Band of Sisters: Gradually, women move into top slots at state's big firms
Jody Newman, Managing Partner at Dwyer & Collora, is featured in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as part of an article on female managing partners in Boston.
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly
April 30, 2007
By Barbara Rabinovitz
Back in the early 1990s, only one woman could be found among the ranks of managing partners in Lawyers Weekly's annual listing of the state's 100 largest law firms, and she happened not to be a lawyer.
Marilyn J. Stewart was a high school graduate who worked her way up the hierarchical ladder at the Boston firm of Sherin and Lodgen. For several years, Stewart served as the firm's managing partner — a title that eventually went to a man, Morton B. Brown, who, in 1996, replaced an S&L "management committee."
In 2007, 10 women are listed as holding down the top management job at as many major law firms in Massachusetts (nine in Boston and one in Quincy). (See sidebar, "Currently at the top," below.) While that number may seem infinitesimal in a legal community of some 50,000 members, the standing these women have achieved suggests that the career course for women seeking to advance in big-firm management has changed markedly from the lonely path traveled by Marilyn Stewart.
'The need for change'
The newest of the female managing partners is Jody L. Newman, who, at 49, took the reins at Boston's Dwyer & Collora in January. A member of the firm since 1984, Newman says the challenge for her and her managerial counterparts in other Massachusetts firms "is not doing the job but getting the job."
The fact that so few women have attained the post, Newman says, is a function of the small number of women achieving partnership status. "Only 17 percent of partners, nationally, are women," she reports.
The lack of term limits for managing partners at many firms also is seen as an obstacle for women seeking to break into management. Newman's predecessor at Dwyer & Collora, William H. Kettlewell, held the post for 11 years until, she says, "he asked me if I wanted to do it."
Lauren Jennings, managing partner at Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, describes a similar scenario to explain her appointment at that Boston firm. "The previous MP [Donald H. Siegel] had been on for nine years and recognized the need for change," she says.
Others credit their years of experience and, far less overtly, their expertise as lawyers for enabling them to reach the managerial heights.
Susan M. Cooke, who, at 61, holds the title of Boston office head at McDermott, Will & Emery, cites her record at another large Boston firm as a factor in her election to McDermott Will's top slot.
Cooke started out at Goodwin Procter where she was a member of the executive committee and head of the environmental department. When she joined McDermott Will in 1996, she was named co-chair of the environmental practice group and took on various other management responsibilities before being named head of the Boston office.
At the helm of Boston's Foley Hoag with co-managing partner Robert S. Sanoff, Michele A. Whitham says she got where she is by way of election by the firm's executive committee.
"Foley is a democratically run firm; every seat on the executive committee is rotated, and people stand for election to the committee, so one gets into the management role here by getting a vote of confidence by your peers." says Whitham, explaining that the committee chooses Foley Hoag's co-MPs.
Whitham, 59, made a relatively rapid climb up the ladder, fulfilling the requirement that she be an equity partner at the firm for at least three years before she could serve on the executive committee and be eligible for MP consideration. She attributes her meteor-like ascent, in part, to her status as "a second-career person."
"I was a professor of sociology at Cornell," she says. "So I was an odd combination of being new to the practice but not new to life."
'Shouldn't be surprised'
When they are asked if their meager number — out of an even smaller, proportionately, pool of partners nationwide — constitutes progress for women in the law in the early 21st century, the local managing partners voice a variety of opinions.
"I wouldn't use the word 'troubling,' but I'm somewhat surprised there haven't been more women managing partners," remarks McDermott Will's Cooke, who says she believes that the balancing act required of women in general may be one reason she has so few counterparts at the larger firms.
"Women have many responsibilities to balance in their lives, and I think it's a challenge to do that effectively," Cooke says. "And that may account for the lack of [female] managing partners."
For Posternak Blankstein's Jennings, merely labeling women MPs by their gender can be an impediment as they strive to be perceived as equals with males in management.
"I think it'll be progress when we don't look at a person and say, 'Look, it's a woman managing partner,'" she says. "As long as we're saying, 'This is a woman managing partner,' rather than just 'a managing partner,' we haven't made progress."
Lisa J. Damon, managing partner of the Boston office of Seyfarth Shaw, is the first woman to have reached that level of authority at any of the nine offices of her firm (although the New York office has a woman sharing the MP job with a man.) She achieved that milestone not long after she and several other Day, Berry & Howard lawyers left that Boston firm and, she says, came up with "a vision of how we wanted to run a law firm — that we wanted it to be less like a law firm and more like a business."
Says Damon: "We were looking for a place that was open to a new way of doing things ... instead of a traditional law firm model that's very hierarchical. For me, the vision is incredibly important and is what drives me every day."
As for her emergence as Seyfarth's managing partner post in Boston, Damon makes no mention of her gender. "I think it was a natural evolution," she says. "I kind of ended up with the leadership job."
Even though so few other women have advanced into MP jobs, Damon insists that the several who have do represent progress.
