The numbers of graduating female and male seniors enrolled in law school remain even -- but more top law firm partnerships are going to men than women, according to a recent survey.

The survey, Facts About Women and the Law, published by the American Bar Association, found that law firms hire an even number of male and female associates, but those numbers drastically change when higher posts are concerned.

In 1997, 14 percent of law firm partners were women; in 2005, the number rose by only 3 percentage points, according to the National Association for Law Placement.

Penn State Dickinson School of Law spokeswoman Kelly Jones said the current first-year class is 47 percent women and 53 percent men, which is "standard."

Gicine Brignola, assistant dean for career services at Dickinson, said she is not surprised by the findings but said it is "a very complicated issue."

"In terms of large law firms, the way they generally operate is not particularly satisfactory to men and women," she said.

Law firms are successful in getting associates in the door, but Brignola said the problem is retaining employees. She added that this would typically hit women harder because there are fewer women in the business to begin with.

Brignola said that although the numbers are roughly even, national percentages for male and female enrollment were not even in law schools until almost 2002.

She added that at the moment, men in large law firms are generally in power, and senior male attorneys need to decide whether they would rather mentor a young man who may be their "legacy" or a woman who might not be sure if the career is for her.

Brignola said a large majority of women are "pipeliners -- go straight from college to law school," and at such a young age, they may not consider all of the facts.

"They could come to a crossroad if and when they start a family and may decide that they don't want to have a nanny," she said.

Minority Undergraduate Law Association President Justin Storey (senior-economics) is currently enrolled in Economics 436 (Economics of Discrimination).

He notes "informal job training" as one key reason for the results of the survey.

"When you network in big companies, the social activities are usually at football games or bars ... activities that may exclude women," Storey said.

One solution would be to start enacting formal job training, in which every associate is assigned a mentee on a random basis, Storey said. He added that this would reduce social and gender discrimination in large law firms where promotion usually rests on personal networking.

Storey said there is also a 15-year lag time before the statistics of employment at upper law firms match what graduation ratios are, which could account for a small percentage of the differences the survey found.

In addition, he noted that women are more likely to be "discontinuous workers" because of life cycles in regards to family life and child bearing.

Brignola said the profession as a whole is studying the dissatisfactory figures and has faith the numbers will improve. She added that overall statistics show women perform better than men do in grade school, high school and law school.

"Law firms will want the very top of the class, and they will find ways to make it work," she said.