About This Newsletter

If you’re a woman practicing law, you’re likely well-versed in the depressing statistics about women in our profession. In 2020, women were 47% of associates at law firms in the United States, but only 12% of managing partners. Only 2% of law firms said their highest paid attorney was a woman. And while Law360 (paywall) recently touted the “cracks” in the glass ceiling in its reports on gender equity, those cracks are hardly encouraging: the proportion of women holding top leadership jobs at large law firms is at 18%, and just 24.9% of women are equity partners. (Fortunately, there is much more change happening in government positions and at medium or small law firms (paywall). (See the Rave at the end of this newsletter!)). Most reports sadly project that at these rates the legal profession won’t achieve gender parity for more than 100 years — and “gender parity” should not be the end to which we should aspire!

Even apart from those statistics, many women just don’t feel that the law is a place where they feel welcome. Among many other issues, there still aren’t enough role models for younger women, many practice areas are still dominated by good ole boys, and for the most part women aren’t in the rainmaker roles (unfortunately) most valued by law firms. And let’s not even talk about (for now) trying to practice law while being a parent or caring for one.

So I’m writing this newsletter to create a community for women lawyers where we can candidly discuss the good and the bad of our profession and use those discussions to make it better. Because I believe that the best way to change things is not to wait for our male-dominated institutions to make token changes, but for women to support women in turning things on their head.

Although I expect subjects to evolve over time, some of the things we’ll be talking may include:

• How we can increase the number of women at the top by how we nurture the women at the bottom

• Whether ratings of the “Top X” women attorneys help or hurt

• Whether #metoo and related movements have changed life for women lawyers

• What burnout really is, how it happens, and what you can do about it

Perhaps more importantly, this newsletter will profile women within the profession who are helping other women, tell you about conferences and other places for women, introduce you to firms, companies, or organizations who meaningfully support women (not just ones who are the best of the worst), and feature organizations that are helping to make a change. And I’ll gather articles and books on relevant subjects so that you can find them all in one place.

But it won’t all be serious. I’ll also do a little talking about the best laptop bags, tough workouts to deal with stress, or ways to improve your mental health.

MOST IMPORTANTLY I don’t want this newsletter to have only my opinions or be limited to my perspective. I’d love to hear what YOU would like to hear about.

Why I’m Doing This

I’ll get more into my background and personal experiences in later newsletters. But briefly, prior to starting my own law firm this month, I practiced law for more than 25 years at four highly sophisticated law firms. I always wanted something like this newsletter. Writing it allows me to do what I tried to do when I worked for other people — but either never had the time or was penalized professionally for doing.

What’s With the Title of the Newsletter?

“Comes Now” is, of course, a call to action in legal pleadings. An archaic and excessively formal one. I loved the idea of turning something old and stodgy into something that will empower women to make change.

To get us started, some Raves & Rants . . .

• Rave. The best news I’ve heard in the last month was that a group of 11 women law firm partners and seven in-house counsel at started a Lead Counsel Summit designed to teach a hand-picked group of junior partners what it takes to be lead counsel in intellectual property cases. The Summit covered not only the nuts-and-bolts of leading a case, but also leadership skills and tips about business generation. The weekend culminated with a mock pitch to a panel of real in-house counsel and mock opening arguments before a panel of current and retired federal judges. Read the Reuters article about the Summit here or check out the Summit’s website here. Having senior women lift up those on their way up is—plain and simple —the best kind of mentoring there is.

• Rave. It seems like every week we’re hearing about women starting their own law firms. For example, check out Health Law Strategists LLC. Or look at the fabulous Carolyn Elefant’s profiles of Mom-Owned law firms. Maybe these will inspire you to start your own. If you have other announcements to include, send them to me!

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