WLAM: Women Lawyers Association of Michigan

How Women Can Own Their Own Success:

Thank you for hosting me today. It is always a high point in my own development when I can share my experiences and successes with other women lawyers. My goal today is for you to learn from my experiences from coaching hundreds of men and women, working on my firm’s diversity initiative, and conducting exit interviews for everyone who has left in the past four years. In addition, I hope this is an opportunity for all of us to learn from each other. This is not rocket science, it’s a sharing of experiences and viewpoints.

First, I’ll give a bit of my background. After graduating from Northwestern Law School, I wanted to practice employment law. Unfortunately, I ended up as a general litigator, which I did not view as a long-term career path. After three years, I gave up on getting the job experiences I sought at my first firm and lateraled to a known employment-law firm in Chicago. My experiences at both firms were disappointing, in terms of substantive work, mentoring and development. I began to practice law after working in Human Resources. I have to admit—I had no idea how law firms were managed until I worked in one. As an associate, I felt like nobody cared if I succeeded, nobody cared if I failed. If I did succeed, nobody could take credit, and if I failed, it would be my failure and no one else’s. I left the practice of law to go into Human Resource Consulting. I felt I had so much knowledge and “gut instinct” in that area, that I’d be much better at helping firms and companies manage effectively. It turns out, I was right. After consulting to law firms, I finally joined one, in part to decrease the amount of time I was on the road away from my growing family.

Now, I am Director of Professional Development at Baker & McKenzie Chicago. I create the training programs, including client development training, oversee the evaluation process for attorneys, perform all the exit interviews for Baker Chicago and run the office’s women’s initiative. In my role at Baker, I work with management to focus on two things: v Developing all attorneys so that everyone is invested in someone else’s success, as well as their own—because it’s all inter-related in a true team environment; andv Developing the Firm so that all attorneys, especially women, have the best chance to stay with Baker & McKenzie and spend their careers, happily, at our Firm.

So have we been successful? And if so, how does that link to all of you and how you Own your success? While it’s a long road, I think we have found our path, and we are making headway. Today at Baker Chicago, over 50% of our associates are female, and of our 10-person new partner class announced January 1, 40% are women (and 30% minority). On a national level, 48% of our new partner class is women. And at the equity partner level, which is currently being voted on and formalized, our office has a slate that is 50% women. We have cut our attrition in half in an 18-month period, and the exit interviews I conduct are no longer the painful, depressing experiences they used to be—hearing all the ways our Firm just wasn’t a good place, or at least not a good place for women. So I’m going to share with you today two things—what we have done to support women’s success, and how we’ve trained women to own their own success. The women who have made partner here made it because they are the complete package—and while we as a Firm have made it a more supportive environment, they are smart, dedicated women who have made the sacrifices necessary, built the relationships necessary and mastered their respective areas of law that allowed the Firm to promote them. In supporting women in their quest to succeed, which is, by the way, how I’ve come to define success for myself, there are certain situations that I see fairly often.

Here are some situations I saw when I joined the firm, not always just with women.

1. Let’s talk about some situations you might be in now, let’s say you are at your firm for the short-term, you want to stay until you have children, but you don’t really want to be on a partner track.

2. You want to make partner, but you never feel you are asked to join the client teams and get the high profile opportunities.

3. You think you are partner track, but you don’t really know. Nothing is communicated in your evaluation to make you think otherwise, but your firm isn’t giving you specific direction about what’s going to get you put up for partner.

In terms of the hypotheticals I gave above, I think these situations come up all the time at every law firm. But we are trying to handle them on a consistent, open basis.

First, the lawyer who doesn’t want to be partnership track. Where the workload merits it, attorneys at Baker can become staff attorneys. They are sort of career associates, but we want to know where they stand so they don’t clog up the path for those on track to make partner. They can be subject matter experts and handle clients, but the emphasis on developing and growing client relationships is minimized. We still need sufficient numbers of people on partnership track, but for the few people every few years who want to stay with our Firm, good subject matter experts are tough to find.

