That’s the title of the chapter I contributed to the recent book published by the ABA Litigation Section’s Woman Advocate Committee: Her Story: The Resilient Woman Lawyer’s Guide to Conquering Obstacles.
I was privileged to work in Croatia with CEPOR, an Entrepreneurship Policy Center, on a project sponsored by the US Embassy to Croatia. We looked at lawyers career concerns from law school through retirement, with an emphasis on early career development and mentoring. The research report about that work has been published and is available here.
Bruce Rosenstein, who focuses on leadership and self-development, featured me on his blog.
This article for professional liability insurer CNA, written with the assistance of CNA counsel Tracy Kepler, discusses succession planning for lawyers. It addresses retiring lawyers’ ethical obligations and includes helpful transition checklists that make succession planning easier and more effective.
Making Time to Retire: Best Practices for Succession Planning and a Smooth Transition
My new article explains why mentoring behaviors – not necessarily mentoring programs – are more effective than bonuses for retaining associates. Read it on LinkedIn.
Using design thinking principles can help you create a retirement filled with joy and meaning. This article explains how.
This article, published in the ACC Docket, presents retirement timing considerations for in-house counsel.
Online: When Should You Retire?
The April/May 2021 issue of Experience magazine features my article, “Retirement Is No Time to Stop Working.” It discusses the ongoing value of work in your life, whether for pay or not, and the various ways you can include some sort of work in your retirement schedule. You can read it online or at the link below.
This article was reprinted in the ABA’s GPSolo e-Report in June 2021.
Retirement is no time to stop working
I wrote a review of a new book, Designing a Succession Plan for Your Law Practice, written by Tom Lenfestey and Camille Stell. It’s a valuable guide for any lawyers, but especially those in small and solo firms, who want to know how to prepare themselves and their firms for their eventual departure.
How do you decide the right time to retire? This article presents some guidance to help you make the best decision. You can click below to read the article or view it in the January/February issue of Experience Magazine, published by the American Bar Association.
Need to talk with senior partners about retirement and succession? This article from Legal Management, published by the ALA, offers some practical advice.
After weeks in relative isolation, working non-stop from home, or worried about not having enough work, the time may be right for reassessing your life. This article presents some questions to help you consider whether retirement is an option.
Here are a few thoughts and suggestions about mentoring when we are anxious and far apart.
If you’re planning to retire at some point, take a close look at your personal and professional networks. The folks who are your contacts now will take on new importance to you as you approach and enter retirement. You might think about networking in terms of advancing your career by generating business or moving into leadership. But your network is also one of your most valuable assets when you wind down your career and move on to the next stage of your life. Read more here.
In Spanish, the term for retirement is jubilación. My article explains how applying design principles can help you create a joyful and fulfilling retirement.
My new article about how professional development teams can help firms manage the retirement of senior partners has just been published in the February issue of PD Quarterly. You can read it here: Role of PD in Partner Retirement
The Fall 2019 issue of WealthCounsel Quarterly features my article, The Critical Role of Men in Advancing Women Lawyers.
The May issue of PDQ included this article, adapted from my book, The Lawyer’s Guide to Mentoring, 2nd Edition (NALP, 2018). You can read the article here. Changing Models.
It’s nice to be featured in this article by Mark Calvey in the San Francisco Business Times about the work I’m doing to help partners with retirement transitions. The article points out that professionals and firms in many fields are having a hard time dealing with partner retirements.
I was privileged to contribute one of the lessons in Nora Riva Bergman’s wonderful new book, “50 Lessons for Women Lawyers from Women Lawyers.” You can read my lesson, “Stay Curious,” by clicking below. You can also learn more about the book and the contributors, and read excerpts from all the lessons, at https://50lessonsforwomenlawyers.com.
Whether you approach the idea of retirement with eagerness or dread, you are facing a major life transition. Leaving a career and embarking on whatever you decide to do next changes how you spend your days, who you interact with, and your overall engagement with the world around you. If you are married or have a life partner, the process is more complicated because these changes will affect both of you….Making sure your understanding and expectations are aligned early in the retirement transition process will help smooth the way over the long term.
