The economy seems to be on the upswing again for a number of women associates who were promoted to partner this year at major law firms: More than one-third of this year's new partners, among the 118 law firms surveyed by the Project for Attorney Retention, were female, up from 28 percent in 2009.

But while three BigLaw firms atop "The Best" list promoted classes that were 100 percent female, 14 others among "The Worst" promoted all-male classes. A press release (PDF) about the survey names names.

"The increase in the number of women promoted to partner is heartening," says Cynthia Thomas Calvert, who serves as director of research for PAR, in the release.

"But two factors indicate that celebration would be premature," she continues. "First, the overall number of women partners in law firms remains low, at approximately 19%. Second, this survey made no distinction between equity and non-equity partnership, and other studies have shown that an even lower percentage of equity partners are female."