Women Lawyers--Back on Track

Social Media for Women Lawyers

2010-12-01T08:45:44-05:00

This week's

Daily Record column is entitled "Social Media for Women Lawyers."

A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.

*****

Social Media for Women Lawyers

Social media can be a powerful rainmaking tool for women lawyers because social media plays to their professional strengths.

Studies have shown that women lawyers are reluctant to promote their accomplishments and for that reason, social media is a great fit for women attorneys. It allows them to demonstrate their substantive knowledge without having to brazenly promote themselves. Women also excel at communicating and collaborating, traits that social networking facilitates and rewards.Likewise, social media provides women attorneys with much-needed flexibility, allowing them to network and showcase their expertise on their own time.

Women lawyers can use social media platforms from the convenience of their own home or office, expand their immediate circle of contacts and initiate online men- toring and business relationships with lawyers at other firms and with successful professionals from all over the world.

Social media can also benefit women lawyers who are working part-time or seeking reentry to legal prac- tice. For example, many job-seeking lawyers tend to overlook one of the most obvious ways to use social media to stand out from the crowd: Start a law blog.

Blogging can be beneficial to women attorneys seeking to tran- sition back into the legal field in many ways. Blogs allow lawyers to demonstrate their substantive knowledge, showcase their writing and analytical skills, and convince prospective employers that they are on top of changes in their field.

For women lawyers in search of a job, blogging is most effective when the blog focuses on the substantive area of law in which they hope to practice.

There are a number of different types of posts that a topical blog of this type can include: commentaries about recent news articles regarding the area of law the blog focuses on; discussions on issues raised by other law bloggers who write about similar issues; or summaries and analysis of recent case law or recent statutory changes.

Effective blogging can lead to many unexpected opportunities. For example, my first law blog, Sui Generis, was instrumental inhelping me ease back into the legal arena after a three-year, self-imposed hiatus. That blog proved to be invaluable to my subse- quent career path and has resulted in countless professional, writing, speaking and networking opportunities.

Unfortunately, not many women lawyers are blogging or otherwise using social media to their benefit. There are a number of possible reasons for this: some women aren’t con- vinced of the value of social media; some feel there’s simply not enough time for them to balance social media, work and their family obligations; while others, including those seeking to return to the work force after an absence, lack confidence in their tech skills.

For that reason, I’ll be holding a webinar at 3 p.m. on Dec. 2 with Carolyn Elefant, with whom I co-authored the book “Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Fron- tier.” During the webinar we’ll explain how social media can benefit women lawyers and how to ease into social media without feeling overwhelmed by technology or information overload. You can register for the webinar here.

Women lawyers are uniquely positioned to reap the benefits of social media. It’s simply a matter of understanding and taking advantage of this new, flexible platform that has the potential to level the playing field. Of course, social media isn’t a “magic bullet,” but it does provide women attorneys with one more powerful tool in their arsenal. Women lawyers should learn about it and use it to their advantage so that they can successfully differ- entiate themselves, expand their networks and compete in ways never before possible.

Nicole Black is of counsel to Fiandach & Fiandach in Rochester. She co-authors the ABA book Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier, co-authors Criminal Law in New York, a West-Thomson treatise, and is currently writing a book about cloud computing for lawyers that will be published by the ABA in early 2011. She is the founder of lawtechTalk.com and speaks regularly at conferences regarding the intersection of law and technology. She publishes four legal blogs and can be reached at nblack@nicoleblackesq.com

Success is in the eye of the beholder

2010-12-01T08:44:41-05:00

This week's

Daily Record column is entitled "Success is in the eye of the beholder."

A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.

*****

Success is in the eye of the beholder

I attended a luncheon recently for Rochester-based women attorneys who had graduated from my alma mater, Albany Law School. The event focused on the different paths through which women attorneys could find professional fulfillment.

Over lunch, each table discussed the various issues faced by women attorneys and at the end of the meal, each group offered a report summing up the gist of the conversations.

