Laurel Bellows's Recent Blog Posts

Negotiating Pay: Preparation Is Power

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

Congratulations! Your job interviews at a law firm or other business have gone well, and you are fairly certain you will be offered a position. Soon you will have to negotiate your pay.

My professional expertise is in executive compensation matters, as well as employment and severance agreements and benefit plans, and I understand the importance of smart compensation negotiations.

Preparation is key — disciplined preparation and not just a few notes jotted down on the run.

First, think about your dream agreement and write it out. Describe to yourself the terms you would like to reach with your prospective employer.

Then do some homework. Make at least 10 calls to see if you can determine the comparables for the pay in your line of work at your level. See if you can establish how the company is performing. Is it making a lot of money or counting its pennies? Be realistic about what you ask for, but do not sell yourself short. And do not provide a salary range. Respond with the lowest salary you will accept because you will not be offered more than that amount.

5 Top Tips for Networking in Large Groups

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

Face-to-face networking, whether done one-on-one or in a large group, can be challenging. In the first of this two-part series, I will share my top five secrets to successful networking in a group.

1. Be ready to work the room, but narrow your focus. Do not attempt to meet everybody. If there is an invitation list or some way to figure out who will be at the event, identify the people you want to meet. Think of the large networking event not as an opportunity to accidentally make useful connections but as an occasion to connect with people you planned in advance to meet. Be prepared and proactive as possible.

2. You can show up with your friends, but do not stay with your friends. Yes, friends will introduce you to other people. But if you go with friends, the idea is to send them off in two or three different directions with the idea of scooping up some good contacts for each of you.

3. Set a goal. Plan to meet two or three people on whom you can focus your attention and conversation. Look to identify the kinds of people who will refer you business, or help you get involved on a charity board, or something that is important to you.

3 Tips on How to Succeed at the Top

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

I recently spoke to young lawyers about leadership and entrepreneurship at a webcast event organized by Ms. JD. It was a high-energy, enthusiastic crowd.

There were so many good questions that we ran out of time to address them all, so I would like to revisit a crucial query that emerged: What are the top three things women lawyers can do to succeed at the highest levels of our profession?

First, there is no substitute for hard work — be seen, be heard and work hard. Volunteer for the toughest jobs, and do them well. Volunteer for career-making cases. Use pro bono cases as a way to work with and impress supervising partners. Ask intelligent questions after partner-presented training sessions. Figure out influential partners with whom you would like to work. Introduce yourself, offering something of value to them, like researching and writing an article in their area of specialization.

Second, be an outstanding lawyer. There is no substitute for excellence. Provide outstanding service and value to the client, be responsive and go the extra mile.

Third, network — develop and retain relationships for mutual benefits, beginning now. Rainmakers build relationships that serve them for life, and so should you. You can become a successful rainmaker.

Love the Law

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

February is the month for one of my favorite occasions: Valentine’s Day!

At this time when we think about love, flowers and people we care about, I like to remind myself why I am passionate about being a lawyer. I have found my passion in applying my skills as both a lawyer and an advocate. I never imagined that law would give me the opportunity to change the juvenile justice system in Chicago, to advocate for women and now to combat human trafficking. I am passionate about heading the American Bar Association, an organization that fights for equality and freedom around the world.

You, too, can find your passion in the legal profession. Whether you work in a firm, in academics or government and whatever your specialization, you can build your passion for causes that are important to you into your life as a lawyer. If you practice business law, you can also advise your corporate clients on how to eliminate human trafficking — modern-day slavery — from their supply chains. If you are an employment lawyer, work with the ABA to advise employers and HR professionals on how to train employees to identify victims of human trafficking. Human trafficking is one of the great scourges of our society, and lawyers can play a vital role in eliminating it.

Move Your Career Forward — Whether or Not You Make Resolutions

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

There are two types of people in this world: those who make and keep New Year’s resolutions and those who do not. I admit I fall into the latter category, as my discipline generally fades by Jan. 3 or 4!

Making resolutions is about setting goals. Some of us easily establish goals for ourselves and are disciplined about following through with them. For example, some of us always knew that we wanted to be lawyers — and we even knew what kind of lawyers we wanted to be — and we focused laserlike on achieving that goal. Perhaps you always wanted to be an antitrust lawyer, so you made sure your education prepared you for that job.

