Keeping women on the ladder
A high-level woman attorney who has detailed the barriers to women reaching the upper echelons of the legal field in a recent book is taking steps to help more women join her in the partnership ranks.
Attorney Lauren Stiller Rikleen, a senior partner at Bowditch & Dewey LLC with offices in Worcester, Boston and Framingham, says the Bowditch Institute for Women’s Success, a fledgling institute that fosters the advancement and retention of women in law firms and other service organizations, is off to a promising start.Rikleen spearheaded the institute with the backing of her firm. Since its May launch it has been engaged to do presentations at several law firms, and it’s working with a national firm to develop a leadership summit for women. What’s more, says Rikleen, who serves as the institute’s executive director, many more in the legal profession have contacted her to inquire about possible future consulting work.
The Bowditch Institute is an outgrowth of Rikleen’s research on the workplace challenges women face, especially in climbing the ladder in major law firms. After spending two years interviewing hundreds of women in the field, the Wayland resident authored the recently published book, Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law.
Her work on the book gave Rikleen the idea of establishing the institute to help women overcome challenges and remain in the workforce. Many of the reasons women gave for not staying in the legal profession, Rikleen says, could be addressed through "teachable skills," better support networks and more flexible law firm policies.
The Bowditch Institute, a consulting arm formed by Bowditch & Dewey and, thus far, staffed by Rikleen, offers law firms assistance in creating effective women’s initiatives in the workplace, creating management practices that support women, and offering training for women in skills that can help even the playing field. While many law firms are now creating women’s initiatives, Rikleen says, they focus more on workplace business development than on retaining talented women. Such programs, she says, need to be more comprehensive and should be measured by their success in improving a firm’s retention statistics.
Rikleen says she plans to reach out to others who are involved in different success-building efforts for women, to expand the institute’s resources. She seeks to bring people together in a collaborative effort, "actually going into the workplace and assessing barriers and trying to bring about change."
Deborah Epstein Henry, founder and president of Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, based in New York and Philadelphia, who has been advising law firms for seven years on retaining and promoting women, says she’s a "huge fan" of Rikleen and is interested in collaborating. Law firms, she says, face a lot of pressure to diversify and create women’s initiatives. "What hasn’t happened yet is that they haven’t really breathed life into those policies," Henry says.
For example, she says, many law firms have written policies regarding part-time and flex-time schedules for lawyers, but the use of such options is extremely low. Henry says training and policies should make such options usable without the stigma they currently hold.
Henry adds that there is already a lot of support in the legal professional around women’s issues but, she says, law firms still have a long way to go.
Micky Baca can be reached at mbaca@wbjournal.com
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments