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What sparked your interest in law?

I initially became interested in immigration law in college while doing my thesis on immigration policy. After graduating from college, I wanted to work in the legal field for a few years before attending law school in order to understand what exactly lawyers do. So, I worked as a paralegal at the District Attorney's office in New York for three years. I admired what the Assistant District Attorneys did in the criminal law environment and decided to pursue law school at Northeastern University for a joint JD/MBA.

What made you decide to get a joint JD/MBA?

A professor of mine in college was adamant that, in order for women or Hispanics to advance faster, it would be better for them to go into business, rather than law. That stuck with me as I made the ambitious decision to get a dual degree; in hindsight, it was one of the best decisions that I made in my career.

Fortune Magazine came out with its issue naming the "2011 Businessperson of the Year," as well as 49 runners-up. As one would expect, the 50 individuals featured by Fortune are extraordinary leaders who have attained exceptional results for their respective businesses. What’s remarkable about this list, however, is that only four of the 50 businesspeople are women.

Women comprise almost half of the workforce, yet they account for only 6% of corporate CEOs and top executive positions, as noted in the January 2011 report by David A. Matsa and Amalia Miller entitled “Chipping Away at the Glass Ceiling: Gender Spillovers in Corporate Leadership.” At law firms, barely 15% of equity partners are women – a level that has not improved over many years, according to an October 2011 survey by The National Association of Women Lawyers and The NAWL Foundation. Although women have made much progress toward achieving equality in the workplace, we still have a long way to go. We would be wise to continue to focus our energy on identifying and addressing gender disparities at the highest levels of corporate America.

Congratulations to Irene B. Rosenfeld, Christine M. Day, Carol Meyrowitz, and Angela Ahrendts on their selection to Fortune’s list – and on the achievements for which they were selected.
 

To the readers of our blog who may be in health care and its related fields and industry, we wanted to introduce you all to the Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation ("WBL"). This nonprofit's outreach and misson is to help senior executive women in the health care industry improve their businesses and continue to grow professionally. Our law partner Lynn Shapiro Synder is the founder of the WBL. Check out the website, and to those of us in the business of health care, the WBL might be an organization for you!

Wanted to give a “shout out” to the wonderful work of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL). On July 20, 2011, the EpsteinBeckerGreen Women’s Initiative was privileged to sponsor a “Night of Giving” in conjunction with NAWL's Annual Meeting. For those professional women who read this blog and who are lawyers, NAWL is an organization that is about us and for us and – another good and professional way to network with successful women! The “Night of Giving” is a way that women attorneys, all of whom are members of NAWL, assist women and girls in various projects and organizations around the country that espouse the cause and champion the efforts of women in various academic and professional disciplines.

This most recent NAWL event was dedicated to benefitting the work of the Young Women’s Leadership Network (YWLN), a nonprofit organization that supports programs focused on helping urban youth break the cycle of poverty through college readiness and college access. Attendees at the event, who had been asked to bring various school supplies – from pens and pencils to thumb drives and phone cards – chatted, laughed, and listened to speakers as they wrapped journals to which they added their personal words of encouragement for the recipients. Speaking at the event, EBG partner Amy J. Traub, expressed the firm’s appreciation for the strong partnership that exists between NAWL and the EpsteinBeckerGreen Women’s Initiative:

It is through the efforts of the Women’s Initiative that EpsteinBeckerGreen was first introduced to NAWL. We stand behind NAWL and have formed our own internal EBG-NAWL Committee to help promote and foster the professional empowerment of women in the law and in the boardroom. We continue to look for ways to support NAWL’s efforts, and tonight is just one way that we can do that.

While some of us demonstrated better-honed wrapping skills than others, there was certainly no disparity when it came to generosity of spirit – just a group of women all giving of their time and energy to help smooth the path for the next generation of professional women – and having a really good time in the process!