"I would venture to say that, until fairly recently, it was probably me and just Regina Pisa," Damon, 50, says, referring to the nine-year managing partner at Goodwin Procter.
Others suggest by their comments that what has been achieved is but a hollow victory.
"It's progress, in that it's not zero," says Foley Hoag's Whitham.
Nonetheless, she views the showing by Massachusetts-based MPs as encouraging and, echoing Newman's observation about the anemic number of women partners nationally, predicts, "You can expect to see more over time as there are more and more women, proportionately, in the firms and more and more in partnerships."
Addressing 'human' needs
The priorities of the women MPs interviewed by Lawyers Weekly are, they say, not unlike those that any manager — male or female — of a major firm (legal or otherwise) would attend to.
Jennings has raised the issue of equitable leave policies for fathers and mothers at her firm.
"I was a very strong advocate that our paternity leave policy match our maternity leave policy; I'm a big proponent of men staying home and being with their children," she says. "I think it benefits women overall to have the same standards for men and women," she adds.
Whitham says Foley Hoag focuses on addressing "the human needs" of its lawyers and staff members. "We're working very hard at making sure we're a good place, an enjoyable and supportive place for people to work. I took a strong hand in promoting that initiative, but I was not alone in that."
Indeed, Whitham credits Sanoff, her male co-managing partner, for being "one of those who championed leave for parents, not the old maternity leave concept."
When asked if any of the lawyers they are managing ever balk at following their direction, these women MPs report that insubordination has not been a problem.
"People will disagree; they'll fully air their views. But at the end of the day, this is an organization where people will get to the point where they understand that the direction the firm has to go in is in the best interests of the institution," says Whitham. "We reach a consensus, and we move forward."
If anything, gender-based traits can work to a female managing partner's advantage as she deals with the disagreements that inevitably come to the fore in a large law firm, says Newman at Dwyer & Collora.
"The job [of managing partner] requires a lot of diplomacy, consensus-building, good listening skills, a lot of patience — those are things women tend to be good at," she says.
'We can learn from each other'
If it be true, as is often said, that "it's lonely at the top," then some of the women managing law firms in Massachusetts are combining forces to create what they hope will be a supportive network.
Damon, at Seyfarth Shaw, is taking the lead in that effort. "My goal is to get everyone together and see where it's going to go," she says, when asked about a possible support group for the female MPs.
But Whitham is skeptical, hinting that she prefers the support of MPs, not necessarily of her gender, in law firms like hers.
"When you want support, you have to talk about your own problems, and no one wants to say they have problems," she says. "Regina Pisa, Lisa Damon ... their issues are completely different from mine. Our areas of commonality are so small because our firms are so different."
And, she adds, "I think the experience of other women managing partners is of less importance to me than the experience of other managing partners at similarly situated firms."
As a brand-new member of the women-MP group in Massachusetts, Newman says she welcomes the support of those women who are her management counterparts. In fact, shortly after she was named to her post at Dwyer & Collora, she called Damon and the two met for breakfast.
"[Damon's] idea is that we [women MPs] need to get together and share experiences," Newman recalls of the meeting. "She's intending to get us started as a network, and I'm very excited about that. We're a fabulous, diverse group of women, and we can learn a lot from each other."
As for men, Newman says, "it's different when you're in the majority."
* * *
Currently at the top
The following are the Massachusetts women lawyers currently serving as managing partner (or in a comparable capacity but with a different title) at their respective law firms. Their names are drawn from Lawyers Weekly’s listing of the 100 largest law firms for 2006 and from information reported to this newspaper anecdotally.
Lauren D. Wilkins
Smith & Brink, Quincy
Susan M. Cooke
McDermott, Will & Emery, Boston
Lisa J. Damon
Seyfarth Shaw, Boston
Lauren Jennings
Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, Boston
Maria J. Krokidas
Krokidas & Bluestein, Boston
Jody L. Newman
Dwyer & Collora, Boston
Regina M. Pisa
Goodwin Procter, Boston
Regina E. Roman
Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, Boston
Cheryl A. Waterhouse
Donovan Hatem, Boston
Michele A. Whitham
Foley Hoag, Boston
* * *
Those who came before
The following is a list of women who have served as managing partners at large law firms in Massachusetts from 1992 to 2005. Their names are taken from Lawyers Weekly’s annual listing of the 100 largest law firms and from anecdotal information.
