NAWL's Ready to On-Ramp program, for those of us who haven't even graduated yet.

I attended NAWL’s Ready to On-Ramp? program at Jenner & Block in Chicago, which was “designed to help lawyers develop their own personal strategy to re-entering the workforce” after taking time off, usually for raising children. Not having graduated from law school yet (one more week!), I was the youngest person there. I got some puzzled looks.But I found that the women I met, who have entered, exited, and sometimes entered the legal workforce again, had extremely valuable information to impart on a woman just starting her legal career.

Great advice was shared by the likes of Carol Fishman Cohen, author of Back on the Career Track: A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms Who Want to Return to Work, who reiterated Lynn Hecht Schafran’s point at our Ms. JD conference last month, that Sandra Day O’Connor never entirely left the profession to raise her children—she was active in the bar and the Republican party the whole time.

Deborah Epstein Henry, founder and president of the consulting firm that released “Best Law Firms for Women,” pointed out that firms want to hire and retain talented women, and might be willing to accommodate alternate schedules and time off to keep us from leaving entirely. Firms like Skadden, Arps have developed programs in which women can take up to three years off work, raise children, and re-enter the firm still sharp on their legal skills.Finally, several panelists pointed out that working and raising children is probably the norm—as opposed to the old model of working and having a spouse raise them for you. The new model requires some shifting in the entire structure of law firms. Lucky for my generation, some shifting has already begun.

There’s no reason for law students to learn this too late. Plan ahead and look for advice from veterans who have made it through past darker days of women’s issues in the legal profession.

ACLU gains admission for women into private club [Clippings]

Salon.com reports that the ACLU has successfully argued for the admission of women into Mystic, California's influential German Social Society Frohsinn, Inc., a social networking organization. This hardly spells the end of gender exclusive provate clubs. In fact the more entrenched and traditional the exclusivity of an establishment is, the more likely it will be constitutionally protected.

Does your firm offer in-house career counseling?

Recently I wrote about lawyer development, urging firms to invest as much in the success of their existing attorneys as they do in hooking new hires. Here's one way: some firms are retaining in-house career counselors for associates. Niraj Chokshi reports that a few firms are staffing these formal, permanent positions.

The position, say firm development managers, offers associates a neutral and confidential third party to go to with questions: How do I stay on track to make partner? How do I better build my practice? How can I switch practices? How do I get out of here?

There are a couple of business reasons for in-house career counseling...

[More after the jump]

Should we pay lawyers to mentor their successors?

Woke up this morning to an article claiming that "Senior Partners Press Firms to Pay Them to Train Their Successors." Details in the article suggest that this is mainly an issue of client retention (about the time it takes to smoothly hand over ongoing work). If it is an issue at all, that is--the report cites not a single specific firm or partner as evidence of the trend. Setting that aside, the headline got me thinking: should we pay lawyers to mentor their successors? Do any employers do this already? To what could such compensation be pegged?

[More after the jump]

Social Network Website For Professional Women Launches

http://www.prurgent.com/2007-12-05/pressrelease5534.htm

w2wlink.com is dedicated to providing expert content and a free private online networking environment for women at different stages of their lives and careers.

Finding a Good Mentor Requires a Strategy

In Bend An Ear, Straighten Your Path, Ann Farmer offers tips on being a "proactive mentee." The idea is that mentorship is not something that you chance to happen upon but rather something that you actively seek out based on how they can "help you shape your career." Farmer profiles several young lawyers in her article who found successful mentoring relationships, and there was no one-size-fits-all recipe.

Becoming the role model I always wanted

Communism came to an end in my native country of Albania when I was in first grade. I recall vividly all of the events that took place in my city. People came from all over the country and made their way to the port. Audacious men, women and children crowded ships to overcapacity to cross the Adriatic Sea, eager to reach Italy--many not surviving the journey. People looted stores and offices, while others held demonstrations no longer fearing imprisonment or being sent to work camps.

A Shout Out to Los Angeles and the Amazing Group of Women Lawyers

I would just like to take a minute to draw some attention to a fabulous group of women attorneys in Los Angeles-- The Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. This is one active group of women and the discussions and events that they host are really awesome.

The Power of One

Steps