Some new and interesting research by Anita Woolley (awoolley@cmu.edu) and Thomas Malone (malone@mit.edu) has been cited in June's Harvard Business Review. Woolley is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Theory at Carnegie Mellon University, and Malone is the Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and the founding Director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence.

Their research of team behavior and problem solving makes an interesting business case for gender diversity, concluding that "there's little correlation between a group's collective intelligence and the IQs of its individual members. But if a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises." Thus, where strategic business decisions are being made at a group or team level, the inclusion of women spikes the quotient of intelligence, making a positive difference in decision-making outcomes. As Malone states, "The standard argument is that diversity is good and you should have both men and women in a group. But so far, the data show, the more women, the better." Indeed, research shows teams with more women tended to fall above the average of the collective intelligence scores of the teams studied by Malone and Woolley; the teams populated by men were below average in the same regard.

The moral: It's a no-brainer! If you want smarter boards of directors, corporate committees, or strategic business teams, Woolley and Malone's research supports increasing the participation of women.

Here is an interesting article and assessment of at least 15 women entrepreneurs: "15 Female Entrepreneurs Who Are Incredibly Inspiring." Indeed, the article has an eclectic grouping of women. However, we are sure our readers might know at least 15 who have not made this list!

New findings by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University underscore the benefits of adding more women to corporate boards. Kellogg’s study, entitled “Chipping Away at the Glass Ceiling: Gender Spillovers in Corporate Leadership,” reveals that “a higher representation of women on a company’s board of directors directly increases the female share of and access to higher positions within the company.”

The news that putting more women on a company’s board leads to more women in top management positions at that company is very encouraging. As David Matsa, assistant professor of finance at Kellogg aptly points out, this is a situation of “‘women helping women’ at the highest level of company leadership.” However, on the flip side, the study found that increasing the number of female top-level managers at a company won’t result in more women occupying board seats.

The study’s findings were based on data from corporate boards and top executives at publicly traded companies during the years 1997-2009. To read a summary of the findings, go to Kellogg’s website.

At your company, have you seen any relationship between the gender makeup of its board and the ability of women to attain executive and managerial roles?

I'm thrilled to report that Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change just won the USA Book News “Best Books 2010” award in the Women’s Issues category, and was a finalist in the Anthologies Nonfiction category. 

Goddess Shift is an anthology of personal stories written by 43 women in leadership positions about how they have empowered themselves to create change in all walks of life. I am honored to be among the book's contributors, which include Oprah Winfrey, Suze Orman, Venus & Serena Williams, Angelina Jolie, Madonna, Barbara Walters, Olympia Dukakis, and Maya Angelou. 

All royalties from this book are going to three, exceptional non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the lives of girls and women: Capacitar, the Global Fund for Women, and Tostan. 

Go here to learn more about Goddess Shift. Additionally, you can read my entire chapter here. I hope the book will inspire you.

If you are in the New York City area and would like to strengthen your leadership skills and network with other women professionals, the Athena Leadership Lab at Barnard College (Columbia University's Liberal Arts College for Women), in Manhattan is offering hands-on courses designed to "teach women the practical elements of leadership – from the art of negotiation to effective public speaking, from financial fluency to management savvy." You don't need to be a current or past student of Barnard College to enroll.

The Athena Leadership Lab's "Knowledge and Know-How for Women" Fall 2010 Course Catalogue is available online. In it, you will find over 70 workshops divided into the following categories: "Communications," "Nonprofit Management," "Financial Fluency," "Negotiation," "Courage and Resilience," and "Entrepreneurial Skills." For more details, click here.

Please CLICK HERE to read about PowerPlay NYC's exciting, upcoming event--"What It Takes to Be a Winner"--which will be held on July 6, 2010, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., at The Yale Club (50 Vanderbilt Avenue in Manhattan).  The event will feature a conversation with Venus Williams, who is celebrating the publication of her new book entitled Come to Win: How Sports Can Help You Ace Your Goals and Top Your Profession, and lunch and leadership conversations with PowerPlay's Summer Leadership Academy participants.

