I am back from my trip to the Midwest where I held meetings with young women law students and delivered a key note address to the Association of Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City. All of this activity was played out against the backdrop of a storm targeting my home state of Virginia and the home state of my daughter in New Jersey. Fortunately, we were spared in Virginia, but New Jersey continues to be a challenge for so many. My hopes and prayers go out to those people in New Jersey and New York and in other Mid-Atlantic and Northeast areas, who suffered the brunt of this terrible hurricane and storm. I hope that fortunes turn quickly and that lives and homes are spared.
Even with this backdrop, my message on the road was one of hope and optimism for women in the law. At the University of Detroit Mercy Law School, I spoke to women law students and their husbands about the challenge of balance and the keys to their successes in cooperating to respond to the needs of children and family. I was inspired by their responses because it was clear that they had thoughts things out well in advance and had a plan—the kind of plan that I always emphasize. They had a “master plan” of sorts for how they wanted to handle personal and family responsibilities, and they also sat down at the end of each month and planned the following month day-by-day and event-by-event to make sure that their personal and professional needs were covered. Hats off to these young women and to the people in the Office of Career Services and Outreach at the University of Detroit Mercy Law—like Dean Markeisha Miner and Director Greta Tackebury—who encourage this kind of planning.
At the Association of Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City, I found some very entrepreneurial young women lawyers. These young women were not afraid to hang out a solo shingle or join a smaller more family-friendly firm—and taking a bit of a risk in that process. They all reported a great deal of satisfaction with their practices, and that satisfaction was clear and real to me. This, of course, was music to my ears, and it made my message very popular with this audience—including the more senior women who understand the need for the message and for a new approach to practice for women lawyers. Here are some highlights from my keynote address:
*Be willing to take a risk;
*Have a personal definition of success;
*Women lawyers can have it all, just not all all of the time;
*The issues of retention of women lawyers and work-life balance are integrally connected;
* A true work-life balance is not possible without the element of “self” and increasing personal time, caring for your health, maintaining friendships and being true to who and what you are and what makes you happy;
*The quest for perfection in both your personal and professional lives is the road to dissatisfaction in both;
*”No” is not a four-letter word, and women must learn how to say it more often to protect personal time;
*Career transitions are not a bad thing, and they should be embraced;
*There are many opportunities for good career transitions within the law that will keep you in practice and lead to greater opportunities as personal circumstances change; and
*Women must always band together to help their fellow women.
That and much, much more……As you know, I love to speak to groups of young women law students and young women lawyers, and I hope that you will encourage your employers and law schools and undergraduate schools to invite me in to share the message. Yes, undergraduate schools are now contacting me to speak, and I am delighted that the pre-law advisors understand the value of the Best Friends at the Bar program for young women considering law school.
Again, best luck to all of you who are suffering the aftermath of the storm. I am thinking of you.