Many firms are taking a fresh approach to diversity and inclusion that focuses on high-quality mentoring and sponsorship. This article explains the value of those efforts and describes some specific initiatives that are showing promising results.
High quality mentoring and sponsorship can increase diversity and inclusion
AttorneyatWork.com has published my new article about why and how law firm alumni programs can engage retired partners for the firm’s benefit.
The Fall 2018 issue of the Professional Development Consortium’s Linkletter contains my article on new ideas in mentoring.
This article, published in Managing Partner Forum, addresses some of the challenging issues with succession planning and the retirement of senior partners. It also presents some suggestions for how firms can improve the retirement process.
When you retire from practice, a world of possibilities will open up to you. The key is to explore and learn what the best possibilities are. Whatever your age, there are simple steps you can take right now so that you are psychologically ready, maybe even eager, for whatever comes next. To find out how to get ready, read my new article, “Prepare Yourself for a Happy Retirement,” at AttorneyatWork.com.
The excellent February 2018 issue of Nalp’s PD Quarterly includes my article, Innovative Mentoring Increases Diversity and Inclusion
John Buchanan kindly listed me a key resource on gender diversity in his excellent article, “Diversity as a Differentiator in the Legal Profession,” in the August 2017 issue of Marketing the Law Firm.
A new book edited by Ramit Singh and published in India, Managing Your Legal Organisation: Global Insights (Magic Lawyers, New Delhi) 2017, includes a chapter I contributed on “Modernizing Mentoring.” The book is available on Amazon.
In response to recent articles and books that minimize the importance of mentors in favor of sponsors, my article “Turn Your Mentors Into Sponsors” in The Glass Hammer explains that women need both and how mentors are the best and likeliest source of sponsors.
Mary Kate Sheridan wrote an excellent piece called “Modern Mentoring” in the March 2017 issue of the ALA’s Legal Management Magazine. (Subscription required) I appreciate her featuring me as a resource for the article.
My article about retirement planning by law firms, Your Boomer Retirement Problem Won’t Just Fade Away, appeared in AttorneyatWork.com on February 28, 2017. A day later Robert Denney published it as a Communique, saying “Of all that has been written and spoken about succession planning, I consider the following the most intelligent and constructive discussion of this sensitive issue.” (http://robertdenney.com/communiques)
“Innovation in Supporting Excellence – From Mentoring to Sponsorship, Coaching and Beyond” is the chapter I co-authored with Jessica Natkin in the newly published Innovating Talent Management in Law Firms, Terri Mottershead, General Editor. The book is available in the NALP bookstore.
I contributed a chapter on “Retaining women: The need for new perspectives” in the forthcoming book, Recruiting and Retaining Lawyers: Innovative Strategies to Attract, Develop and Retain Legal Talent, edited by Rebecca Normand-Hochman on behalf of the International Bar Association. The book will be published by Globe Law and Business in February, but you can read about and pre-order it here.
Come In and Make Yourself Uncomfortable, in Law Practice Today, published by the Law Practice Division of the ABA, March 15, 2016, discusses why and how to overcome any discomfort women and men may feel in order to form sponsor-protégée relationships.
Networking with Men: A Key to Career Success, in The Docket, published by the Denver Bar Association, February 29, 2016, discusses why and how women must network with men.
Breaking down barriers to mentoring across differences describes how I overcame significant cultural differences in the mentoring work I am doing in Istanbul with lawyers from the Middle East.
How Does a Lawyer Find a Sponsor? Attorney at Work Sept. 15, 2015
My article, “Your Old Guard Is Leaving: Are Your New Leaders Ready?” was published in Talent Think Tank October 13, 2014, and then appeared in Peer Bulletin, November 4, 2014 (members only).
An excerpt from Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know was posted as a “Thursday Thinkpiece” on the legal blog SLAW. January 21, 2015.
My article, “Beyond Mentoring: Why Sponsoring Women for Leadership Matters,” was published by CPA Trendlines, posted March 3, 2015
I was one of the experts Mary Kate Sheridan highlights in her article “Tailored Training: Five Professional Development Tips for Each Attorney Stage,” published in Legal Management, February 5, 2015.
