave the profession mid-career, and many others defect to government or corporate jobs with more manageable hours. Only 16 percent of equity partners nationwide are women, according to studies by the American Bar Association and the National Association of Women Lawyers.

"It costs a law firm between $200,000 and $500,000 to lose a second-year associate," Deborah Epstein Henry, founder of Flex-Time Lawyers, told the Los Angeles Times.

Henry traces the comparatively low level of women in law's higher echelons to the industry's reticence to permit part-time work. Although the share of women working reduced hours in medicine, accounting, consulting and architecture is 11 percent to 14 percent, it's well under 5 percent for lawyers, Henry told the Los Angeles Times.

Click here to read the full story in the Los Angeles Times.