Plaintiffs’ lawyers appointed to lead multi-district litigation are starting to come from outside what some critics have called the “Good Ol’ Boys” network. The change is fairly recent: From 2011 to 2016, women made up on average 17 percent of all appointments, according to a 2017 report called “Vying for the Lead in the Boys’ Club: Understanding the Gender Gap in Multi-district Leadership Appointments.” What’s happened? Some women and minority attorneys have struck out on their own to get appointments, while many firms are diversifying their hiring or pitching new faces to MDL judges, half of whom were women or minorities last year. Napoli Shkolnik PLLC is among the law firms with the most women appointed to an MDL from 2016 to 2017. Download