The most effective leaders not only move their organizations forward, but, while doing so, also help shape the next generation of leaders.
An important way for leaders to connect with that next generation is through mentoring. Mentoring was a key building block in my career, and, in return, I feel privileged to have the opportunity to mentor many firm associates, counsel, and junior partners.
Through mentoring opportunities, I try to help attorneys identify and pursue their career goals, while I simultaneously have a hand in the firm’s future by striving for a more diverse partnership. I assisted in designing our partner/associate mentoring program, to create more consistent and viable mentoring opportunities for all firm attorneys, particularly women and minority attorneys.
For example, I have been very involved in the development and growth of the Gibbons Women’s Initiative, founded in 1997, as part of a talented team that has nurtured this program into a thriving network for women in the legal and business communities. I have served as chair of the Career Development and Mentoring Committee, responsible for the initiative’s mentoring platform. In that role, I supervised and monitored mentoring groups of women attorneys at various levels in the firm, important support networks that met regularly to discuss professional growth, business development strategies, and work-life balance.
I hold other leadership positions at Gibbons that I hope hold me up as a role model to future firm leaders and give me the opportunity to assist in guiding their careers. As chair of our products liability department, I manage one of the firm’s largest litigation groups. My responsibilities include ensuring that all our attorneys are provided high quality work, meet client expectations, manage work loads, and develop professionally. Similarly, I am one of the firm’s litigation staffing partners, overseeing associates’ workflow and ensuring that they gain a broad range of practical knowledge and experience, grooming them to be wellrounded, well-trained attorneys capable of taking on the future management of the firm. I am also administrative codirector of our New York office, which houses more than 60 attorneys representing each Gibbons practice group.
Finally, as one of ten members of the firm’s executive committee, I am closely involved in all aspects of firm management, including policy development, financial management, growth strategies, and operations procedures to ensure that my peers and I leave a dynamic, diverse, and successful operation to its next generation of leaders.