<b>Op-Ed:</b> 'I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar' ' or Not!

If I had a dollar for every time I heard those involved in law firm professional development and marketing departments say they wanted to 'exploit' their women to achieve business-development objectives, I'd be contributing to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Over the past 15 years, I have been an observer, and a participant, in the move to guide women in law firms as they attempt to successfully achieve their career goals; and in doing so, go from servicing clients to having books of substantial business.

Back in the early 1990s, when it was 'fashion forward' thinking to add women to the ranks of partnership, law firms were eager to make certain that they brought their token woman partner to every client pitch to demonstrate that they were ahead of the curve when it came to women in law. I cannot tell you how many major faux pas were committed when that thinking permeated business-development circles. Fast forward to the new millennium, and you have a glut of women partners with little or no direction, just a handful who have a solid book of business, and even less who have a say in the way a law firm is managed.

No Support

So what's the real story? Well, with the exception of about 15 firms nationwide, there are no solid programs that truly benefit women in law firms. Yes, many firms list their women in law programs on their Web sites, and several tout their programs as being at the forefront of the movement, but this is not the reality. While there are lots of women in law firm programs, most of them merely exist to 'paint a picture' that will demonstrate to clients that they are diverse. For all intensive purposes, this is a joke ' and the joke is on the women in these firms. Is it any wonder that many women leave law firms to either go in-house or leave the profession entirely?

Even in firms where there are women in leadership roles, the female partners and associates receive little or no assistance in their professional and business-development efforts. It is a sad time for those of us who have given their all to women in law, and from where I am perched, it is not going to change any time soon. In fact, I predict it is going to get much worse because greed trumps diversity and pro bono (do not get me going on the latter).

What to Do

Well for one thing, the women in law movement needs to be invigorated. With one sitting woman Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, the women in law movement is losing ground. Yes, there are many more women graduating from law school, but that's not the issue. It takes 5-10 years to make that degree meaningful, and so for now, it doesn't mean much. The power and the clients still belong to men. And all the women in law programs will not change that unless, and until, law firms actually create an infrastructure that speaks to women in law firms' needs with well thought-out programs that work in tandem with client relations and service team programs ' and lend to the integration with professional development, marketing, public relations and business development initiatives.

Let's take a look at the marketing and public relations side of this conundrum. How many journalists have women to choose from when they are looking for a source on a story? In preparing to write this piece, I did a little sampling of quotes in regional and national newspapers on business and law-related stories. It was astounding to me that only two out of 30 quotes were given by women. The public relations ma-chine is working in most law firms, but whom does it benefit? While there are several women cable television commentators, they opine mostly on criminal cases that for the most part are more fluff than substance. The plurality of the important litigations and corporate matters are handled by men. There are some top-flight women who handle high-profile white-collar crime matters, and a 'few good women' who handle Fortune 500 corporate matters, but these are few and far between. Do the women want to fly below the radar screen because they think it is safer? I don't think so. What I think is that public relations is relegated to those 'go to' partners ' and most of them are male.

Lots of Lip Service

As for marketing and business development, I cannot for the life of me figure out why more men are still controlling the biggest books of business. And what's even worse is that, in most cases, when a male partner retires, he hands over the business to another man. I know for a fact that many women in law have toiled tirelessly on clients' matters, and when it came time to 'legacy' the client, the woman was 'passed over' in favor of a male colleague. And these firms are the same ones that have so-called women in law programs. In the area of developing books of business, women usually have to fend for themselves. Many are not invited to male partner-initiated new business pitches unless the general counsel is a woman, or even worse, the firm thinks it needs to show it is diverse to win over the client. And then there is the scenario when a woman has an opportunity to develop a new client and asks her male partners to accompany her. How many times have women told me they were turned down with the reply, 'What's in it for me?' And of course, there is the 'phenomena' of women helping wo-men. In many circles, it's not a pretty picture. There are many 50-something women who had no help and clawed their way to being respected and building a client base, and they are often not too willing to help their 'fellow woman' in their quest to achieve the same goals.

This piece is meant to urge law firms to, and I paraphrase, 'put their money (and time) where their mouth (and their Web site) is,' and start really working with their women to create meaningful programs that not only address the issues of developing young female associates, but also ' and just as important ' address how to ensure that women partners have power, money and prestige. As Edith Wharton so aptly put it: 'There are two ways of spreading the light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.'

