By Karen Hester
CEO, The Center for Legal Inclusiveness


I first read this quote on a protestor's sign and thought it fit in well with the theme of Process Improvement. When I think about those underrepresented in the legal profession, particularly women in leadership positions at law firms, I consider those individuals, policies and structures which have "buried" them, prevented or hindered their progress.  But continuing in the same vein as the quote, just like a seed can't grow without water, sunshine and nutrients, neither can underrepresented attorneys advance in the profession without outside assistance, regardless of how hardy and resilient the seed is. 

According to NAWL's 2017 Annual Survey Report, white women comprise only 17 percent of equity partners (with women of color topping out at 2 percent).[2]  According to a NLJ 2016 survey of the top 250 law firms, only five have women "accounting for more than 25 percent of their equity partners."[3] Between graduating from law school (women are 50% of graduates), entering the profession (women are 46% of associates) and rising in leadership roles (women are 12% of managing partners of top 100 firms[4]), women are being buried.  

For women (and other underrepresented attorneys) to bloom, behavioral, cultural, and...

[1] http://jhfearless.com/2014/11/they-tried-to-bury-us-they-didnt-know-we-were-seeds/
[3] https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Women-in-Law-White-Paper-FINAL-May-31-2016.pdf
[4] http://www.lawpracticetoday.org/article/law-firm-womens-initiatives-ineffective-firms-can-fix/

OCTOBER 20 @ 10AM

Managing time--simple in theory, much MUCH harder in practice. There is so much information out there. How do you process it? And, better yet, how do you act on it?

Join us for a FREE discussion
to take a closer look at time management.
 




 

By Judy Hissong, CLM
President, Nesso Strategies
Founder, Legal Leadership Institute

"The law firm of 2025 will not have a particular size, talent, or make up, or revenue.  It will be the best at implementing change." This quote comes from a session where the Denton's Global Chair and the Microsoft Associate General Counsel were sharing the stage with their international colleagues in the audience. Implementing change. Blasphemy in an industry built on mitigating risk?
 
So what has to happen for change to be more comfortable? Here's where...