ALLIANCE NEWS - The Chicago Bar Association

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Continued from page 4 Meet Mary Smith thoughtful advisors to assist me with my career and whose advice has been incredibly helpful over the years. If you could give one piece of career advice to young women lawyers on the topic of service, what would it be? Make time for service – you will not regret it. Now, maybe some of you are thinking that you barely have time to balance work and family let alone have time for service. That reminds me of a quote from the Continued from page 5 Alliance For Women Deep Dive This committee also coordinates the luncheon at which time the Founder’s and Alta May Hulett Awards are presented to the winners. The luncheon is held in May, with this year’s final date still to be determined. The luncheon also wraps up the AFW “bar year” and offers a great opportunity to network with colleagues. A number of law firms purchase tables, but many other women attorneys come on their own or bring along a junior lawyer whom they mentor. This year, Cheryl Dancey Balough (cbalough@balough.com) and Emily Masalski (emasalski@yahoo. com) serve as co-chairs joined by Dana Blumthal and Kelly Parfitt. The committee welcomes ideas about how to increase participation in the always enjoyable and motivating luncheon. If you are interested in assisting with the luncheon planning and promotion, please contact the committee co-chairs! Watch for other committee profiles in future editions! Page 12 Continued from page 7 Chance Favors Work extra hard, and be accessible and flexible in the early stages of any client relationship. If your firm allows it, agree to take on smaller matters for new clients with the idea that if you do a good job, more work will follow. Offer discounts and/or flexible fee arrangements, or even handle the early work pro bono, until you have had a chance to prove yourself – and hopefully become indispensable – to the client. Keep the long-term relationship in mind. To borrow a phrase coined by former Goldman Sachs partner Gus Levy, “Be long-term greedy.” Take advantage of structured business development opportunities. Look beyond the obvious marketing and business development avenues, such as publishing articles relating to your areas of expertise and public speaking. Many law firms hold women-focused events designed to bring together female partners with their female clients. (Men are usually invited, too.) Chocolate, massages, and manicures are often featured. If you are a young female attorney, take advantage of these opportunities. Invite your contacts at the clients for whom you work, and be sure to watch more senior attorneys in action at these events. You may learn a thing or two. Make networking part of your DNA, and remember, chance favors the prepared. Putting “network” on your to-do list is like saying, “wake up.” It should become so natural and automatic that you don’t even think about it. And networking efforts should not be limited to planned and structured activities; some of the most fruitful networking can happen by sheer accident. Polish your elevator speech, and be ready at all times to seize opportunities. (I met an attorney recently who had been injured and shared a hospital room with a stranger who, through networking from the hospital bed, became his future boss.) Don’t be afraid to ask. Many people believe that women are not wired to ask for what they want, but the most successful female partners I know have come to realize that it’s okay to ask for business, and it’s okay to exploit their relationships that have taken years and enormous effort to develop. Men do. And they don’t preface any of those conversations with an apology. Know your value proposition and always be ready to communicate it with complete confidence to current and prospective clients. Find a mentor, male or female. Identify one or more senior partners in your firm that you admire and invite each of them (individually) to an informal lunch. Find out how they go about generating business, how they were able to capitalize on their network of contacts, and the firm’s platform to grow their practice. Ask them about the challenges, pitfalls or mistakes they have made along the way. Share your own thoughts about where you see opportunities and seek their input. And then, of course, execute! Conclusion. Developing business is becoming an increasingly competitive endeavor, even more so for young partners, but it is also an important piece of a law firm partner’s ultimate success. If you think of it simply as relationship building one step at a time, it may not be as difficult as it looks; it might actually be fun! Pamela DiCarlantonio is a Managing Director in the Partner Practice Group at global legal search firm Major, Lindsey & Africa. Earlier in her career, she was a litigation attorney at Jenner & Block. She can be contacted at pdicarlantonio@mlaglobal.com or (312) 896-8554.
Holiday Party Highlights By Elizabeth S. Epstein This year’s annual all women’s bar groups holiday party was a festive occasion! The annual party hosted by the Alliance for Women, Black Women Lawyers Association, Women’s Bar Association of Illinois, Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law Firms and the Young Lawyers Section Women in the Law Committee was held this year at the Chicago Bar Association on December 15, 2011. There was plenty of food, drink and good cheer as women attorneys across Chicagoland celebrated their friendship during this festive season. A special thanks to the sponsors of the party: AFW, WBAI, BWLA, Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law Firms, YLS Women in Law, and the very generous sponsors Baxter Healthcare Corporation; Nielsen Career Consulting; Wang Kobayashi Austin LLC; Alice Keane; Janet Siegel; Lynn Grayson; Regine Corrado; Lisa Seilheimer and Liz Epstein. Without your support, this party would not have happened. Also a big thank you to the AFW holiday party committee members Elena Cincione, Dana Blumenthal and Angie Cruz and Michelle Spodarek of the CBA for hosting our event again this year. Please enjoy these photos from the 2011 Holiday Party. Liz Epstein was the 2011 Holiday Party Chair. Page 13
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ALLIANCE NEWS - The Chicago Bar Association

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