Others, like me, never knew we would be lawyers but left ourselves open to life’s many possibilities. But I did not depend on luck to guide me. Throughout my life, I have placed myself in a position where opportunities could find me. And opportunities have continually appeared.

You, too, can take advantages of life’s many opportunities. Network widely so that wherever prospects open up, they are available to you.

Give the Gift of Mentoring

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

’Tis the season for giving. What is the best gift you can give your peers?

The gift of mentoring!

While young lawyers may think that mentors need to be older and more experienced, a mentor can be any age and experience level.

If you are serving as a mentor, take a few extra hours to reach out and offer face-to-face advice. There is just no substitute for personal advice — especially at year’s end, as lawyers evaluate the career choices they made throughout 2012 and look ahead to 2013. December is an ideal time as a mentor to check in, at lunch or over coffee, to see if your mentee is on track.

These are tough times for everyone, which makes checking in that much more important. Your peers might need special help or advice. Maybe you could make a few calls to try to find someone a job.

Do you want to be a mentor? At every career stage, a lawyer has wisdom to offer other associates. Being a mentor is mostly about reaching out and giving your time and being willing to advise on a myriad issues, from finding a job or learning a new skill to responding to a difficult managing partner — and much more. We all can make great mentors, and we can give the gift of our time all year long.

Equal Opportunity For Editors-In-Chief

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

Tag: You’re it! The line from the children’s game relates to being “tagged” by a corporation as an up-and-coming employee. If you are “it,” you have caught the attention of upper management and will be given high-visibility assignments. You are the one to watch.

I thought about “tagging” when I read about the new report, prepared by Ms. JD in conjunction with New York Law School, showing that among ABA-approved law schools, women on average in 2011-12 held only 31 percent of editor-in-chief positions at law reviews.

An editor-in-chief position on a résumé opens doors to a high-profile law career. When there is a choice between two outstanding candidates, you can bet that the editor-in-chief will get the position. Editors-in-chief more easily obtain clerkships. At law firms, editors-in-chief frequently will be picked out of a crowd of their peers for special attention and significant assignments. Opportunities multiply.

From the Desk of ABA President Laurel Bellows: Sponsor Your Way Up the Ladder

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

A mentor alone is not enough to catapult a talented woman lawyer up the career ladder. For real career advancement, women need sponsors as well as mentors.

What’s the difference? A mentor gives advice, serves as a sounding board and makes suggestions, for example, on strengthening your work or searching for a job. A sponsor is an active campaigner (inside and outside an organization) on behalf of a particular woman. Even when a sponsor’s protégé isn’t present, a sponsor will tout her abilities: “Why not consider Rebecca for this position/for this client’s team/to handle a particular case? She’ll be terrific.”

One Catalyst survey found that women who have mentors are less likely to be promoted than women with sponsors. Another Catalyst study found that, while mentoring is essential for leadership development, it is insufficient for advancing to top levels. A sponsor “can propel a protégé to the top of a list or pile of candidates or even eliminate the list itself.”

From the Desk of ABA President Laurel Bellows: Paying It Forward Pays Off

Submitted by Laurel Bellows

For every successful woman, there’s another successful woman who has given her a hand along the way. The sisterhood is, in fact, alive and well in our field, as the recent recipients of the Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award proved. Many of the esteemed honorees have mentored or sponsored younger women in law, including Ms. JD members who are chosen to participate in the Ms. JD-American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession mentoring program.

As I participated in this year’s awards at the ABA’s annual meeting earlier this month, I reflected on what an honor it was to receive my award in 2001, and I thought about my own mentor and sponsor, Esther Rothstein, who I introduced when she received the Margaret Brent award in 1993. Among her many “firsts,” Esther was the first woman president of the Chicago Bar, the first woman to serve as a director of the Illinois Bell Telephone Co. and the first to chair an ABA committee. She believed strongly that you were in it for other people, not for yourself. Esther taught me that my support of other women should always come with assurance that the person receiving a benefit would agree to “pay it forward” by looking for opportunities to help the next woman.