The second scenario—the woman who wants to make partner but isn’t getting on the high profile client teams and isn’t building the book of business. We created a client development institute, a 9-month program that we will run every year. We wanted everyone to have equal opportunity to the skills needed. Then we offer coaching and advising to help participants develop and execute on their business plans. We have a former equity partner, a woman, and member of the executive committee of a large law firm on retainer to assist everyone, but especially our women and minorities, on these issues. We train them to leverage their ability to build long-lasting relationships and to multi-task to be just as successful as men. And just as importantly, we advise them to make sure they have male mentors, as well as women, to get full access to all the firm’s existing clients.

Now for the third scenario, the woman on partner track who doesn’t really know where she’s headed. For this situation, we created what we call, “Pipeline discussions.” We have publicly announced that all associate, 5th year and up, and all of our non-equity partners, are entitled, note the use of the word “entitled” to answers to three questions: 1. Am I on track for partner? 2. When will I be considered for partner? 3. What do I need to do to make sure that happens? Each Practice Group Chair is asked to share the information communicated in each pipeline discussion in his or her group to the Management Committee, to ensure that everything that is communicated is shared with management. That’s what we’ve done in Chicago, and I think those have been real keys to our success in terms of attrition and getting women to partnership; however, the women have also played a key role in taking responsibility for asking for what they need, communicating their perceived goals, and being willing to change and flex as needed.

Before I detail how you can own your own success, I’d like to spend some time talking about WHY women should own their own success, and why we might want to define our own measure of success by success in a law firm. In recent articles and discussions, senior women attorneys pointed out that many women are changing careers and taking alternative lawyer positions or working for nonprofits after leaving large law firms. Ida Abbott, a California - based attorney and consultant to law firms, has noted that women who leave the law firms are missing out on an opportunity to change the profession. Make no mistake, private practice is not for everyone, but for those that are in private practice but conflicted due to perceived barriers to succeed, that’s where you’ll walk out of here today, hopefully, with some guidance and courage to keep working at it. Wherever you work, whether it is a state agency, not for profit, law school, or any other organization, your success creates power. Your success grants you flexibility. By owning and achieving your own success, you earn the right to make changes, work a funky schedule, get an extra assistant, whatever it is that you need to make it all work. There are personal, political and financial reasons for women to stay in the game. Personally speaking, many women find great satisfaction in their legal practices. I know just as many women attorneys as male attorneys, and maybe even more, who are driven to succeed and truly love their jobs. Maybe it’s because we have to be SO committed to stick it out, to succeed in a male-dominated profession that those of still here have to really love what we do.. Although this career may not be right for everyone, surely it can be the right career for just as many women as men. And as an example, I have to say, I like going to work each day. I truly like what I do. And when each Monday comes, as long as I’ve had enough sleep, I happily give me little kids kisses and hugs, and brave Chicago public transportation and unpredictable weather to go downtown to Baker & McKenzie. I’m a hybrid—I’ve stayed in, but in an alternative way, and I have found great satisfaction in doing so.

Financially speaking, becoming an equity partner in a law firm can be pretty lucrative—a partner working a reduced schedule will still earn more than a law school professor, a states attorney, an attorney for a not-for-profit, or many other legal jobs. I’m not saying that money is everything, but as women are still making 77% on the dollar of every man, this is something to consider, especially in light of the fact that women live longer than men. While the wage gap is significantly smaller than 20 years ago, there is still more work to be done.

A 1993 study in the Journal of Labor Economics revealed that that the large wage gap between male and female attorneys, all 15 years past graduation from the University of Michigan Law School could not be explained. The men earned 52% more than women. So, basically, a female U of M Law grad making $150,000 might have sat next to a classmate with the same grades and the same parenting responsibilities who, fifteen years later, was making $225,000. Even when the study controlled for school performance, childcare duties, time out of the profession for parenting, it still could not account for ¼ to 1/3 of the wage gap. A wage gap of nearly 20% simply could not be explained away.

