BR Women Leads Firm Women Initiative
BR Women provides our women attorneys with valuable professional development, mentorship and sponsorship, leadership, and client development opportunities that support and promote career growth and advancement, with coaching and strategies to thrive—both inside and outside of our firm.
We are proud that our women attorneys and women senior professionals are consistently ranked and recognized for their professional accomplishments in their respective fields of practice by leading legal industry and business publications and surveys, such as Chambers USA, Chambers High Net Worth, Chambers Global, Legal 500, Benchmark Litigation, Law360, Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and local business journals, to name a few. Equally important, our BR Women members are active in the bar and their communities, and generous in their support of one another.
Through our quarterly BR Women meetings, Women’s Business Development Academy, and other enrichment activities, we work to meet our goals, which include fostering the next generation of women leaders in our firm through retention and promotion efforts, supporting women in client relationship development, creating a positive and supportive network of women, highlighting our successes, and working together to advance our firm’s strategic plan. This includes the original HERstory initiative that highlights how Blank Rome is much more than a sum of its parts. We regularly honor the career achievements and personal milestones of a woman attorney, with anecdotes and tributes by colleagues woven together into HERstory.
Each office also has a local women network, which works to engage women across all offices and practice groups, while also helping BR Women assess priorities and focus resources. In addition, BR Women regularly collaborates with the firm’s other affinity groups to support overlapping membership and be mindful of intersectionality considerations.
We are also deeply committed to connecting with our leading women clients to find innovative solutions for advancing women and addressing today’s top industry issues. We have hosted our Women’s Leadership Summit annually since 2017, drawing hundreds of women leaders in law and business nationally to discuss challenges related to the ever-evolving legal and corporate landscape. We also host notable events with our women clients, such as our BR Women Bootcamps.
In addition to our firm-wide initiatives and client programs, we are proud to participate in innovative programs and partnerships aimed at advancing women throughout the legal industry at large. Notably, our firm is an active participant in Diversity Lab’s industry-leading diversity and inclusion initiatives, including the Mansfield Rule program, which measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered at least 30 percent women, attorneys of color, attorneys with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ attorneys for governance roles, equity partner promotions, formal client pitch opportunities, and senior lateral positions. We have also participated in other Diversity Lab programming, including the Women in Law Hackathon and Women in Law Hackathon Alliance (both of which bring law firms, students, and industry professionals from across the country together to increase gender parity in the top ranks of the legal profession).
In recognition of our leadership in promoting family-friendly policies, and career and business development initiatives aimed at advancing and retaining women in the legal industry, our firm has been named a Best Law Firm for Women by Seramount (formerly Working Mother Media), recognized in Yale Law Women’s Top Firms for Gender Equity & Family Friendliness Report, and listed in Exelon’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Honor Roll. Blank Rome also achieved Mansfield Certification Plus after successfully completing Diversity Lab’s yearlong Mansfield Rule program and we are participating in Diversity Lab’s newest iteration of the program.
BR Women also recognizes attorneys and professionals for their significant contributions to women’s advocacy and leadership, both at the firm and in their communities, through the Bonnie Glantz Fatell Women’s Advocacy and Leadership Award, established in 2020 and awarded annually. Past winners include Shawn M. Wright, Stacy D. Phillips, and Susan L. Bickley.
BR Women Co-Chairs:
To learn more about our women’s initiatives, please contact Kate Tavella at kate.tavella@blankrome.com or 215.988.6988.