The editorial staff of The Legal has always been aware that the hiring and retention of female attorneys is an ongoing issue in the legal community. In an effort to discuss some of the specific problems facing female attorneys and present potential solutions to those problems, we invited eight practitioners to talk about how to bolster the role of women in the law. Since videoconferencing has become the norm in our post-COVID world, we opted to once again hold the discussion via Zoom.
This year, the panelists tackled attrition and how to reverse the trend, working from home and setting boundaries with family members and clients, utilizing mentors to reach career goals, and how being underestimated by male colleagues and clients affects them. Finally, the panel discussed ways to build relationships to gain respect and to use their unique talents in this evolving landscape. The group's takeaways included these five key words: authenticity, boundaries, communication, integrity and relationships.
Danielle Mundekis, the director of inclusion at Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, moderated the discussion. Editors selected the panelists from a number of volunteers. The transcript has been lightly edited for space and clarification. Excerpts from the discussion follow.
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Stephanie Kaplan: Danielle, I am happy to add a little bit. This is Stephanie Kaplan from Blank Rome. Nice to see you all. I agree wholeheartedly with what Heather said, and also with what Aleena said. You asked, Danielle, in part of your question, what has kept me in the career, and it is personal relationships. And so, for me, that's the mentors and the sponsors, and also the friendships I have made, and am making, as Aleena said, those personal connections. I know, like Aleena said, my whole team, my fellow partners and also my associates, I know about their families. I know about their interests. And, I encourage the associates, they have a lot of valuable tools, as Heather was saying, to teach the partners, and I try to empower them like look, you know how to use the AI a lot more than the partners do… There are a lot of things newer lawyers can do to better foster a relationship with people, and then those people are going to be even more engaged and willing to mentor them. And I am someone who had great female mentors and male mentors, and I think, because of my age, I am really lucky, and I think women who are more senior in their careers may not have had a female mentor. And so I really try to prioritize in my practice being a mentor for younger lawyers because that's I think what really keeps us all in the law.
Kaplan: I have another piece of advice. Another thing that I do to protect boundaries, and I encourage, the people I work with to do, is if you are unavailable, just stating you have a meeting is sufficient, right, and whether that's a client meeting, a personal appointment, you have to be at your kids school, yoga class, whatever it is you are doing during that meeting, you don't need to share it with everyone, and they are not entitled to that information, right. "I am unavailable at 9 a.m., happy to meet any time 10 to 1" is perfectly sufficient. And that's something I try to mentor. I think that sometimes younger attorneys are so nervous to say no, and I say you don't have to say no to the meeting, just provide an alternative window. No one even thinks twice about that when you are shooting emails back and forth, but it can allow you to, make sure you are serving your personal life and your professional life.
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"2024 Women in Law Roundtable Discussion," was published in The Legal Intelligencer on October 15, 2024.
