Program Description

LET'S NOT WAIT FOR THE WORLD TO CHANGE - What Women of Color Can Do To Combat Barriers to Advancement

In its recent report, Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms, Catalyst found that 75% of women associates of color left their firms in the first 5 years, and nearly 86% before their seventh year – numbers that are worse than for women associates overall. Clearly, significant impediments to advancement of women lawyers of color still exist.

According to the report, several categories of barriers to retention and advancement were perceived and/or experienced by women of color in law firms, such as:

• Ineffectiveness of formal diversity efforts in creating an inclusive work environment,

• Exclusionary work cultures in which the women encountered racial/ethnic stereotypes, gender bias and perceived discomfort on the part of others,

• Lack of formal or informal access to senior lawyers or networks of influential colleagues which negatively impacts navigating firm “politics”,

• Lack of meaningful mentoring, supervision, performance feedback and evaluation,
  

• Lack of appropriate advancement opportunities and compensation including perceived unfairness and inconsistency between experience and access to the quality assignments, client relationships and business development opportunities necessary to succeed,

• Lack of support for work-life balance issues (e.g., cultural or family expectations) that may be different for women of color.

Catalyst also focused on what law firms could and should do to respond to the identified issues and recommended many constructive institutional changes to firm management and structure. These suggestions are valuable, but they require substantial investment in cultural change by firms and won’t happen overnight. In fact, many of the recommendations have been made before but have not yet been widely implemented.

Despite these barriers, there have been and continue to be accomplished women lawyers of color who are partners in Philadelphia law firms, high ranking government officials and senior corporate lawyers. That makes it important to consider how women lawyers of color who have “succeeded” met the described challenges and what individual women associates of color today can do to respond to the challenges without waiting for firm-wide institutional solutions. The women lawyers of color who have succeeded have a great deal to teach those who are in earlier stages of their careers.

This PDLG program that will be a forum for that teaching. A panel of successful women lawyers of color, chaired by Charisse Lillie of Comcast Corporation, will discuss whether they faced the challenges cited by Catalyst and, if so, how they met them or worked around them. Since many of these issues go beyond the law firm environment, panelists include women with experience in law departments and government. The goal of the program is for these women, who have not just survived but prospered, to provide useful advice to and serve as role models for associates and counsel in law firms and younger women in law departments.

To register for this program, click here. Space is limited, so register early.