practice. I also emailed a diverse group of brilliant women lawyers to solicit their advice by asking the question: “If there was one thing that you did not know in the first five years of your career but you wish you had known, what would it be?” Te answers were instructive.
Politics Matter: Diverse lawyers often neglect internal firm politics in the belief that good work speaks for itself. However, in a service business with a large number of competent professionals, and where access to quality work and expanded opportu- nities is based almost exclusively on personal relationships, it is absolutely imperative that diverse lawyers figure out the politics of their firm and execute them well.
Establish High Personal Standards: Set your own high stan- dards of competence and performance, and measure yourself by those stan- dards. If you can say yes to two ques- tions, “Did I practice good law today?” and “Did I stay true to myself?” then everything else will be alright.
Love Your Practice: Practice because you love the law and believe in the process, especially in the public interest or nonprofit sector. Practicing law is a hard way to earn a living, and very often your clients and colleagues will not appreciate your efforts. So if you are practicing for appreciation, praise, or money you will eventually be frustrated and disappointed.
Find Your Place: Often when diverse lawyers leave large law firms, they decide that “big firms are not for me.” Tis is often a response to the diminished confidence that comes from being in an environment that lacks an inclusive culture. However, all firms are really not the same, so although diverse lawyers need to be careful about their choices, they should not con themselves out of the training, experience, and professional
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prestige that come with large law firms. You may eventually leave, but let it be on your own terms.
Own Your Career: Take true owner- ship of your career from the beginning. Rather than handing over responsibility for your development to your superiors or the firm, become the CEO of your own career, even if that means paying for important training or coaching with your own money. If you do this, you will sustain a higher level of confidence over time, and you will always understand that you are often better than you have been led to believe.
be recognized and rewarded. As a result, diverse and women lawyers often fail at personal marketing and self-promotion, often to their overall career detriment. Understand the finer points and benefits of self-promotion. In most firm environments, if you do not tell your colleagues and partners what you do, they will not know.
Reorganize, prioritize, and find a way.
Say YES!: Understand the importance of saying yes. Yes to a new work oppor- tunity, or to a novel, outside-of-the-box proposal or business solution to a client problem. It is easy to panic or feel overwhelmed when your plan for the day is interrupted with the unexpected, but often those work/day altering oppor- tunities provide significant chances to learn, grow, and build relationships. Yes is easy when you have time for a new matter, but harder when your plate is full. Reorganize, prioritize, and find a way. Te payoff is immeasurable.
Self-Promote: Understand the importance of highlighting and getting credit for your accomplish- ments. Diverse lawyers, especially women, often assume that if they do a great job they will automatically
Have a Life: Cultivate meaningful relationships outside of your firm and outside of the law. It is important for you and for your career that you are involved with some people who do not compete with you or measure your value by billable hours, client origina- tions, promotions, or the last case won or lost. Having a full life also gives you perspective. Law firms, like many organizations, can impose a “fishbowl” mentality, which causes the activities there to take on a disproportionate role in your life. Having an outside life helps you to understand more profoundly that law is what you do, not who you are.
I am sure that if I had polled a larger number of women, I would have gotten additional good advice. Ultimately, I believe that what each of these women wished they had known earlier, rather than later, in their careers is that ultimately each of us is responsible for our own suc- cess. Every year that a young lawyer spends without a sharp focus on what they need to do to be both the best lawyer possible and firmly in control of their career progress is a year lost. Tis inertia is especially detrimental to minority and women lawyers. At the end of the day, no matter how hard it might be to work through or past the “isms” and “phobias” in law firms, diverse lawyers should consider this final piece of advice: Don’t fail because of the roadblocks, achieve in spite of them. D&B
Sherry Williams is senior vice president-chief ethics and compliance officer for Halliburton.
JULY/AUGUST 2012 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®
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