Additional menu

Pamela DeNeuve

Lawyer & Law Firm Peak Performance Strategist

3 Simple Steps To Retain Women Lawyers

posted on

Share
Tweet
Pin
0 Shares

Behind closed doors law firms, mid-sized all the way to white shoe BIGLAW firms are asking, “How can we keep our women?”

Dennis, a hiring partner at a large firm, has a story that can help us to understand why women lawyers continue to leave.

Meet Dennis

Dennis, a hiring partner of a rather large firm, is surprisingly committed to finding the balance would create equity for women.

I certainly admit that this is a bit unusual, as well a refreshing surprise.   I couldn’t help but wonder why Dennis was so passionate about making these changes.

Dennis’ Story

Dennis recalls, “I was hired right out of school along with two others, they happened to be brilliant women named Natalie and Catherine. We became good friends from the moment we met in orientation since we graduated from the same law school.

“We would all go for a late-night meal and a beer. On our days off, we watched the games on the Sundays. We were all in over our heads, and it was nice to be with folks who understood.”

Dennis continued, “We all got married around the same time, and began to have children. Our spouses fit into our group, and we were like one happy family.

But things started to change. These changes caused a strain in my friendships with Natalie and Catherine.”

How Things Began to Change for Dennis, Catherine and Natalie

Dennis sighed, “As the years went along, I received privileges that quite frankly I didn’t deserve. Catherine and Natalie worked much harder than I did and truthfully they were better lawyers.

Catherine worked more hours than me, and she even brought in a very substantial client.

Meanwhile, I kept being promoted, working on great projects and cases. It was obvious that they were grooming me to become a senior partner, later a junior partner.”

“I saw my friends Catherine and Natalie isolated, day after day, doing research and discovery. I think the last straw was when I told Catherine how much more money I made than her.”

Catherine Leaves the Firm

One day over coffee, Catherine confided that she was going to leave.”

“I can’t take it anymore Dennis.” Catherine’s lips quivered, and tears filled her eyes. “I love our firm but you and I both know Natalie, and I work more hours because fewer of our hours are considered billable. We are better lawyers than you. You’ve said so yourself!”

I handed Catherine my handkerchief, and although I was impatient, I continued to listen to her.   “Yet Dennis, we have not advanced; we have been ignored, and you have been given one opportunity after another. I am going to start my own firm. Maybe not today, but we are working towards that, my husband and I are saving money. I want to leave and the sooner, the better.”

Dennis continued, “I wished I had listened. She was jealous I told myself. Sure enough, within about 18 months Catherine was gone.”

Dennis returned to his story after he took another call.

Natalie Leaves the Firm

“One day I heard that Natalie was leaving the practice of law altogether and was going to become an attorney recruiter. We had both been with the firm for well over fifteen years. I thought this was a big mistake. I marched down to her office to try to convince her.”

“There was Natalie who was probably one of the brightest senior associates in the firm isolated, only doing research and discovery. What happened to you, Natalie?” I asked.

Natalie quietly said, “Catherine and I made the mistake of being excellent “women” lawyers. Dennis that is what happened.”

Dennis Wakes Up!

“As I walked back to my office, I was sad that firm politics and policies had our firm lose two lawyers who were much better lawyers that I was. I made a decision that when I was in a position, I was going to champion equity for women and minorities in our firm.”

When law firms ask how can they keep their women and minority attorneys, the answer is simple.

Attorneys You Are Never AloneLaw Firms: Here Are 3 Simple Changes:

  1. Most important: Find ways to facilitate improved communication. (Many firms find using consultants or strategists extremely helpful).
  2. Create pods, (teams) to zero in on promoting communication, engagement and retention to help make change based on skill rather than gender or race.
  3. Compensate men, minorities and women equity partners equally and include more women and minorities on compensation committees.

Women Attorneys: Here Are 3 Simple Changes to Rise Up

  1. Stop complaining; get support and also research positive steps to turn to change the tide.
  2. Create weekly support groups. Solidify your goals; ask for support from your firm.
  3. Find mentors women who have defied the odds. Perhaps they are in your firm, or they may be coaches from another organization

Will things change immediately? Probably not. It takes time for law firms to institute change.

Let’s face it; many of the lawyers in power enjoy the POWER STRUCTURE, as it exists. These practices must be changed and the sooner, the better.

Women and minorities have the ability to rise up from thinking like victims.

Support yourself for powerful and positive changes. It begins with your thoughts.   Your thoughts can surge you far above your circumstances.

“When reality hurts, make sure to soar above the dream-stained sky.” (Quote by Munia Khan) 

You are entitled to elevate yourself above all discouraging experiences. There are mental traps that can entangle the career of women attorneys and minorities within the law firms.