If I had a dollar for every time I heard those involved in law firm professional development and marketing departments say they wanted to 'exploit' their women to achieve business-development objectives, I'd be contributing to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Over the past 15 years, I have been an observer, and a participant, in the move to guide women in law firms as they attempt to successfully achieve their career goals; and in doing so, go from servicing clients to having books of substantial business.

Back in the early 1990s, when it was 'fashion forward' thinking to add women to the ranks of partnership, law firms were eager to make certain that they brought their token woman partner to every client pitch to demonstrate that they were ahead of the curve when it came to women in law. I cannot tell you how many major faux pas were committed when that thinking permeated business-development circles. Fast forward to the new millennium, and you have a glut of women partners with little or no direction, just a handful who have a solid book of business, and even less who have a say in the way a law firm is managed.

No Support

So what's the real story? Well, with the exception of about 15 firms nationwide, there are no solid programs that truly benefit women in law firms. Yes, many firms list their women in law programs on their Web sites, and several tout their programs as being at the forefront of the movement, but this is not the reality. While there are lots of women in law firm programs, most of them merely exist to 'paint a picture' that will demonstrate to clients that they are diverse. For all intensive purposes, this is a joke ' and the joke is on the women in these firms. Is it any wonder that many women leave law firms to either go in-house or leave the profession entirely?

Even in firms where there are women in leadership roles, the female partners and associates receive little or no assistance in their professional and business-development efforts. It is a sad time for those of us who have given their all to women in law, and from where I am perched, it is not going to change any time soon. In fact, I predict it is going to get much worse because greed trumps diversity and pro bono (do not get me going on the latter).

What to Do

Well for one thing, the women in law movement needs to be invigorated. With one sitting woman Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, the women in law movement is losing ground. Yes, there are many more women graduating from law school, but that's not the issue. It takes 5-10 years to make that degree meaningful, and so for now, it doesn't mean much. The power and the clients still belong to men. And all the women in law programs will not change that unless, and until, law firms actually create an infrastructure that speaks to women in law firms' needs with well thought-out programs that work in tandem with client relations and service team programs ' and lend to the integration with professional development, marketing, public relations and business development initiatives.

Let's take a look at the marketing and public relations side of this conundrum. How many journalists have women to choose from when they are looking for a source on a story? In preparing to write this piece, I did a little sampling of quotes in regional and national newspapers on business and law-related stories. It was astounding to me that only two out of 30 quotes were given by women. The public relations ma-chine is working in most law firms, but whom does it benefit? While there are several women cable television commentators, they opine mostly on criminal cases that for the most part are more fluff than substance. The plurality of the important litigations and corporate matters are handled by men. There are some top-flight women who handle high-profile white-collar crime matters, and a 'few good women' who handle Fortune 500 corporate matters, but these are few and far between. Do the women want to fly below the radar screen because they think it is safer? I don't think so. What I think is that public relations is relegated to those 'go to' partners ' and most of them are male.

Lots of Lip Service

As for marketing and business development, I cannot for the life of me figure out why more men are still controlling the biggest books of business. And what's even worse is that, in most cases, when a male partner retires, he hands over the business to another man. I know for a fact that many women in law have toiled tirelessly on clients' matters, and when it came time to 'legacy' the client, the woman was 'passed over' in favor of a male colleague. And these firms are the same ones that have so-called women in law programs. In the area of developing books of business, women usually have to fend for themselves. Many are not invited to male partner-initiated new business pitches unless the general counsel is a woman, or even worse, the firm thinks it needs to show it is diverse to win over the client. And then there is the scenario when a woman has an opportunity to develop a new client and asks her male partners to accompany her. How many times have women told me they were turned down with the reply, 'What's in it for me?' And of course, there is the 'phenomena' of women helping wo-men. In many circles, it's not a pretty picture. There are many 50-something women who had no help and clawed their way to being respected and building a client base, and they are often not too willing to help their 'fellow woman' in their quest to achieve the same goals.

This piece is meant to urge law firms to, and I paraphrase, 'put their money (and time) where their mouth (and their Web site) is,' and start really working with their women to create meaningful programs that not only address the issues of developing young female associates, but also ' and just as important ' address how to ensure that women partners have power, money and prestige. As Edith Wharton so aptly put it: 'There are two ways of spreading the light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.'