Now, you might say, well, that’s a 14 year old study, and a lot has changed. Well, I hate to break it to you, but not a lot has changed. In a more recent study performed by the New York State Bar Association in 2001, of lawyers in private practice, 71% of males and only 48% of females earned over $100,000. Looking at hours billed per year, females billed 10% less annually, but billed out at a rate 15% lower than males. Women in private practice were more likely to be on committees focusing on diversity and associate issues, but were much less likely to be on “ the big committees”--executive management, partnership selection or business development committees. And from the political perspective, I go back to the mantra that the personal is political.

For every personal reason that I just outlined, every woman who is making 52% less than a man for the same legal work, I go back to the old adage from the late 60’s women’s movement: “The personal is political”. This came from an article written by Carol Hanisch, in which she wrote about the importance of women sharing their experiences in what used to be called “consciousness-raising groups” as part of the women’s movement’s developing agenda. At that time, nay-sayers called those groups “therapy”. Now they are called Women’s Affinity groups. Well, law firms use that term, anyway. And I think, whatever they are called, these groups have withstood the test of time. Women still find a reason to meet, whether it’s to form women’s marketing initiatives, put together women’s professional development programs, or simply to share their trials, tribulations and successes, efforts to support women do seem to reduce the numbers of women leaving. A more recent read of the now-famous article dubbed, the Personal is Political, gave me some reasons to encourage women lawyers, my peers and my protégés, to stay on the road to success. Because each one of us, simply by staying, simply by succeeding, something that comes naturally to, I am guessing, 99.9% of the women in this room are making a political statement. The statement that women are equal, that women can succeed. If we each make the effort to stay in the game, bill out at the same hourly rate as our male peers, and get paid the same as our male peers, we are helping everyone else that follows in our path. Because our personal situations are, in fact, political opportunities.

I know it’s no longer to talk about it in this way, but women can still have an impact on future generations, and we still have a ways to go. So let’s talk about how we can do this. Now, I know we all went to law school when we were twelve, but I have to ask: How many of you are more than then years out of law school? How many of you are in private practice? How many of you are at law firms in which 50% of the partners are women? I ask these questions because we can play a significant role in achieving this goal. If you are more than 10 years out, you can play a leadership role in your firm, in your courtroom, in your not-for-profit, to make it the kind of place where you are proud to recruit women. The kind of place that rewards and develops women leaders. When you stick around to be a trendsetter, to be the first or second or tenth woman equity partner on a reduced schedule or with a book of business or with five children, you are showing others that it can be done. You are showing firm management it can be done, and you are showing the women that follow in your path that it can be done.

One example of this is another large Chicago firm that lacked women in its top management. A women equity partner approached the managing partner and brought the issue to his attention. Her recommendation: expand the management committee a bit. That way, no man would be threatened by the loss of his seat, but a woman could gain a seat at the table. The managing partner immediately agreed. Now, every time the executive committee is up for election, the women partners meet separately, identify who among them is interest in being on the committee and having informal primaries to ensure any woman or women that run have enough support to get at least one female candidate on there. And sure enough, they generally have two women on their executive committee at any time.

First, let’s talk about why Firms should care and work to keep and promote women. Retention of women means that firms can avoid the app. $200,000 loss that occurs when the average associate leaves. Retention of women means more consistent service to the Firm’s clients. Retention of women means your firm will be better able to attract the best and the brightest from law schools, especially when more than half of law school graduates are women, and when the graduates of Harvard Law School in the top 10% include significantly more women than men. Finally, many clients are companies that have their own diversity initiatives and require that minorities and women work on their matters. Firms that do not have the numbers are actually being cut off the companies’ approved law firm lists. What companies? Oh companies you might have heard of. . . Sara Lee, Wal-Mart, General Motors. You get the idea. How many of you work for organizations that already recognize the importance of retaining and promoting women? How many of you work at places that still need to wake up and smell the coffee? This gives us all a chance to think about how much work needs to be done, but let’s talk about how you can help make the environments and management more hospitable to women.