PowerPlay NYC is a nonprofit organization that is committed to educating and empowering girls through sports, teaching life skills and building self-confidence and self-esteem for life.

I am excited to bring to your attention an inspirational new book about women leaders, the proceeds of which will support several women's organizations globally. The book, Goddess Shift: Women Leading for a Change, is an anthology of personal stories written by 43 women in leadership positions about how they have empowered themselves to create change in all walks of life.

I am honored to be one of the contributors to the book. Other contributors include women leaders in many fields, including entertainment (Oprah Winfrey), finance (Suze Orman), government (Sonia Gandhi), sports (Venus & Serena Williams), social change and philanthropy (Angelina Jolie), journalism (Barbara Walters), and literature (Sue Monk Kidd). In my chapter, I discuss the driving forces that have shaped my professional journey from corporate executive to the convent of the Maryknoll Sisters to living and working in Japan to law school and, finally, to a career as a trial lawyer and co-founder of a women’s initiative.

I felt compelled to contribute my personal story because all royalties from this book will be used to support three, exceptional non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the lives of girls and women: Capacitar, the Global Fund for Women and Tostan.

Last week, the Fox News TV show “FOX & Friends” asked Oscar-winning actress Olympia Dukakis (another Goddess Shift contributor) and me to discuss, among other things, what the book's title means. I told the interviewers that the word "Goddess" in the title refers to all women and that, to me, the phrase "Goddess Shift" means that women have moved from "setting the table" to "negotiating at the table." However, women still need to make the existential leap from participating in the corporate world as leaders to running our country. (Our FOX & Friends interviews (both the on-air and after-the-show interviews) are posted below.)

You can find more information about Goddess Shift, including sample chapters, here. I hope the book inspires more women to become leaders!

The New York Times recently published a few intriguing articles about women that I wanted to share with you.

Women are working in the financial industry in fewer numbers these days, despite more than 20 years of increased hiring and promoting, according to the article “Where Are the Women on Wall Street?” What is responsible for this decline? As The Times notes, fewer female graduates are seeking careers in the financial industry and women are abandoning the industry faster than men. And when women are laid off from a financial job, it’s harder for them to return to the industry because they face an environment that’s more hostile to women than men. While this is disappointing news, The Times adds, on a positive note, that women continue to maintain "a strong presence in some areas in finance, including wealth management."

Although there are fewer women on Wall Street, they have gained ground against men in the workforce overall. As the article “Women Now a Majority in American Workplaces” reports, women now outnumber men on the nation’s payrolls. Becoming the majority of the workforce is a milestone for women. But it’s hard to ignore that this exciting achievement is due to the recession hitting men harder than women. The Times points out that men tend to work in economically vulnerable industries – manufacturing and construction – while women tend to work in more stable industries – government, health, and education.

Finally, the article “Getting Women Into Boardrooms, By Law” reports that Norway, Spain and the Netherlands have passed laws that will place quotas on corporations that mandate the number of women they must have in top-level positions, with a 2015 deadline for compliance. The Times notes that other European countries are considering similar legislation.

The issue of imposing quotas is controversial. On the one hand, as a general proposition, some consider the imposition of quotas to ensure diversity is viewed as laudable and to others it is viewed as undermining what women have accomplished in terms of gender (particularly, women’s) equality over the past three decades. Some observers cite quotas as tantamount to so-called "reverse discrimination." On the other hand, quotas can remediate “systemic discrimination.” In the US, quotas, as a general matter, must be judicially sanctioned, whereas "goals or targets" are invariably linked to a good faith effort that stops short of discriminating against others. Thus, while quotas are implemented under limited and particular circumstances, corporations do set targets and goals to ensure diversity in their workplaces.

Which of the three articles above interests you the most and why?

