Action Step – Reflecting Back and Looking Ahead: Setting A Vision for Your Diversity & Flexibility Initiatives

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility.  Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center.

REFLECTING BACK AND LOOKING AHEAD:
SETTING A VISION FOR YOUR DIVERSITY & FLEXIBILITY INITIATIVES 

The Alliance’s Action Step, Seven Strategies for Flex Success™, details the steps flex lawyers need to take to achieve success in their careers. The first step, setting a vision, is critical because it provides a target to guide one’s actions. A clear vision also supports effective, strategic organizational initiatives including diversity and flexibility programs. The dawn of a new, fiscal, or program year is an excellent time to take stock of the vision for your organizational efforts.  Here are a few points to guide the vision-setting process for your organization’s diversity and flexibility initiatives in the year ahead…

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Spotlight on Flex – Diana Roman Shaw

The Spotlight on Flex showcases professionals from member organizations who exemplify personal and professional success while working a flexible schedule. Their stories illustrate the long-term benefits that flexible schedules offer to both individuals and organizations.

This month, we are pleased to share insights from Diana Roman Shaw, Counsel in the Washington, DC office of O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

Diana Roman ShawDiversity & Flexibility Alliance: How have you made flexibility a priority and a success with your career?

Diana Roman Shaw: Flex was something I started thinking about before I even started working in big law. Just before I began as an associate at O’Melveny, my husband and I agreed that even though I was about to become consumed by big law life, it was important that we try to sit down and have dinner together most nights. So when I started at the firm, I tried to plan each day with that goal in mind. If I knew I was going to be particularly busy one day, I’d come in very early to get ahead of the crush. I’d head home for dinner and start working again afterwards. By being organized and efficient, I was able to keep a promise to my husband that meant a lot to both of us.

Now that I’m a parent, the goal is slightly different – I try to plan each day to ensure my work doesn’t interfere with the time I spend at home with my children. I switched to a reduced hours schedule when I returned from my first maternity leave in 2012 (O’Melveny offers 18 weeks paid leave; I was able to add an additional six weeks of vacation time). My reduced hours schedule means I’m in the office between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm Monday through Thursday, and I work from home on Fridays (subject to client needs). I’ve been on this schedule for over three years (including a second six month maternity leave in 2015), and it’s allowed me to spend more time with my children during the week than if I had a typical 9 to 5 job. Work still has a way of spilling over into family time if you let it. To protect my mornings and evenings with my children, I often work a few hours before they wake up (yes, that means I’m up well before the sun) and after they go to bed. This helps ensure when I’m with my kids, I’m mentally present, engaged, and not thinking about work (and vice versa). It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.

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Saying No to Others and Saying Yes to Yourself

December 2015

Featuring – Sara Holtz, Founder & CEO, ClientFocus

There’s no doubt that business development is a key to success.  But how do we avoid the pitfalls of over-extending, over-exhausting, and over-committing ourselves to things all in the name of business development? Learning to say no is just as important to your personal and professional success. Listen as Sara Holtz, Founder & CEO of ClientFocus and author of Bringin’ in the Rain, guides us through the art of saying no to take back control of what really matters and enhances our careers.

Action Step – Speaking Success

The Alliance’s Action Steps are designed to assist organizations with implementing practical strategies and policies related to diversity and flexibility.  Members can access full versions of all of the Alliance’s Action Steps in the Member Resource Center.

SPEAKING SUCCESS

A recurring theme among the Alliance’s Flex Success™ Award winners, Spotlight on Flex features, and other diverse leaders highlighted at Alliance programs is that someone  – usually a leader in the organization – spoke success to them early in their careers. That is, someone in a position of power clearly communicated the expectation that these individuals would achieve leadership roles and other success markers within the organization and in their careers. While many who speak success go on to become sponsors by investing their time, talent, and knowledge so others can succeed, speaking success is a critical first step on that journey…

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Spotlight on Flex – Kristine Sendek-Smith

The Spotlight on Flex showcases professionals from member organizations who exemplify personal and professional success while working a flexible schedule. Their stories illustrate the long-term benefits that flexible schedules offer to both individuals and organizations.