The attendees consisted of, for the most part, two different groups of graduates: those who graduated from law school in the mid-2000s and more “seasoned” attorneys like myself, who had graduated prior to the mid-1990s. Missing (for the most part) were women attorneys who graduated between 1995 and 2005.

Initially, this puzzled me, but I later realized that many of the “missing” alumni likely had very small children. Of those who had young families, some were no longer working and were out of the legal loop altogether; others were working full or part-time and were no doubt desperately juggling the demands of work, family and life. For most of these women, attending an alumni luncheon was a time-killing luxury they could ill afford.

Nevertheless, their views were represented, I believe, by those of us who had been there, done that. And, this soon became apparent as each table reported back to the group regarding their discussions. Although many topics were covered, one recurring theme cropped up repeatedly: that the definition of “success” is different for each person.

In other words, you need to define success for yourself and understand that your concept of success must be flexible, since your frame of reference tends to alter the concept of success as well. If you buy into someone else’s concept of “success,” you are bound to be miserable.

It is so important for young attorneys and law students — especially women — to acknowledge and embrace this concept, since the failure to do so has the potential to drastically affect their sense of self worth down the road.

This is because many young women lawyers envision having children, but simply cannot, or will not, acknowledge that starting a family will fundamentally alter their priorities, and, quite possibly, their definitions of success. And if these young women have not yet accepted that their concept of professional success may change over time, then they are in for a rude and uncomfortable awakening — one that begins the moment that they announce their pregnancy to the world.

For me, the internal conflicts that I felt during my pregnancy and in the years that followed were tremendously difficult. I wrestled with feelings of personal inadequacy and worried that I wouldn’t be able to maintain the high professional standards that I expected of myself. I also worried that I would be incapable of both working and mothering my child in a way that would not render me an unfit parent.

I continued to experience feelings of inadequacy a few years later when I decided to take a hiatus from the legal field to care for my children. I suffered from extreme guilt and truly felt as if I had singlehandedly derailed the entire feminist movement and failed women lawyers everywhere.

In retrospect, I gave myself far too much credit! Nevertheless, had I understood that success is a fluid, and very personal, concept I’d have fared much better and spared myself much unnecessary angst.

So please, young women lawyers and law students: Understand and accept that success is in the eye of the beholder. Realize that it is a fluid concept that changes over time. Never let anyone else define success for you — not your colleagues, mentors, parents, professors, career counselors, or classmates. Only you know what success is for you. Delegate that determination at the risk of your happiness.

ABA Journal Blawg 100: Where the Hell Are the Womens' Blawgs? (UPDATED)

2010-12-01T08:42:14-05:00

Image by insidetwit via Flickr

Once again, the ABA Journal's Blawg 100 popularity contest has failed abysmally to include a fair cross spectrum of legal blogs. I've been silent for years on this issue, but this year, I've had enough. It's been a while since I wrote about women and blawgging, and I figure it's high time I addressed the issue once more.

Of the 100 blawgs nominated by the ABA staff as "the best and brightest law bloggers in a variety of categories," perhaps 10% are written by women.

Now one might think that there is a dearth of women attorneys blogging, but that's simply not the case. There are plenty of high quality blawgs written by women attorneys. But, for some reason, those blogs are largely ignored by the ABA Journal and other blog popularity contests.

For now, let's address the "legal tech" category, since technology blogs tend to be dominated by men. So one can only assume that if there are women lawyers blogging about tech, there are certainly a higher percentage of women authoring blogs that fall under the other Blawg 100 categories.

Of those 9 blawgs featured in the legal tech category, only one is authored by a woman: Sharon Nelson's blog, Ride the Lightening.