There are, I think, four guiding principles for firms to follow to make them hospitable environments for women to succeed, and I believe the four principals are closely linked to how you can own your own success. We sometimes get too caught up in the barriers of an organization, when what we really need to do is look in a mirror and examine what role we play in keeping the status quo and playing the victim’s role, rather than a leader or innovator’s role. Just as a Firm must be open to change to continue to be successful, we must be open to changing ourselves to be successful as well. Here are the four issues firms need to pay attention to, and that you can help your firm address:

1. Flexibility

2. Respect for Talent

3. Honest and Open Communication

4. A Business Model that works (succession planning, delegation and client dev’t training)

First, flexibility. Firms that recognize that all attorneys, not just women, need flexibility will be most successful in attracting and developing women. Allowing all attorneys, at all levels, to work something other than a 2000 hour schedule or at places other than the office is key. For those of you working in a firm that does not recognize this, firms faced with losing talent will wake up when their workforce starts demanding it and giving the business reasons for making it work. From a flexibility standpoint, a book published by NALP, “Solving the Part-Time Puzzle” by Joan Williams and Cynthia Thomas Calvert provides some nice worksheets on how to make the business case for flexibility. These worksheets can help any firm make the business case for keeping attorneys who want to work reduced schedules, because the alternative is not working full-time schedules—it is losing those with attorneys. Men and women often talk with their feet, but that’s not always as loud as demanding what they want and need, and making the business case for it. Attorneys in our office work from home, work out of state, telecommute half time due to spouses living elsewhere, and take longer maternity leaves than in those alternative legal careers I mentioned. One attorney wanted to take the year to move to another part of the country due to a husband's job change. Rather than quitting, she asked for a one-year leave of absence, which was granted. She took one year off, had a second child, and then returned to the Chicago office, where he/she has since made partner. Part of the success here is that this attorney asked for the flexibility, rather than assuming she would never get her request granted. If your Firm is not truly buying in to the flexibility argument, I would do two things: first, go to the NALP.org website and buy the book, the Part-Time Puzzle. Make your business case to support reduced hours arrangements. And second, tell your law firm leaders, or for those who are law-firm leaders, consider this for your partners: we cut our attrition in half when we started paying attention. Paying attention to our attorneys demanding flexibility, and paying attention to the mentoring that they needed—more on that one in #2. . .

2. Respect for Talent. The Firms that get it right treat their first year associate as future leaders and partners. Women’s groups get more than a conference room and free lunch, they get a budget to put together valuable programs and support from the marketing department to make sure clients are invited. Firms that respect their talent make sure evaluations are timely and thoughtful, have formal training, informal mentoring, and strive for low attrition (as opposed to simply necessary to their business model).3. Honest and open communication. Firms that provide feedback and evaluations that are consistent, honest (even when the news is tough to deliver) will earn the respect of their talent. Firms that can acknowledge they have made mistakes in the past in terms of keeping and promoting women, but that continue to state their dedication to the issue at every opportunity are showing that they are paying attention.4. A Business Model that works (succession planning, delegation and client dev’t training). Women on the path to success want what everyone else wants—a road to follow. A business model that considers succession planning in both clients they serve and internal firm leadership will stay strong, even as Baby Boomers retire; A business model that supports delegation of work down to promote a true leveraged partnership, rather than stressing billable hours at the top; A business model that believes anyone with the right training and habits can be a skilled client developer—and invests in that training accordingly-is a place where any woman can succeed.
But for those of you without a seat at the table, you now want to know how you can make sure all of those things happen to ensure you can succeed where you are. Basically, the way you own your success is by living by and helping your firm or organization live by the tips I just discussed. I’m going to go over those principles again, but this time I’m going to discuss the ways that you can apply them personally. I’ll say it again—because I think the personal truly is political. You will succeed in changing your firm or agency for the better if you can own your success. #1 Flexibility—Flexibility means being available for what’s needed. If you are on an 80% schedule, that means 80% over the course of the year in most law practices, not 80% each day, every day, according to your preferred schedule. Being flexible enough to be available to your clients will make them experience you just like they experience any other of their favorite attorneys—sometimes in meetings, deals or depositions, but generally around and not too difficult to reach when needed. No client likes hearing the message, “I am not available on Fridays, but will call you back on Monday.” Flexibility means changing deadlines to suit others, changing travel schedules as needed, and making choices that we don’t always want to make. #2 Respect for Talent—Successful attorneys spend the time thinking about keeping talent. A successful attorney, especially a successful law firm partner creates what my Firm likes to call, “progeny.” Develop your trusted talent so that you can entrust the work to them and pay attention to nurturing, and expanding the client relationship. Don’t just give them the parts of the deal or case you don’t like, give them the whole thing, only when they are ready and only with appropriate supervision. Take pride in their success and feel your own failure when or if they do not succeed. We are all aware of the Queen Bee stereotype, I assume. It’s an opportunity for all of us to destroy that stereotype and make it the strong example instead.

