Being Thankful

Welcome to my web site and to my inaugural blog! I think that it is appropriate to get this started during the Thanksgiving week. I have a lot to be thankful for—especially an editor and a publisher who believed in me and my book—Best Friends at the Bar: What Women Need to Know about a Career in the Law— and readers who are helping to convince the publisher that taking a chance on me was not a bad thing. I am thankful for the more than 60 contributors who have made it possible for you to have a mentoring book of this quality to guide you in your career choices. Bravo! to all of those women lawyers and judges—and a few men—who have made that important commitment to you.

And of course I am thankful for all of you who have read the book and recommended it to your friends. Keep those sales figures up so that I get to the next book with the blessing of my publisher.

Thanks also to your law schools, law firm employers and law organizations that have booked me to speak in the past and in the future. I really love to make these connections with young women law students and lawyers, and getting the word out that women are in control of their careers is my mission. I am thankful to all of the Best Friends at the Bar who help me spread that message.

I also am thankful for the opportunity to come to you in cyberspace and share my ideas with you and get your feedback on the book. Your comments will help me to know what is on your mind so that I can bring you the most helpful information possible to keep you in the law and make your careers as successful and satisfying as possible.

So, let me know what you think about the underlying problem of the low retention rates for women in our profession. 46% of women lawyers leave their profession mid-career— to be exact—according to the most recent statistics. Is that the fault of law firms and other legal employers or is it the fault of women attorneys who do not approach their careers carefully enough?

You know where I stand on that (if you read the book and the web site), but I would like to know what you think. BTW, that 46% is not the number of women who jump off partnership track or leave firms to go to other legal settings like nonprofit groups, government agencies or corporations where their schedules are often less grueling. That is the percentage—46 %—of women who leave the law altogether, mid-career and never to return.

Where else in our society do we put up with an attrition rate that high without raising the roof about it? Is that because it is a woman’s issue and fails to get the attention that it would as a man’s issue? Just saying……………

Happy Turkey Day to all of you, and I look forward to hearing from you.