3 Questions For A Leadership Coach For Women (Part I)

// 463173One of the tricks to improving as an IP community — and as a legal profession in general — is learning to listen to worthwhile voices from outside the law. This can be even more important when the issue needing attention is one where the efforts undertaken to correct matters in the past have been unsuccessful or even not as impactful as hoped for. A good example in the IP arena is that of increasing leadership roles for female lawyers operating in law firms and corporate legal departments. We are fortunate, of course, to live in an age where a female IP litigator is under consideration for leading the USPTO and where many female IP lawyers are rightly recognized as firm leaders, noted academics, and occupy top roles on many in-house legal teams. But the progress to date is not enough, especially considering the continued challenges that female IP lawyers continue to encounter in their professional lives.

In an attempt to make things better, some worthy ideas have already been implemented in various corners of our industry. From proposals to expand the pool of potential registered attorneys qualified to take the USPTO bar exam, to initiatives at leading litigation funders to prioritize funding opportunities for female litigators, to workplace initiatives at leading firms and corporate legal departments keyed at increasing female lawyer retention and advancement — the legal community’s buy-in for the cause of advancing opportunities for female lawyers (and in a similar vein, lawyers from underrepresented minority backgrounds) is in many ways very evident. More so than when I was a Biglaw associate 15 or so years ago. But despite these efforts, some of the problems encountered by women and minorities in our profession persist. Hearing from those dedicated to correcting such imbalances in the business world, therefore, is definitely a worthy use of time.

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To that end, I was very pleased to come across some written material from Kathryn Valentine, who has graciously agreed to share some of her insights with this audience. By way of background,  Kathryn is the founder of Worthmore Strategies, a consulting firm focused on achieving gender parity in the workplace by empowering women to ask for what they need to be happy, productive, and successful in their careers. Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Adweek, Working Mother and Forbes, and she has spoken at Harvard, Wharton, and Darden business schools.

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Kathryn graduated from the University of Virginia, where she was a Jefferson Scholar and Lawn Resident, and started her career at McKinsey.  She has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. While in business school, she researched how to negotiate specifically as a woman; that work is the foundation of her research-based approach to women’s leadership development.

Kathryn lives in Atlanta with her husband and their two sons. She enjoys running and reading and burns everything she tries to cook. As is evident, Kathryn brings some serious intellectual firepower to her chosen professional focus, as well as specific experience working with leading businesses and schools on how to effect positive change on a personal and professional level for female businesswomen and professionals.

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Now to the interview. As usual, I have added some brief commentary to Kathryn’s answer below but have otherwise presented her answer to my first question as she provided it.

Gaston Kroub: You are a thought leader on the issue of why businesses, including law firms, should do more to retain their female talent. How do you see those efforts continuing in 2022 and beyond?

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Kathryn Valentine: By now, we all know the business case for diversity: the most diverse companies are eight times more likely to be in the top 10% of their industry. Even more interesting, 2020 research found that “the greater the representation, the higher the likelihood of outperformance … A substantial differential likelihood of outperformance — 48 percent — separates the most from the least gender-diverse companies.”

However, research by McKinsey and Leanin.org shows that 40% of women are considering leaving their current employer, and the Great Resignation proves many are already following through. This is to the detriment of their employers, including law firms, who will pay twice as much to replace these highly skilled employees as they would’ve paid to keep them. Not to mention that losing diverse talent limits the ability of these firms to access the skills, leadership styles and perspectives needed to win in the current — and certainly future — business environment.

As a whole, law firms have done an admirable job of supporting women. Top-down programs such as extended maternity leaves, IVF funding, and concierge support all chip away at the issue. Unfortunately, the nature of the top-down programs fails to recognize individual differences — what one women needs to be successful right now is different from what she needed three years ago and from what she will need in five years. This is the most clear when looking at working mothers — being pregnant, having a 3-year-old, and having a 10-year old are all distinct experiences that require differing support models.

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That’s why the new frontier in diversity efforts is bottoms-up programming. This is what is going to make the next step-wise change in equity in the workplace. To do this, each individual employee must be equipped to ask for what they need to be successful at this point in time. For example, during the pandemic, one employee at Alston & Bird in Atlanta found that he and his wife were trying to be full-time lawyers and full-time teachers. They raised the issue with their employer, who instituted an educational support system whereby employees could bring their children to a dedicated virtual learning classroom at the firm daycare, and a staff person supervised their learning. This enabled employees who were also parents to focus on being lawyers.

When I look to 2022 and beyond, I see a world where talent is becoming even more valuable, and having a diverse workforce is how companies win in the marketplace. Given those dynamics, we’re seeing companies continue to ramp up DEI programs and also shed old ways of thinking. Having a child does not mean you don’t care about your job, it just means the way of working that was created for white men in the 1950s has to be adjusted. “Negotiating” for what you need to be successful doesn’t mean you are greedy, it just means you are trying to be great at your job.

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GK: It is heartening to hear that one potential benefit of this awful pandemic is an increased willingness on the part of employers — including law firms — to demonstrate responsiveness to the needs of their employees. At the same time, I agree with Kathryn that it is easy to see why they are motivated to do so, especially in an age where talent is more willing than ever to simply walk away from an unbalanced lifestyle and working environment. In my view, it is clear that the law firms and corporate legal departments that most quickly embrace the positive aspects of the new professional “normal” — including by recognizing that female attorneys are just as entitled as their male colleagues to voice their requests for professional support — will be more likely to exit this pandemic as stronger and healthier institutions. We can only hope to hear of more success stories like those shared above by Kathryn in the near future.

Next week, we will hear from Kathryn about negotiation skills are more important than ever for female lawyers, as well as her thoughts on what law firms stand to gain from working with female leadership coaches like herself.

Please feel free to send comments or questions to me at [email protected] or via Twitter: @gkroub. Any topic suggestions or thoughts are most welcome.

Gaston Kroub lives in Brooklyn and is a founding partner of Kroub, Silbersher & Kolmykov PLLC, an intellectual property litigation boutique, and Markman Advisors LLC, a leading consultancy on patent issues for the investment community. Gaston’s practice focuses on intellectual property litigation and related counseling, with a strong focus on patent matters. You can reach him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @gkroub.

Topics

Gaston Kroub, Intellectual Property, Kathryn Valentine, The Jabot, Women's Issues


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Originally posted on: https://abovethelaw.com/2022/02/3-questions-for-a-leadership-coach-for-women-part-i/