Hello, Comes Now readers! Welcome to my last issue of 2024. Over the course of this year, I wrote 55 issues of Comes Now for a total of 78,700 words. It’s crazy to think that I’ve written so much!

With the success of Spotify Wrapped and other similar year-end wrap-ups, Beehiiv, my newsletter platform, has joined the game. They sent me a “Rewind” that told me the issues that got the most impressions and clicks in 2024. I thought it might be fun to review those results and talk about what they say about interests of women lawyers.

Before we get into it, there are a few caveats. First, these statistics apply only to my Beehiiv subscribers. Many of you read Comes Now only on LinkedIn—and your engagement won’t be captured by this information.

Second, I’m just doing this for fun. While I do glance at my engagement metrics for every issue, I don’t obsess over them. I have the luxury of writing this newsletter because I enjoy doing so. It doesn’t support my business—so I don’t have to care about metrics. What means most to me is when people tell me that a particular issue spoke to them or made them feel less alone. Or motivated them to read a book written by a woman author! While a few of my most “popular” issues were also personal favorites, it is very often the case that what I think of as my “best” issues get the least interest. C’est la vie!

With all of that, let’s get into it!

My Third Most Popular Post

My third most popular post this year surprised me. It was my April 2nd issue where I reflected on reading Emily Chang’s book Brotopia: Breaking Up the Boys’ Club of Silicon Valley.

That issue focused on the chapter of Chang’s book that talked about how the extremely male-dominated venture capital industry helps to reinforce the patriarchal structure of the tech industry more generally. I then talked about, by analogy, industries and professions adjacent to the legal profession help to keep women out. These so-called “adjacent networks” not only hobble women lawyers in leadership, but they also entrench traditional ways of doing things that might otherwise change if women were in power.

To be honest, I’m not certain why this post was so popular. Unlike other popular posts, I didn’t get any emails or DMs about this issue. But the idea that there are complex networks—rather than just single professions—that keep women out of positions of power is an important one, and I’m glad it spoke to you.

My Second Most Popular Post

My second most popular issue was the one I wrote on Election Day talking about the dismal state of the workplace (in law and otherwise) for young women.

It didn’t surprise me that this post was popular. My accompanying LinkedIn Post got more impressions than anything I’ve ever written on LinkedIn. (Before you get too impressed, let me assure you that I’m not even in the same league as most regular attorney LinkedIn contributors.) While I think the Comes Now issue spoke to people, I also think that Election Night was also a time that we were all scrolling social media looking for insights. This issue was surely a beneficiary of that experience.

My Most Popular Post

My most popular post of 2024 was . . . drumroll please . . . my October 8 issue about a report for the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism called Bullying in the Legal Profession: A Study of Illinois Lawyers’ Experiences and Recommendations for Change.

The popularity of this post likewise did not surprise me. I got a lot of responses about that post from subscribers. But more importantly, I think the popularity of the post was a direct result of the quality and importance of the underlying report. Even though, as the issue points out, I think the legal profession needs more time to discuss and develop what we call “bullying” in our workplaces, I really hope that in 2025 and the years to come we see lots more work on this subject. The Illinois Supreme Court Commission report was a fantastic start and the popularity of the issue on that report reflects that.

My Most Clicked Post

Apart from the issues that received the most social media engagement, the issue that got the most clicks was the one I wrote on May 21st reflecting on Bonnie Hammer’s book 15 Lies Women Are Told at Work . . . and the Truth We Need to Succeed. (I’m not including a Bookshop link to the book here—because I really hope that you will read far, far better books over the holiday!)

I’m really not sure why this post has received so many clicks—but I hope it’s not because people were buying the book. While it was regrettably promoted by lots of superstars and has even appeared on certain celebrity “best of 2024” lists (I’m looking at you, Ally Love), there are so many better books for women lawyers to read. Perhaps you were so shocked by her recommendations for young women that you wanted to see for yourself?

Happy Holidays!

I hope you found this recap fun.

I’ll be taking a break from Comes Now for the holidays. My next issue will come out on January 7, 2025. THANK YOU for all of your engagement in 2024. I hope all of you have a restful holiday season. I look forward to speaking with you in the new year.

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If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please share it with others and encourage them to subscribe. I draft it on Beehiiv (Comes Now (beehiiv.com)) and distribute it on Tuesday evening, but also post the issue as a LinkedIn newsletter on Wednesday mornings.

I also now post Comes Now issues on Instagram! (I just post a link to new issues; I don’t add additional content—yet.) You can find those postings at Comes.Now

Have a topic you’d like me to address? Want to tell me where I got something right or wrong? Send me an email at [email protected].