New Law Student & Young Lawyer Rate for NAWL 2013 Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon

Law students and young lawyers now receive a discounted registration rate to the 2013 NAWL Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon!

Join over 800  leading women lawyers from across the United States and abroad at our 2013 Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon held at the historic Waldorf=Astoria on July 25th.  NAWL will recognize and honor leading lawyers who have made significant impacts to improve and diversify the legal profession, as well as NAWL members who, through their time and effort have made exceptional contributions to fulfilling NAWL’s mission. In addition, you will have the opportunity to participate in interesting and timely CLE programs along with a networking events, including NAWL’s Networking Night of Giving benefitting inMotion.

To learn more and to register for this event, please visit:  www.nawl.org/nawlannual.

Personal Branding Corner: What Does Your Brain Have To Do With Your Brand?

Disclaimer: I am NOT a neuroscientist!  I am far from it.  However, what I am is an avid student of what makes people tick.  In many ways, I started my company based on my fascination with why some lawyers had an effective personal brand and career, and others did not.  That led to my exploration of the brain and mindset of successful personal brands.

Many of my clients have such an interest as well. Others just want to have their work with us re-affirmed somehow.   That's where I turn to my friend and UCLAprofessor, Dario Nardo.  Dario company is Radiance House.  He travels internationally speaking on the subject of the brain and all things brain.  Here's what Dario has taught me (the layman's version):   Click HERE to read rest.

Trading in the Expense Account: Transitioning from Big Law to Public Interest: The Agony and the Ecstasy

I am currently completing a year-long fellowship at a nonprofit. My term comes to an end at the end of the summer, and I already find myself looking back on the last eight months and feeling grateful, but also a little excited about the fellowship ending.

 I am grateful for many reasons that I probably cannot even accurately describe: this job has opened up my mind and heart to a lot of issues that I had never seriously considered before. Professionally, I have worked with some amazing people and have acquired skills that I would never have learned at a law firm. I am completely astounded by the dedication and passion that is sustained when people are doing work that they believe in the deepest parts of their being. There is just nothing like waking up and knowing that your work matters.

Creating success at the Hit the Ground Running Bootcamp

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to participate in the Hit the Ground Running Bootcamp at Vinson & Elkins in DC.  It was truly an unbelievable experience.  I was given individual feedback from experienced attorneys on my communication, networking, and self-promotion skills while interacting with local leaders in the legal profession.  We learned everything from how to approach a cocktail reception to how to manage your LinkedIn page to the best way to get your point across to a boss.  After hearing each influential speaker, we broke up into small groups and practiced these much needed skills with seasoned attorneys.  Along with seventy of my peers, I definitely left ready to Hit the Ground Running in my career!

An overview of the fantastic day:

Effective Communication with Eileen Billinson

To kick off the day, Eileen first communicated the importance of having your own goals and a “Business Plan.”  She filled our anxious minds with ways to communicate our message in any setting – from delivering legal information to a supervisor to public speaking.  She focused our attention to sharpening our soft skills and embracing self-awareness.  Eileen made sure we understood that communication is not a one-way route but goes full circle.  To truly communicate, you not only need to know your audience and be receiver focused but also need to know how you are speaking.

Walk a Mile in My Heels, by Anonymous Woman Attorney

Today is Equal Pay Day.  That is the date the salaries of women catch up with the salaries their male counterparts earned in 2012. There is much public discussion about why it is that women do not succeed at the same levels as men and about the dissatisfaction many young women have with their careers.  The reasons for these situations might just stem from the fundamentally different experience that women and men have on the job. With respect to the legal profession, it is difficult for many male attorneys to understand the work environment of most female attorneys. Imagine, though, that the roles in most law firms were reversed.

Reverse the Roles.  Picture  a male attorney fresh from law school, beginning to look for his first job.  More of his law professors than not were women, but his class was about 50 / 50 men and women. He hadn’t given much thought to gender differences in the job market, but he shines up his shoes and heads out . . .

Personal Branding Corner: WHY Do You Practice Law?

Have you ever wondered if people really care what you do for a living?  I go to so many events where people stand up to introduce themselves and lead with what they do- "I'm a lawyer, I'm a dentist, I'm a CPA, I'm an engineer".  Blah blah blah.

Do you really think that you will captivate us, inspire us and have us remember you this way?  In a world where it seems every other person is a coach, lawyer, doctor, accountant or engineer, who really cares that you are one, too?

