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Finding a Good Mentor Requires a Strategy
By sintecho • November 24, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
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. Some women chose mentors with whom they shared similarities, some chose mentors with whom they would never have the opportunity to interact if not for the mentoring relationship. For some, the important thing…
Becoming the role model I always wanted
By Anonymous • October 18, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
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. At last, people felt what freedom was like after 50 years of enduring an oppressive…
A Shout Out to Los Angeles and the Amazing Group of Women Lawyers
By Katie Chaine • October 15, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
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.I joined WLALA when I was a law student and they had a formal mentoring relationship with my LA law school. I stayed a member for as long as I lived in LA. (Now, sadly I've moved out of LA so I don't get to take advantage of all of their resources). If you…
The Power of One
By Emily Snider • June 24, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
The more experience I had consciously trying to "change" things, the more I realized that in order to affect big changes, a person simply needs to take individual action. My individual action, I decided, was to become a lawyer.I think a lot of women learn from their mothers how to behave in the world. Sometimes we learn from talking, sometimes from just watching. My mother was a woman who made her own decisions. She didn't make a big fuss about something before she did it. She would think about something, make a decision, and act. When I was in the…
Steps
By Anonymous • June 24, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
Though the challenges facing women in the legal field today seem overwhelming, countless women have paved the way. I think of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and current Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I think of Senator and presidential contender Hillary Clinton. I think of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.There are many challenges facing women in the legal field today. For example, a recent study has found that women lawyers in general receive on average 80% of the salary received by men who are equal to them in seniority. Like many other women in other fields, women in the…
Meet Louise Arbour
By Erin Wiley • June 24, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
I have come to realize that role models and mentors play important parts in the lives of aspiring female lawyers. I knew that I wanted to study law when, in 2000, I attended a presentation by Louise Arbour, former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and now United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. As a fifteen year-old young woman, I was inspired by the intelligence, passion, and concern for the world which she demonstrated. I was also moved by the contribution she has made in the world through her work in the field of…
My Mothers, My Mentors, My Sisters… My Strength
By Sarah J. Dreisinger • June 13, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
I have been surrounded by intelligent women for much of my life. Perhaps the most inspiring is my mother. An educator, administrator, and consummate professional, my mother has seen it all. From being a young teacher in the New York City public school system to receiving her doctorate just last year, she has come far. More than her academic and professional achievements, however, my mother is most proud of her motherly achievements. Despite her demanding schedule, family came first. My mother has taught me to value the time I spend with those I love. Although my mother has had little…
My mentors in juvenile justice: Julie Darnieder and Tanner Kilander
By • June 13, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
I find it exciting and invigorating to be entering a profession that for centuries was dominated, if not entirely occupied by males. Strangely, entering the legal profession did not strike me as a momentous accomplishment until I received my first law school acceptance letter and my parents were beaming from ear to ear. Especially my mother, because she never had the opportunity to complete her undergraduate schooling, let alone study at the graduate level. But I realize she gave up her education to stay at home to give my brother and I the life that she never had. Without my…
Attorney 2.0
By Elexis Holzberg • June 11, 2007 •Mentoring and Networking
My father is an attorney, and everyone says how similar we are. But I like that I am the "girl version." I grew up idolizing my dad. He is elegant and charming, easy on his feet, a fast-talker, brilliant, commanding and compassionate. My dad is an attorney. He is everything the movies and media painted as an archetypal lawyer. And I thought the world of him--still do. Strangers, friends, family, all gushed how similar the two of us were--our eyes, our hair, our personalities. I beamed in his presence. I soaked up his ferocious liberal politics. I listened intently as…