This month, we are pleased to share insights from Kristine Sendek-Smith, Partner in the Washington, DC office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

Kristine Sendek SmithDiversity & Flexibility Alliance: How have you made flexibility a priority and a success with your career? How have clients contributed to your flex success?

Kristine Sendek-Smith: As lawyers, we have varying degrees of “Type A” personalities, and work-life balance implies equilibrium. But that’s not reality, and it’s hard for a lot of us to come to terms with. I like the Alliance’s term “work-life control” instead; flexibility is a delicate thing, and what works for one individual may not work for another. But technology, along with a give-and-take attitude, will help keep the trains running wherever you are.

Even though I started my legal career as a summer associate at Akin and then as a first year litigation associate here in 1997, I left in 2000 to work for a small environmental defense firm. My career path then took me to the US Attorney’s Office in Baltimore, Civil Division, for five years. While there, I had my daughter and started working a part-time schedule. I was lucky to be in a division with wonderful, female mentors, some of whom were also on a reduced hours schedule. In 2010, I returned to Akin on an 80% schedule (meaning, for me, I’m out of the office on Fridays), and I became partner while working flexibly. The firm has been amazing with supporting and implementing its Reduced Work Schedule Policy under the leadership of our chair, Kim Koopersmith. Last year, we elected 14 new partners, of which three were on a flex schedule.

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Upcoming Event -Signature Seminar Series

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance’s bi-monthly Signature Seminar Series explores a mix of organizational solutions and individual strategies related to inclusion, retention, and workplace flexibility.

There’s no doubt that business development is a key to success.  But how do we avoid the pitfalls of over-extending, over-exhausting, and over-committing ourselves to things all in the name of business development?  Learning to say no is just as important to your personal and professional success.  Listen as Sara Holtz, Founder & CEO of ClientFocus and author of Bringin’ in the Rain, guides us through the art of saying no to take back control of what really matters and enhances our careers.
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The Alliance’s New Partner Report Featured in National Publications

The findings of the Alliance’s 2015 New Partner Report have been featured by numerous national publications, including the American Bar Association Journal, the American Lawyer, Crain’s Chicago Business, Law360, and the Wall Street Journal:

Which major firms promoted zero women to partner this year? by Debra Cassens Weiss

At Some Firms More Than Others, Women Lag Among New Partners by Julie Triedman

Guess which Chicago law firm has promoted the most female partners by Claire Bushey

Female Attys Make Modest Gains In Partner Promotions by Andrew Strickler

Legal Industry Potpourri: Demand Down, More Women Advancing by Sara Randazzo Read more

Share of Women Among New Partners Rebounds

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance Releases Its Annual New Partner Report

WASHINGTON, DC, November 9, 2015 — Women constitute over one-third of 2015 new partner classes in the U.S. offices of the nation’s major law firms, according to data collected by the Diversity & Flexibility Alliance (the “Alliance”). At 34.4 percent, the share of women among new partner classes has climbed over two percentage points from last year (32 percent in 2014), and meets the figure from 2013. Key findings from the report include: Read more

Highlights from the Alliance’s 2015 Flex Success™ Leadership Institute

On October 28 & 29, 2015, the Alliance held its second annual Flex Success™ Leadership Institute at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, DC.  The Institute was a success with nationally recognized faculty teaching registrants from top law firms about confidence, business development, sponsorship, negotiation skills, interrupting bias, and developing a leadership plan. Here are some of the highlights: Read more

Upcoming Event -Signature Seminar Series

The Diversity & Flexibility Alliance’s bi-monthly Signature Seminar Series explores a mix of organizational solutions and individual strategies related to inclusion, retention, and workplace flexibility.

Effective pitching is directly related to your bottom line.  Join us as Suzanne Franchetti of Franchetti Communications leads us through the Six Ways to Guarantee Your Pitch Cuts Through the Clutter.  This process, specifically designed for legal and professional services audiences, will provide the missing links to your presentation and media communication efforts. Whether you’re speaking to one person in an informal meeting, a large crowd at an industry event, or preparing to speak with the news media – partners, associates, and corporate legal teams will benefit from these messaging strategies when they need to: Read more