Market Areas > Practice Management > Woman Lawyers

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Advancing Women into Law Firm Leadership: Strategies for Firm and Lawyer Success

Course Description:

Women lawyers are still "terribly underrepresented" in the upper ranks of large law firms.  In fact, since 1995, the number of women partners at law firms has only increased 3 percent.

Yet, an increasing number of Fortune 500 legal departments have clearly stated that diversity is absolutely a factor in evaluation and selection of outside counsel. 

Companies like Sara Lee, KeyCorp, Walmart, Shell Oil, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, DuPont, American Airlines, Pitney Bowes, Gap, Eli Lily, and International Paper, among others, are putting pressure on their outside counsel to embrace diversity and follow suit.

Law firms that do not take diversity seriously will be at a competitive disadvantage.  Your commitment to diversity could make the difference between attracting, retaining or losing a large corporate client.  In short, your diversity commitment affects your firm’s bottom line.

This highly informative audio conference addresses the unique challenges women face in the practice of law and presents best practice methods for advancing women lawyers into successful, leadership roles.

Law firm leaders will learn real-world approaches to the career development of their women lawyers, including:

• Breaking the barriers of perceived gender bias that limits promotions, hinders mentoring, and gets in the way of advancing female attorneys,
• Helping women lawyers advance their law career and enhance client-service by applying leadership skills,
• Designing targeted initiatives to address associate career path and partner development challenges, and
• Maximizing your firm's reputation as one that is leading the way in gender diversity.

During this solution-oriented program, women lawyers will also learn key techniques to:

• Market yourself as a leader inside the firm
• Manage client and lawyer perceptions by addressing behaviors perceived as ‘weak’ or ‘womanly’
• Address and manage work/life balance issues
• Set a strategic plan to meet your career growth and leadership goals
• Side step (or smash) the barriers stopping you from landing high profile assignments
• Network inside and outside the firm (including online)
• Understand and avoid the ‘gotchas’ of hidden politics at the firm

Featured Faculty:

Ida Abbott, Ida Abbott Consulting, LLC

Ida Abbott has been helping professional service firms, professional associations and corporations develop, manage and retain legal talent since 1995. She is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of mentoring, leadership and professional development, and is a Fellow of the College of Law Practice Management.

Ida has long been at the forefront of efforts to promote women in the legal profession. She is co-founder and Director of the Hastings Leadership Academy for Women at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, where she is also a Faculty Fellow. Ida is co-Chair of the Women in Law Empowerment Forum, serves on the Advisory Board of the New York Women’s Bar Association Foundation and is on the Editorial Board of www.WomeninLaw.com. She is a member of the National Association of Women Lawyers’ committee investigating efforts to promote the retention and advancement of women in the legal profession globally. Her new book on women and law firm leadership will be published in the spring, 2010.

Dawn Siler-Nixon, Diversity and Inclusion Partner, Ford & Harrison LLP

Dawn Siler-Nixon has represented employers in litigating labor and employment law matters for more than 16 years. Her practice focuses on litigating discrimination and harassment cases in federal and state litigation, as well as union election campaigns, including preparing anti-union campaigns and appealing certification. She has handled trials in state and federal court, arbitrations and trials of representation cases and unfair labor practice charges involving non-competes, wage and hour violations, sexual harassment, family and medical leave issues, retaliation, disability, and discrimination based on any protected characteristic. Dawn has also successfully represented employers before local, state and federal agencies.

In addition, Dawn counsels employers in a variety of issues, including discrimination/retaliation in the workplace, employee terminations, the drafting of employment and separation agreements, and general employment policies and procedures. She also conducts internal investigations of employee-relations matters, as well as training sessions for managers and employees concerning diversity, harassment and EEO issues as well as anti-union campaigns.

MARÍA D. MELÉNDEZ, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP

MARÍA D. MELÉNDEZ, a partner in the New York office, joined the firm’s litigation practice in 1993. Her practice focuses on commercial litigation matters, including securities and patent litigation, representing global public companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and an international treaty organization in disputes relating to breach of contract, fraud, negligence, fiduciary duty, products liability, patent infringement, and unfair competition. Her securities litigation experience includes matters representing individuals, public companies, investment banks, broker-dealers, directors and officers, and corporate issuers in their defense of actions arising under the federal securities laws. She has also handled arbitrations in various fora involving domestic and foreign parties.

Ms. Meléndez serves as New York Chair of the firm-wide Diversity Committee and is a member of the firm's Hiring Committee. She also served as Co-Chair of the firm’s Summer Committee from 2002-June 2006.

MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE:

Pricing:

Unable to Attend? Order the CD!

Your CD recording includes the complete audio conference presentation, audience Q&A and presentation materials.

CLE:

CCM provides audio conference attendees with CLE credit processing services. To expedite CCM processing your CLE request, please complete and submit the evaluation form available from CCM at the conclusion of the audio conference. It will be necessary to enter the following information: name of each attorney requesting CLEs with full contact information, including e-mail address, bar number, and the state in which the attorney wants credits. Each attorney requesting credits must submit an evaluation.

Please be advised CCM audio conferences are subject to approval from each CLE issuing organization and approval is not guaranteed (state bar associations in Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania do not grant CLE credits for audio conferences). The approval process takes approximately 6 - 8 weeks for most organizations but can take as long as 3 - 4 months. You will be notified via e-mail with the final status of your CLE application.

Any person applying for CLE credits must attend the audio conference from start to finish (attendance will be taken for compliance reasons). Requests for CLE credits must be received no later than two weeks following the conclusion of the audio conference or live conference. CLE credits are not available for CD recordings.

If you have any questions regarding CLE credits, contact Jill Adler at 631.368.2082 x 21 or jill.adler@meeting-matters.com.

Each CCM event presents a variety of information and is presented for each organization to develop its own approach and methodology.