The Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF) has given WilmerHale the Gold Standard Award for its dedication to women in leadership roles and commitment to equal compensation. WILEF, a professional networking and education organization, is focused on helping women achieve their career goals inside large law firms and corporate legal departments.

WilmerHale also won the award in 2012 and 2015 and has long been dedicated to recruiting top female attorneys and helping them rise through the ranks of the firm. For example, Susan Murley became the firm's first woman co-managing partner in 2012 and Natalie Hanlon Leh is co-partner-in-charge of the Denver office. WilmerHale's leadership positions include women and minority partners across 15 departments and the firm's Management Committee.

In fact, Bank of America's Legal Department recently recognized WilmerHale with its Diversity & Inclusion Business Council Award. The honor is given to outside counsel that encourages the recruitment, retention, mentoring and promotion of diverse attorneys.

WilmerHale also has a dedicated Women's Leadership Initiative, which seeks to help female attorneys advance by providing networking and training programs. The fruition of this effort can be seen through numerous awards, such as Partners Heather Tewksbury and Andrea Jeffries who were recently named Top Woman Lawyers by the Daily Journal.

In May, WilmerHale also brought on board Nimesh Patel as its new director of diversity and inclusion from the US Department of Homeland Security. He will create a diversity and inclusion strategy and focus on attorneys' career development. Additionally, the firm landed on Law360's 100 Best Law Firms for Female Attorneys list and has been named one of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers. The firm also made the list of Yale Law School's Top Ten Family Friendly Firms.