A Word of Empowerment to Women 

  • Avoid mental snares that discourage lawyers all over the world to settle for less.
  • Overcome setbacks and set your sights higher and get outside support.
  • Refuse to remain locked in angry diatribe.

 A Word of Empowerment to Law Firms

  • Law firms use positive changes that go beyond tradition that require better-quality of communication
  • Create associate pods (teams) for increased engagement, communication, and retention
  • Institute inclusion and make gender and racial equity your firm’s motto.

Instead of closed-door conversations, law firms, mid-sized all the way to white shoe BIGLAW firms open the door and have a meaningful conversation about “How can you can keep your women and your minority attorneys.  You will be surprised at the results.

If your law firm is trapped in habits that cause your associates, women and minority lawyers to leave much too soon, send me an email at  pamela@pameladeneuve.com and we can set up a time to chat.

Pamela DeNeuve, Law Firm Strategists for Retention

Email:  pamela@pameladeneuve.com

Website: https://pameladeneuve.com

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/pameladeneuve  

Call Pamela:  (904) 607-1211

http://https://youtu.be/m1IWk_xm5MM

 

Share
Tweet
Pin
0 Shares

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Quotes from our Lawyer of the Week

  • I am here to protect the human rights and I will do the best in my capacity to do so.
    Diana Constantinidou
  • I love this work. I really do. To me, especially now more than ever, we need a strong news media. It’s not just a business. It’s part of our democracy.
    Edward Birk
  • You don’t have to be large and on the world stage to seize these opportunities and to apprehend these threats. It really is a function of the vision and the insight of the leaders. When they get it, then there’s an opportunity for them to persuade and help their partners get the message and act to remake themselves.
    George Beaton
  • I did not intend to create this legacy, but I see the ripple effects of it, and it’s so meaningful to me. I think that through the podcast, I’m also hoping to create a legacy of service to the profession.
    Okeoma Moronu
  • That’s one of the things that I find very satisfying; building bridges between people from different countries, working closely with them and seeking those deeply satisfying relationships that are created in cross-border trade and investment facilitation.
    John Grimley
  • I’m very lucky to have a family and a wife that absolutely just creates a life that’s there and that one can go to. I think about the stress that we experience in our work, that is the best we can offer. So I really live for that. It’s something to be grateful for.
    Nic Swart
  • The legacy that I want to leave in the work that I’m doing is having made a difference and having hopefully spearheaded some type of meaningful change in the culture of the legal profession, as it relates to addiction and mental health specifically.
    Patrick Krill
  • It’s not so much my practice that I want to make a difference in, but I want to know that I left the legal professional a little bit better than I found it.
    Courtney Wylie
  • the real reality is some of the lawyers, some of the law firms, are going to be left behind because they’re not moving into the current reality where they can’t just rely on referrals.
    Montina Portis
  • When you take a lawyer out of the system, you take the voice and the ability of the people to protect themselves from overreaching government and overreaching organizations out the equation.
    Ian Connor Bifferato
  • I think a lot of attorneys are very, obviously, economically driven, which is fine, because we all need to make a living. But, at the end of the day, I also think that we are in this profession to give back and I would like to see that happen to a greater degree.
    Dr. Jeanne-Mari Reteif
  • "I would like my clients to think of me as of being a valuable resource to them and a knowledgeable resource that helped them protect their business and the most valuable assets of their business, which is their inventions, their ideas, their brand and that they remember me as somebody they could go to at any time to help them protect their intellectual property assets.
    Crystal T. Broughan
  • The person I’m looking for is the one who is going to come along and say ok; we can’t just tweak what we do with law; we have to radically re-invent it.
    Ken Grady
  • So you have to be that person who is challenged again and again so that you will grow as an expert.
    Dr. Peter MacMillan
  • I always tell my clients and my friends and colleagues, it’s a two-way road. You know- you give, and you receive, you give back, and it keeps going that way. It’s wonderful.
    Fernanda Alem-Freitas
  • In terms of successes, I will tell you, having done this, I’ve gone much further and made more connections and more friends and more inroads into the industry much earlier in my career than I ever could have possibly imagined.
    Gene Quinn
  • my thinking was that I really need to understand what clients really wanted. So in order to really do a good job, I needed to find out what moves them, what kept them up at night.
    Silvia Hodges Silverstein
  • So when we talk about a legacy, it’s a legacy that people to this day tell me — oh, I remember working with your Grandfather and he was such an upright man. Wow, let’s hope they say that about me.
    Jordan W. Charness
  • this answer made me to become a lawyer instead of a mathematician.
    Anandavasagan K.
  • What I want to try to do is create the beacon, or the light toward, developing law firm culture, as in the legal profession culture in general...where they do find a sense of meaning, purpose, connection, joy and want to stay in the profession.
    Anne Brafford