As 2009 draws to a close, I’ve noticed a proliferation of annual surveys. Two, in particular – one by The National Law Journal (NLJ) and the other by Law360 – captured my attention because they’re focused on the number of women partners at law firms. The survey results were a mixed bag. While the number of women partners rose slightly in 2009, only 18.47 percent of all partners are women, according to the NLJ. In the article "Women Still Number Too Few in Partner Ranks," Law360 expressed concern that while women make up approximately half of law school graduating classes, many women are “leaking out” of the pipeline, whether due to family reasons or unfair stereotypes. However, Law360 also pointed out that some corporate clients are applying pressure on law firms to become more diverse, which will benefit women attorneys. 

I am proud to be a member (partner) of a law firm that has a long history of hiring, retaining and promoting to firm governance talented women attorneys, when other firms might have turned them away primarily because of their gender. I am not at all surprised that my firm, EpsteinBeckerGreen, ranked among the Top 20 law firms for the high representation of women among its partners in the NLJ and Law360 surveys or that, earlier this year, The American Lawyer conducted its first "Women in Law Firms" study and ranked my firm 8th in the nation among all of the 200 largest firms for its percentage of women attorneys and among the top 10 firms with the highest percentage of women partners.

While I am pleased and honored with these rankings, I am confident that my firm will continue to attract and promote qualified women. This difficult economic environment provides opportunities, as well as challenges. There are qualified women attorneys with varied experience and skill sets that have been outsized from firms and/or corporate legal positions and this is a great time to identify great talent!!

How does your firm rank in the NLJ and Law360 surveys? Is your firm taking any special steps to beef up its number of women partners and include them in decision-making roles within firm governance?

Recently, the Ark Group’s WOMENLEGAL 2009 forum brought together gender-diversity thought-leaders in New York for an important conference on women in the legal profession. The forum focused on the key career issues facing women lawyers today, and practical solutions for both women lawyers and law firms regarding retaining and advancing women in the legal profession.

Carol Frohlinger’s excellent article, “What Women Want,” thoroughly covers the forum in the June-August issue of WOMENLEGAL Magazine.

Among the many specific topics discussed at the forum were: leadership; management structure and practices; measurement and tracking of progress toward career goals; communication and training; and reward and recognition. Rain-making generally was among the subjects emphasized by speakers as “career critical.”

My colleague, Maxine Hicks, the Managing Shareholder of EpsteinBeckerGreen’s Atlanta office, stressed the importance for women to understand that business development is the currency of law firms. “Billable hours determine your current income but how you use non-billable hours determines your future income,” she said, as part of a panel titled “Current and future outlook on impediments to women’s success: effecting change and taking action.”

Please read more about this invaluable forum in Carol’s article. Which pieces of advice offered by the panelists do you find to be particularly helpful?

I recently read an enlightening study by Development Dimensions International (DDI) -- “Holding Women Back: Troubling Discoveries and Best Practices for Helping Female Leaders Succeed” -- which reveals that, worldwide, women are simply not getting the same career opportunities as men.  The study is based on responses from 12,800 leaders in 76 countries and approximately 1,500 organizations. However, the study also offers advice on how to overcome such challenges.

We learn that, in addition to earning lower salaries than men, women are often overlooked when employers single out “high potentials” -- employees who have strong leadership potential. High-potential employees are placed in accelerated development programs to foster their leadership skills. The DDI study reveals that the gap between men and women in high-potential programs widens as management levels increase: “there were 28 percent more men than women in high-potential programs at the first level of management and 50 percent more men than women in such programs at the executive level.” As a result, fewer women than men reach senior leadership positions.

The study provides seven tips for organizations and five tips for women to help female leaders succeed. For instance, the study recommends that organizations implement a formal succession plan to ensure that objective standards are followed when choosing replacements for key leadership roles. When an organization in the U.S. health care industry, for example, had a formal succession plan in place, “nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of the executives were women.” However, without a succession plan, only “one-third (36 percent)" of the executives were women.