1992
Marilyn J. Stewart, Sherin and Lodgen, Boston
1993
Marilyn J. Stewart, Sherin and Lodgen, Boston
1994
Susan E. Pravda, Epstein, Becker & Green, Boston
1995
Pamela Slater Gilman, Taylor, Anderson & Travers, Boston
Susan E. Pravda, Epstein, Becker & Green, Boston
1996
Julie Taylor Moran, Barron & Stadfeld, Boston
Denise C.S. Woodruff, Ardiff & Morse, Danvers
1997
Lucille B. Brennan, Fletcher, Tilton & Whipple, Worcester
Jane W. Hawkes, Bowditch & Dewey, Worcester
Julie Taylor Moran, Barron & Stadfeld, Boston
Mary Ellen O'Mara, Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar, Boston
1998
Jane. W. Hawkes, Bowditch & Dewey, Worcester
Julie Taylor Moran, Barron & Stadfeld, Boston
Mary Ellen O'Mara, Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar, Boston
Regina M. Pisa, Goodwin, Procter & Hoar, Boston
1999
Deborah A. Basile, Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy, Springfield
Mary Ellen O'Mara, Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar, Boston
Regina M. Pisa, Goodwin, Procter & Hoar, Boston
Susan E. Pravda, Epstein, Becker & Green, Boston
2000
Lauren Jennings, Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, Boston
Julie Taylor Moran, Barron & Stadfeld
Mary Ellen O'Mara, Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar, Boston
Regina M. Pisa, Goodwin Procter, Boston
Susan E. Pravda, Epstein, Becker & Green, Boston
Regina E. Roman, Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, Boston2001
Lisa J. Damon, Seyfarth Shaw, Boston
Lauren Jennings, Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, Boston
Julie Taylor Moran, Barron & Stadfeld, Boston
Mary Ellen O'Mara, Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar, Boston
Regina M. Pisa, Goodwin Procter, Boston
Susan E. Pravda, Epstein, Becker & Green, Boston
Regina E. Roman, Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, Boston
2002
Lisa J. Damon, Seyfarth Shaw, Boston
Lauren Jennings, Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, Boston
Julie Taylor Moran, Barron & Stadfeld, Boston
Regina M. Pisa, Goodwin Procter, Boston
Susan E. Pravda, Epstein, Becker & Green, Boston
Regina E. Roman, Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, Boston
Michele A. Whitham, Foley Hoag, Boston
2003
Lisa J. Damon, Seyfarth Shaw, Boston
Lauren Jennings, Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, Boston
Julie Taylor Moran, Barron & Stadfeld, Boston
Regina M. Pisa, Goodwin Procter, Boston
Susan E. Pravda, Epstein, Becker & Green, Boston
Regina E. Roman, Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, Boston
Michele A. Whitham, Foley Hoag, Boston
2004
Lisa J. Damon, Seyfarth Shaw, Boston
Lauren Jennings, Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, Boston
Regina M. Pisa, Goodwin Procter, Boston
Susan E. Pravda, Epstein, Becker & Green, Boston
Regina E. Roman, Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, Boston
Michele A. Whitham, Foley Hoag, Boston
2005
Susan M. Cooke, McDermott, Will & Emery, Boston
Lisa J. Damon, Seyfarth Shaw, Boston
Lauren Jennings, Posternak, Blankstein & Lund, Boston
Regina M. Pisa, Goodwin Procter, Boston
Regina E. Roman, Sugarman, Rogers, Barshak & Cohen, Boston
Cheryl A. Waterhouse, Donovan Hatem, Boston
Michele A. Whitham, Foley Hoag, Boston
Lauren D. Wilkins, Smith & Brink, Quincy
* * *
For this woman MP, job was all business
Professionally and personally, 1995 was a year of firsts for Boston attorney Pamela Slater Gilman.
In January, the 36-year-old was tapped to be managing partner at a 19-lawyer civil litigation firm known then as Taylor, Anderson & Travers, thus becoming the first woman to hold those managerial reins at a homegrown firm. Only one other woman, Susan E. Pravda of Boston's Epstein, Becker & Green, was listed as an MP in Lawyers Weekly's 1995 "100 Largest Law Firms" section, but that firm is a national one (and is no longer in Boston under that name).
Gilman had another first in September of that year when she gave birth to her first child, a daughter.
In a March 27, 1995, interview with this newspaper, Gilman modestly described her role as Taylor's managing partner as "not a power position."
Twelve years later, with the firm reconfigured as Taylor, Duane, Barton & Gilman, this name partner has not changed her view of the managing partner post.
"My view — and the firm's view — is it's not a position of power," Gilman says. "The managing partner is expected to maintain a full caseload, so [being MP] is probably the most time-consuming job here but not the most powerful."
Certainly, with the title come major responsibilities, which, Gilman says, include: "oversee the financial stability of the firm; bring to the partnership the decision-making for administrative matters; facilitate discussions at attorneys' and partners' meetings; and oversee the administrative staff."
They are duties that "any person — we don't make a distinction between the sexes at all — is capable of. ... Some may be business-oriented; some may be more personnel-oriented."
Gilman puts herself in the former category. "I love the business of law," she says. "You go to law school to learn the rules of law, [so] I never thought I'd be running a multi-million-dollar business."
Gilman says she would encourage those who are, as she is, interested in the business aspects of the profession "to get the hands-on training" in management matters that may be offered to them at their own firms.
And she would advise the women among those business-oriented attorneys not to feel held back by their gender as they progress through the ranks at their firms. She predicts they will have plenty of company along the way and, in the end, may well be rewarded for their efforts.
"I suspect there will be more woman managing partners in time," Gilman says, "because there are more women in law schools, in law firms and in partnerships."
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