San Francisco Women in Leadership Symposium

The California Diversity Council presents: The San Francisco Women in Leadership Symposium, Thursday, May 17th. Located at Spear Tower, and sponsored by SALESFORCE.COM.

The San Francisco Women in Leadership Symposium grants attendees the opportunity to learn from and engage with some of the most prominent and successful female professionals of our time. This event promotes the success and advancement of females in the workplace, and is a great opportunity to learn about and understand issues that women face within companies and organizations. The event is open to both men and women!

Los Angeles Women in Leadership Symposium

The California Diversity Council presents: The Los Angeles Women in Leadership Symposium, Tuesday, May 15th at MICROSOFT CORPORATION.

The Los Angeles Women in Leadership Symposium grants attendees the opportunity to learn from and engage with some of the most prominent and successful female professionals of our time. This event promotes the success and advancement of females in the workplace, and is a great opportunity to learn about and understand issues that women face within companies and organizations. The event is open to both men and women!

Featured topics include:

• Becoming a Person of Influence
• Women in Marketing: How Senior Women Leadership Can Help Improve Your Business
• Understanding the Environment We Lead In
• Winning at the Game of Office Politics

Confirmed panelists include executives from Anna’s Linens, Edelman, Martin & Martin, LLP, The Wiki Group Inc., and Microsoft Corporation.

To register, or for more information about the symposium, visit: http://www.californiadiversitycouncil.org/what-we-do/events/wil-registration/los-angeles, or email Jazmin Potucek at Jazmin.Potucek@californiadiversitycouncil.org.

Women Helping Women...Or, How To Be a Dancin' Queen

The Women in Law Empowerment Forum held an amazing event at the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom on March 21.  The panel, moderated by Careerist blogger Vivian Chen, featured five of the Dancin' Queens, a small group of senior women attorneys from around the country who came together at a Women’s Leadership Conference several years ago.  (See this earlier post for the full story.) The DQs are not just any networking group—they are already highly accomplished leaders in their firms and practice areas.  But they recognized that they could be even more intentional and effective in building their practices.  Their solution: meet twice yearly in totally confidential, let-it-all-out retreats where they update each other on their business development goals and needs.  In addition to the getaways, they also meet at conferences, speak on panels together, and refer business to one another. 

 The theme of the panel discussion was “Women Helping Women: We’re Here for You and Each Other,” and the women spoke broadly about networking, business development, and combining business and friendship to the benefit of your personal and professional life.  Here are several of the key takeaway points:

Best Friends at the Bar: The Power of Women Supporting Women

Editor's Note:  Susan Smith Blakely, author of Best Friends at the Bar, will be speaking at Ms. JD: She Leads on October 5, 2012. This post originally appeared on the Best Friends at the Bar blog on March 6, 2012.

If you know anything about my Best Friends at the Bar project, you know that it is premised on women helping women.  Here is a new twist.  How does women helping women relate to getting ahead at your firm and demonstrating strong leadership skills?

Best Friends at the Bar

ADVICE FOR WOMEN IN BUSINESS—AND IN THE LAW

POSTED ON FEBRUARY 9, 2012

Best Friends at the Bar

WOMEN HELPING WOMEN—OR NOT????????

POSTED ON NOVEMBER 9, 2011

Best Friends at the Bar: Sharpen Your Marketing Skills and Fasten Your Seatbelts!

Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on the Best Friends at the Bar blog on October 6, 2011.

The principal of LawBiz Management Company, Ed Poll, has some interesting things to say about  the marketing skills of women lawyers.  Mr. Poll has practiced law on all sides of the table for 25 years– as a corporate general counsel, government prosecutor, sole practitioner, partner, and law firm chief operating officer, and he ought to know a thing or two.

According to his theories, if law firms encourage women in the interpersonal marketing arena and if women engage, women will be very successful marketers,and they will have more clients.  The key is for women to use their natural social and interpersonal talents in putting the client at ease and treating marketing like a conversation.  Poll says that this conversation is best accomplished by letting the client talk about his or her business concerns in a non-threatening atmosphere.

Best Friends at the Bar: A Reminder of the Power of Mentoring

Editor's Note: This post originally appeared on the Best Friends at the Bar blog on September 9, 2011.

Well, here I am, back after a wonderful summer respite full of time with old friends, new friends and family.  I have survived an earthquake, a hurricane and flash floods here on the East Coast, and I am renewed and ready to concentrate again on my projects for young women lawyers.

There are lots of new things on the horizon for me, like a newly-designed web site, a new book, a new research assistant, and an exciting new schedule for the coming work/school year. Don’t forget to remind your schools and law firms about my programs, and check out the web site for a list of my appearances.

However, as with all things new, there are challenges, and I am feeling some of those challenges these days.  Once upon a time I worked for law firms, and I had lots of “people” addressing lots of “stuff” that I, therefore, did not have to address.  Stuff like marketing, web sites, press and public relations, strategic plans, and the list goes on.  Then came my days as an entrepreneur, and now I am the chief cook and bottle washer for my business, and most of the time I feel like a one-armed paper hanger!

Best Friends at the Bar: Networking Your Way To Success As Women Law Students and Prelaw Students

Editor's Note:  Susan Smith Blakely, author of Best Friends at the Bar, will be speaking at Ms. JD: She Leads on October 5, 2012. This post originally appeared on the Best Friends at the Bar blog on March 12, 2011.

I recently attended a Prelaw Advisors Conference in Las Vegas at UNLV Law School.  The conference was sponsored by the Western Association of PreLaw Advisors (WAPLA), a subgroup of the National Association of Prelaw Advisors (NAPLA).  Because my book includes so much information for undergraduate women who are considering law school, this is a great market that I am just beginning to tap.  Not only did I sell some books at the conference, I also found that the pre-law advisors who attended are a very caring group.  They spend a lot of time thinking about their students and making sure that they are giving them good advise about their futures.

Women in Law; A Mobile App for You!

By way of introduction, we are a group of three female law students from University of Miami School of Law, New York Law School, and School of Transnational Law, Peking University. We are part of a program called LawWithoutWalls (http://www.lawwithoutwalls.org/), a transdisciplinary part-virtual academic model designed to innovate legal education and practice.  As students, we are prompted to identify a problem or "gap" area within our topic in order to design a project to solve the problem using a method that incorporates innovation and technology.  Our assigned topic is "Women in the Law; Is the Glass Ceiling Cracked, Smashed, or Unbreakable?"

Our goal is to create a mobile app for women in the field of law. We want this application to be able to offer networking, as well as access to information regarding current news/events, women’s law organizations, research & development, international news, etc. We feel that creating a network and easier access to this information will facilitate women in climbing the professional ladder and reaching higher levels of leadership in the field of law.