The study also urges organizations to, among other things, set up objective standards to evaluate job performance; monitor salary programs to eliminate any pay disparities; give women access to leadership training and development experiences; and provide mentors who can encourage women "to be more proactive about seeking new positions" and less critical of their qualifications. (Interestingly, the study noted that, at Hewlett-Packard, women applied for job openings only when they thought they would meet 100% of the job's listed criteria, while men applied if they felt they met just 60% of that criteria.)

I encourage you to read “Holding Women Back: Troubling Discoveries and Best Practices for Helping Female Leaders Succeed” and then let us know your thoughts about it. Has your firm or company provided you with leadership training and opportunities? 

The Spencer Stuart Board Index 2008 recently caught my attention and I would like to share a few of its findings. The index examines the state of corporate boards and governance among S&P 500 companies, and looks to see how boards have changed during the past decade. Although not focused solely on women, the index outlines changes in the corporate governance landscape that could mean major opportunities for first-time women directors, and for women who want to serve on corporate boards but who are not an active CEO.

The index's statistics indicate that more and more women are serving on S&P 500 boards:

• Eighteen percent of new directors are women (while that percentage is slightly lower than in recent years, it's higher in the longer term).
• Almost 89% of S&P 500 boards include women (up from 85% in 2003).
• Fifty-six percent of S&P 500 boards include two or more women directors, while 16% include three or more women directors (up from 41% and 11%, respectively, in 2003).
• Women make up 15.7% of independent directors (that's an increase from 13.1% in 2003).
  I'm pleased to see those findings and hope that the percentages continue to rise.

I recommend that you read the Spencer Stuart Board Index 2008 and tell me your thoughts. Has your company made an effort to increase the number of women directors? At my firm, two women attorneys serve on the board of directors, and we're trying to add more.

The Wall Street Journal recently featured an interesting article entitled "Women Leaders by the Numbers," which highlights the progress that women have made in business and politics, as well as the barriers to advancement they continue to face. 

The good news is that women leaders are making a positive impact. The article points out that the next session of Congress will include more women Senators and Representatives than ever before. Also, research reveals that the public seems increasingly comfortable with the idea of a woman leader in 19 key jobs. Women-owned businesses are growing faster than other U.S. firms, and Fortune 500 companies with the most women leaders experience a financial advantage--that is, "a 35% higher return on equity and a 34% higher total return to shareholders than those with the least number of women." 

The bad news is that only 20 percent of the top leadership roles are held by women. It's rare to find a woman CEO at a Fortune 500 company. Studies show that the public still perceives men to be better leaders at jobs requiring assertiveness and forcefulness. Because women are not properly represented in most traditionally male-dominated industries, that perception is unlikely to change anytime soon.

The article ends on a high note, by indicating that our struggling economy may give women more chances to lead. Because women are "good consensus leaders" and "good team leaders," they may be better suited than men to help their companies stay afloat during the maelstrom created by the recession. 

I highly recommend that you read "Women Leaders by the Numbers" and tell us your thoughts. Are more women obtaining leadership roles at your company?

At my law firm, EpsteinBeckerGreen, there has been a concerted effort to create more women leaders. Our women's initiative provides training and opportunities to enhance business development and leadership skills. I'm pleased to report that two of the five core practice steering committees at my firm are now led by women.

Our good friend and colleague, Lynn Shapiro Snyder, recently wrote an intriguing op-ed article for Pink magazine online entitled "Hillary, Sarah and Wall Street." In her article, she notes that two high-profile politicians -- Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin -- have changed the image of leadership in a way that can benefit women in corporate America. Lynn raises a good point by noting that if a man is ready to select a female candidate as the president or vice president of the U.S., he also should be ready to select a female candidate to help run his company, as either a board member or CEO.

Lynn authored the article in her capacity as the founder and president of the Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation. This is a great foundation which helps senior executive women in the health care industry improve their businesses and grow professionally.

We highly recommend that you read Lynn's article, which is available by clicking here.

Please give us your thoughts on whether the women of the 2008 elections will make a positive difference in corporate America. Will it be reflected in increased participation in leadership positions?