So a few days ago I posted a video from a few years back by Simon Sinek where he explains the reason your "why" is so much more important than your "what".   I love this video because it helps me explain why your personal brand is so important. Even better, Simon's video articulates my entire personal branding mission and work so well.

Click HERE to read the rest.

Trading in the Expense Account: Transitioning from Big Law to Public Interest: Spring Cleaning Edition

I have a confession: I have yet to spend less than I make since I started at a non-profit seven months ago. I’ve had some help along the way (gotta get those tax returns in early!), and I have found ways to scrimp and save, but I am always, chronically, over budget. Given the state of the budget debate in Congress, I doubt they could even figure out a way to balance mine at this point.

Well, perhaps that’s an exaggeration.

Here’s the thing – as I’m sure you all know – you have your fixed expenses and your variable expenses. These terms would seem to imply a clear dichotomy, but I now propose that it is not clear. It is not clear, at all. Things that seemed variable a couple months ago now seem fixed and those things that were “fixed” are still fixed, but are becoming increasingly burdensome (and I’m resenting the fixedness of their position).

Blog and Tweet for Equal Pay!

Tomorrow is Equal Pay Day! Do You Care About Equal Pay? We thought so! That is why we are sharing three great ways for you to participate this Equal Pay Day.

1. Join The ABA Gender Equity Task Force and Young Lawyer Social Media Working Group’s Equal Pay Day Twitter Chat! #EPLaw

Featuring:
Laurel G. Bellows – President, American Bar Association (@laurelbellows)
Marcia D. Greenberger – Co-President, National Women’s Law Center (@nwlc)
Yolanda Young – Founder, On Being a Black Lawyer (@OBABL) and more!
Moderated by Ms. JD (@msjdtweets)

Tuesday, April 9, 2013, 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. CT

Please contact hanna.jackson@brooklaw.edu with questions

2. On April 9 from 1:00-2:00pm ET, the National Women's Law Center will also be hosting a tweetchat to discuss equal pay. The tweetchat will feature special guests! NWLC will be chatting on the hashtag #TalkPay. Email Amy Qualliotine at mailto:aqualliotine@nwlc.org for more details on NWLC’s tweetchat.

3. The National Women's Law Center is also gearing up for this year’s Blog for Equal Pay Day!  There are many sides of this issue that are important, and NWLC wants to hear what equal pay and the wage gap means to you.

Register Now for the Hit the Ground Running Bootcamp!

D.C.-based Ms. JD readers! Are you a law student gearing up to start your career? Are you a young attorney, still navigating the ins-and-outs of the legal industry? If so, do not miss this exciting opportunity to learn the skills that will enable you to succeed in today's competitive legal market while networking with law firm partners, senior government officials, in-house counsel, and hiring directors.

Ms. JD, in partnership with the Women's Bar Association of D.C., would like to invite you to attend the Hit the Ground Running Bootcamp, to be held on Saturday, April 6th at Vinson & Elkins LLP in D.C. This extraordinary opportunity will teach attendees how to lean into their careers, drawing from the knowledge of highly talented and respected legal professionals from all over the nation. Whether you are interested in biglaw, small law, government, public interest, business, or anything in between, this bootcamp will teach you how to negotiate, self-promote, and communicate with confidence.

Confirmed faculty members include:

- Julie Silverbrook (ConSource)

- Suzanne Reifman (Vinson & Elkins LLP)

- Jennifer Archie (Latham & Watkins LLP)

- Zazy Lopez (Department of Justice)

- Maria Gonzalez Calvet (Department of Justice)

Personal Branding Corner: Are you a closet professional? Get out your horn and toot it!

Inherent to the personal branding process is the ability to be able to know your uniqueness, own it and let others know it.  Of course, if this was easy to do everyone would be an expert at personal brand management, have more business and be happier in general.

Yet, as I always say, we find that people have a hard time being outstanding and shining brightly AND letting others know it.  Inherently, the problem is low self-confidence.  Therefore, we become "closet professionals" as I like to call it.  We go around hoping someone will somehow notice how great we are, like us and then hire us.

Last week I had the pleasure of hearing a speech by Edith Ramirez, the Chairwoman of the FTC.  She spoke at a local female lawyers luncheon.  Ramirez is a bright and capable lawyer,  having been on law review at Harvard with President Obama.

Click HERE to read the rest.