#3 Honest and open communication. This is one of my favorites. I said earlier that firms needed to support honest and timely performance evaluations. Likewise, so do you. If you supervise others, you need to give informal feedback, all the time. If you are asked to complete evaluations, that means using specific examples and taking the time to fill them out thoroughly. And that also means asking for feedback—ask your supervisors, practice group chairs and management committees for ways to improve. Ask for leadership opportunities. Tell those in power what you want to achieve and ask their help in achieving them. Identify your own mentors, of even more preferable, your own Board of Directors. Most women would love to have women partners as mentors; however, with women being less than 20% of law firm partners, it’s just not going to happen for everyone. More realistic and more beneficial, identify a variety of people to advise you on different areas and take their advice and come to your own conclusions. And, considering the gender issue, make sure you have male mentors. If you leave out the men from these roles on your “Board of Directors,” you are leaving out over 80% of law firm partners simply based on THEIR gender. If you are missing out on opportunities and you don’t know why, take the time and courage to confront those leaving you out and ask why. The real answer may have nothing to do with gender, but may have something to do with a behavior, a habit, or something else that you may have done or currently do that makes you difficult to work with. These are never easy messages to hear, but making the effort to achieve honest communication will take you far. It doesn’t mean you’ll be able to make those changes, but at least you will have that opportunity. I can’t tell you how many times I have women complaining to me about how they are being mistreated, when, in truth, they have no awareness of how they are perceived. I have one dear friend, an equity partner, who knows exactly how she’s perceived (and it’s not all positive), and as a result, has focused externally on good work for her clients because she knows she’s never been good at developing and mentoring attorneys internally. She hasn’t changed that much, but she’s able to leverage off her strengths, bringing in and servicing clients, rather than focusing on her weaknesses, which involve her mentoring others.

#4 A Business Model that Works. You are part of the business model at all levels. Your role changes as you become more senior. Acknowledge that. Embrace that. For most lawyers in private practice, you will want to delegate work down as you climb the ladder. You will need to develop project management, leadership and general management skills. Those of you who want to be career associates, simply billing time, may well be able to stay and do that; however, that is not the key to law firm success in the traditional success. If that’s what you want to do, revert to Principle 3 and communicate that honestly. Perhaps you can go to a Counsel position where that’s what you can do. But at most law, non-profits or governmental positions, there are additional responsibilities; whether they are training, supervisory, strategy and management or client development, the expectations increase as you become more senior.

One of the most disappointing things I see in my role is the attorney who just can’t develop to the next level. They want the raise each year, but are either unable or unwilling to spread their wings. Embracing your organization’s business model means taking on new things, taking risks and constantly changing. If you are invited to attend leadership training, take that as a sign of the potential your superiors see in you. If your firm is offering client development training, approach that as a skill you need to learn to succeed. Rather than coming up with all the reasons why these requests are too difficult or too taxing or not worthwhile, take a risk and put yourself out there. Open yourself to new opportunities. Again, showing how you can flex. If you want to know how to succeed, the answer is in yourself—it’s to reach your potential, and to always strive to do more.

Sometimes your organization won’t see your potential, but that’s because nobody’s looking—you must self-promote for people to pay attention. The tricky thing about most private practice business models is that every one is expected to want the same thing and get it on their own. Although that’s almost impossible, someone who knows what she wants and can ask for it, make the business case for it, and hold up her end of the bargain is going to succeed—in whatever way she defines success. And however you define your success, I hope you achieve it and can help others in achieving it as well.