LPT: (Women) Progressing into Partnership–Road Rules for a New Role

The December 2014 issue of Law Practice Today (LPT) is dedicated to the theme of New Partners, in advance of the annual ABA New Partners Institute in Washington, DC on April 17th. Amy Drushal of Trenam Kemker (a speaker for the NPI and co-chair of the first NP conference a few years back) served as issue editor.

I will also be presenting at NPI (and has served on the planning committee each year) on the topic of business development. However, at the recent ABA Women Rainmakers Mid-Career Workshop, I spoke on the topic of women progressing into partnership. While not talking, I took copious notes from esteemed fellow panelists for an article theme that fit right into the subject of partnership–whether you are trying to get there or are just arriving.

How do you get to partner? What are the criteria? What are the expectations? Can you have it all?

(Women) Progressing into Partnership–Road Rules for a New Role

Those were some of the questions answered during a panel presentation at the recent ABA Women Rainmakers Mid-Career Workshop in San Diego, California. The program, entitled “Progressing into Partnership–Road Rules for a New Role,” featured a balanced panel of four attorneys–two men and two women–from various perspectives.
The panel included Ali Sylvia, managing partner of Plews Shadley Racher & Braun in Indianapolis, Indiana; Rori Goldman, a director at Hill Fulwider, a 13-attorney firm, also based in Indianapolis; Bob Young, chair of the ABA Law Practice Division and a partner at English Lucas Priest & Owsley in Bowling Green, Kentucky; and moderator Tom Bolt, chair-elect of the Law Practice Division and managing attorney of BoltNagi PC in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.