  • it is my goal to try to increase diversity within our profession, and even for as long as I’m here, I will advocate for the inclusion of different perspectives, different peoples, and different ideas that can make this world a better place.
    Robert Johnson
  • I have learned a lot of things the hard way and if I can help others sort of avoid the mistakes I’ve made and have the vision I lacked, then that’s how I want to help
    Frank Ramos
  • "I’m sort of traditional with an edge. I have respect for tradition. I have respect for history, but I’m also very inquisitive. I like to, you know, sort of architect things.
    Mark A. Cohen
  • I am all or nothing. I believe that the world has enough mediocre people. I had a mentor tell me that once and I give 110% to everything I do.
    LaKeisha Randall
  • You’ll never know how high that peak can be unless you find recovery, and with recovery, anything is possible
    Brian Cuban
  • Being able to live and work anywhere in the world. And we do live, you know- we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, in County Cork, Ireland now.
    Walt Hampton
  • You know, the best thing that anyone could possibly do is think about what’s important to them and get back to that really basic thing. Personally, professionally, financially. You know, where would you like to be? Because you can be there if you take a couple steps, you know? And it just- it can be incremental
    Bridget Venus Grimes
  • The people I represent have their own families and their own spouses and I see that vividly through my own experiences and trying to help them. I often try to, although perhaps not the easiest thing to do, but try to put myself into their shoes and approach a case with that regard.
    Mark A. Torres
  • My legacy really is to try to enhance the wellness of the members of our profession and to open up this dialog.
    Heidi K. Brown
  • At the end of my days, I want people to look back and say, "Yes, he really did make the world a better place and here are some concrete examples of places where he's influenced people, or influenced organizations, or cultures." So, if I can do that and leave that to the world, then I think I've done a pretty good job.
    Maurice L. Rabb
  • Pamela helped brought us a $12MM deal and was a key player to help finalize the negotiations. She was a valuable investment for our firm with a magnificent return on our investment.
    Bill L., Chairman of Litigation
  • I was on the verge of losing it. I felt confused and had no idea why I was practicing law in the first place. Pamela helped me to regain my enthusiasm and grow my practice enjoy my life again.
    Lewis M., Partner
  • I have worked as an in-house attorney for 20+ years with major corporations. I hired Pamela during a transition in my career. When I began working with Pamela, I needed clarity and direction as I forged a new path. Through Pamela's unique coaching techniques, I learned a tremendous amount about myself and what I wanted out of life. She helped me put plans in place, encouraged me and held me accountable for taking necessary actions. Coaching is clearly not just a business for Pamela. She truly cared about me and repeatedly went above and beyond to help me achieve the goals I set for myself. Pamela is highly knowledgeable and accomplished and I trust her judgment and coaching. I would highly recommend her to anyone who is looking to make a job or career change.
    Renee Cogdell Lewis
  • Why should only sports figures get coaches? I represent whistleblowers in highly complicated litigation cases. The work is stressful and I can't afford to be distracted or unfocused. Maybe some lawyer out there finds that easy, but if any lawyer/mom/wife does, I'd like to meet her. I needed to be at my peak ALL the time so I hired Pamela DeNeuve as my coach and -- wow! Hiring Pamela is like having someone right there with me in my practice as coach, mentor, confidant, and troubleshooter. I am on my A+ game thanks to Pamela.
    Lee Wallace
  • Pamela DeNeuve works with powerful men and women who look to the world like they have it all together. So that includes everyone who is successful because we all have skeletons in our closet. We all have an area of life that is painful or frustrating. While I looked like I had it all, a beautiful wife, a son who I have a great relationship and a long-time financial career, a growing business as a motivational speaker, something was missing. Something was off and I couldn't put my finger on it. Working with Pamela DeNeuve is one of the best things I have ever done. Her insight, her showing me the blind spots that I tried to ignore or avoid was an awakening. I have regained my enthusiasm again. I wake up with the wonder and excitement I had lost as the years wore on. I highly recommend Pamela DeNeuve's 8-hour intensive session. You will make quantum leaps in your career, increase your income and your wife will become the love of your life again.
    Tom Heitz
  • Any lawyer or law firm who want to expand their practice, increase client base, or re-ignite your love of the law will be wise to work with Pamela DeNeuve as your business/marketing coach. She has more than 25 years of experience working with AM100 law firms, small firms, and individual lawyers across the United States, in Asia, and South Africa. Pamela understands all aspects of the legal profession. She understands the challenges that we attorneys face. I retained Pamela to help with business development and some special projects in my First Amendment/Communications law practice. Almost immediately, I started to once again see opportunities in the challenges rather than the other way 'round. Practicing law is more enjoyable because of this work with Pamela. Asking for help is sometimes the hardest ask of all. After working with Pamela for her help, I'm glad I asked. I highly recommend her to any attorney or firm.
    Edward Birk