Thomas L. Sager and Bonnie Mayfield, “Tangible Results Speak Louder Than Well-Intentioned Inclusion Words,” For The Defense, August 2014, discusses the importance of mentors and sponsors in advancing women and women of color into leadership.
Debra Michals, “Upward Bound,” Smith Alumnae Quarterly, Fall 2014, discusses how mentors give women a power boost in the workplace.
“Sponsoring Over Mentoring: Go the Extra Distance.” Wendy Werner’s Career Steps column focuses on the importance of sponsorship in the Sept/Oct issue of Law Practice.
I contributed a chapter on “Men – The Key to Advancing Women” in a new publication, Breaking Barriers: Promoting and Retaining Women in the Legal Profession, published by Ark Group in association with Managing Partner, 2014.
Read Susan Smith Blakely’s review of Sponsoring Women: What Men Need to Know at bestfriendsatthebar.com and http://ms-jd.org/
Jamie Jackson Spannhake wrote an article about Professional Development Coaches. I was one of the coaches she featured. “Get the Career You Want with a Professional Development Coach,” Connecticut Lawyer, July/August 2014
My article “Achieving Gender Balance Depends on Men” was published in the July 2014 NALP Bulletin. The article argues that solving the persistent problem of gender imbalance at partner and leadership levels should be reframed as a strategic, high priority business objective and that women’s initiatives should welcome men and make them part of a firmwide team effort to achieve that objective. NALP has kindly granted permission to make the article available here.
“Sponsors Are the New Mentors, Especially for Women,” AttorneyatWork.com, January 2014.
“Sponsor a Woman: Four Steps to Get Started,” Men Advocating Real Change, Jan 2014
My articles about sponsorship are featured on the International Bar Association Law Firm Management Committee Toolkit.
My article “Beyond Mentors: The Need for Champions,” appeared in the “2013 Women in Law” issue of Attorney at Law Magazine, Law Vegas Edition, Volume 2, Issue 1, December 2012.
I was recently featured in an article for the Inns of Court: John P. Cannizzaro, “The Power of Mentoring,” The Bencher, March/April 2013.
My book, Lawyers’ Professional Development: The Legal Employer’s Comprehensive Guide, 2nd Edition, was reviewed in the December 2012 issue of the NALP Bulletin. (Subscription required)
The Peer Bulletin, November 2012. Reprint of my article about coaching, mentoring, sponsorship that appeared in a previous issue of Management Solutions. The article is an excerpt from my new book, 2nd edition of Lawyers’ Professional Development: The Legal Employer’s Comprehensive Guide. The Peer Bulletin is published by Peer Resources Network, which specializes in the development of peer, coach and mentor programs.
I was featured in article in the Wall Street Journal about the increased number of women in law and medicine.
WomeninLawInternational.com, August 23, 2012. Reprinted from Management Solutions, Winter 2011
Article in The Glass Hammer by Jacey Fortin featuring her interview of me about the importance of women mentoring men.
Inside Legal Thought Leaders Digest: COLPM Issue, Volume 1, October 2011
ABA Woman Advocate, Winter Newsletter
Co-authored with Gaye Mara, PD Quarterly November 2011.
Peer Bulletin No. 143 (August 1, 2006)
Diversity & The Bar Magazine, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, January/February 2006;
Diversity & The Bar Magazine, July/August 2006;
Diversity & The Bar Magazine, Minority Corporate Counsel Association, May/June 2006;
Women in Law Newsletter, Issue No. 5
Diversity & The Bar Magazine, September/October 2006;
Diversity & The Bar Magazine, November/December 2006;
NALP Bulletin, April 2007
Law Firm Partnership and Benefits Report, June 2007
ABA e-newsletter, June 2008
The Complete Lawyer, Volume 4, Number 6
Law Firm Partnership & Benefits Reports, Volume 15, Number 9, November 2009
The Woman Advocate, ABA Litigation Section.
Lex Mundi, Global Opportunities for Advancement and Leadership for Women in the Legal Profession.