Boden Lecture: Afra Afsharipour

Behind the Closed Network: Data, Power, and Gender Stagnation in Corporate Law

While the ABA has dubbed 2016 to 2026 “The Decade of the Female Lawyer”—with women making up a majority of law students, a majority of law firm associates, almost half of all law faculty, and more than forty percent of law school deans—the upper echelons of elite corporate law firms remain stubbornly resistant to change. Drawing on a series of empirical studies, this lecture unmasks persistent gender disparities entrenched in high-stakes transactional and corporate litigation practice. Rather than advancing inclusion, elite corporate law practice operates as a self-reinforcing closed network where women continue to face inferior access to influential network resources and are frequently left on the periphery. Disrupting this stagnation requires structural changes within elite firm leadership and greater data transparency.

Afra Afsharipour holds the John D. Ayer Endowed Chair in Business Law and is the Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis. Her teaching and research interests include business associations, corporate governance, and mergers and acquisitions. Professor Afsharipour is an elected member of the American Law Institute. She holds a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.