Are there other fabulous legal tech blawgs written by women that are largely ignored? You bet there are! Here are just a few of them:

Stepanie Kimbro's Virtual Law Practice blog
Martha Sperry's Advocate's Studio
Denise Howell's Bag and Baggage and Lawgarithms
Me--I blog about tech at Sui Generis
Debra McCurdy's blog Health Industry Washington Watch
Susan Brenner's blog Cyb3rcrim3
Out of the Jungle -- authored primarily by Betsey McKenzie

There are plenty of well written, interesting law blogs written by women. They're just not getting the attention they deserve.

I'm tired of the ABA's tendency to focus on many of the same blawgs every year--and their absolute failure to include a comparable percentage of high quality blawgs written by women. It's troubling, to say the least.

(***Edited to tone down my rhetoric;)).

UPDATE:

As I've mentioned in the past, blogging is changing and much of the discussion about blog posts occurs on other social media platforms and that was certainly the case with this post. Although there are a number of great comments below, there were also some great conversations and comments on Facebook and Twitter that merit inclusion in this blog post.

First, a number of people pointed out that they have been involved with the ABA's selection process (or know those involved) (Reginald F. Davis (@recessguy), Bob Ambrogi (@bobambrogi)), that many women participate in the process (Lisa Solomon (@lisasolomon)) and/or that they've seen no evidence of bias.

Others questioned my methodology which was arguably off the cuff and not exactly scientific, since I simply estimated numbers based on a cursory review of the nominees. Others pointed out that I failed to take into account the group blogs that were nominated and included women bloggers (Molly McDonough (@Molly_Mcdonough)). Finally, others suggested that there simply weren't enough women bloggers for there to be a 50/50 split or even a ratio close to that. Kelly Phillips Erb (@taxgirl) suggested (on Facebook) that another causative factor could be that male bloggers were better at promoting themselves.

In response, I noted that I considered the group blogs to be a wash since in general, there were still more male bloggers than women bloggers on most group blogs. My co-author, Carolyn Elefant(@carolynelefant), expressed a similar idea in a Facebook discussion about my post, stating that although there were "a large number of group blogs and professional blogs - like the BLT, blogwatch and other ALM blogs...it is very different blogging as an individual."

And if you exclude the group blogs, you're still looking at approximately a 90/10 split in favor of male bloggers. Secondly, I don't think a 50/50 split is necessary, but the ~90/10 split is disturbing and evidence of an unconscious bias (I'm certainly not alleging that there was intentional bias--I want to make that very clear). Or, as Bob Ambrogi noted on Twitter in a very diplomatic manner, if nothing else, "the list shortchanges women."

Finally, I noted, along with a number of other people, that women, along with men, express an unconscious bias against other women without realizing it.

Jim Milles (@jimmilles) explained this quite eloquently on Twitter: "Women bloggers could easily internalize biases that tend to favor male bloggers as more authoritative." And Robert Richards (@Richards1000) cited a law review article that supported this theory: "Audrey Lee collects the cases & scholarship: http://bit.ly/gzPKj0 Unconscious Bias Theory in Employment Discrimination Litigation."

A related issue that was raised by my co-author, Carolyn Elefant, on Facebook was the lack of women speakers at many conferences. Carolyn stated: "Same on the speaker circuit. How many women lawyers are giving plenaries at the big conferences or even the solo shows? I did 3 plenaries this year and I was the only woman I've ever heard."

However, this issue was also discussed on Twitter, with Stephanie West Allen (@idealwg) noting that she'd never experienced that type of bias at all during her 25+ years speaking.

Finally, a number of people noted the lack of overall diversity in the selected blawgs, including Carolyn Elefant on Facebook (ethnic and racial diversity), and Andrew Weber (@atweber referring to government blawgs) and Ruth Carter (@rbcarter referring to student blawgs).

The bottom line: it's not a simple issue. In fact, some would call it a non-issue and claim the disparity has nothing to do with bias.Others, like myself, disagree.

I'm not sure who's right, but I do know that raising the issue elicited some really interesting discussion and it was beneficial for that reason alone.

Social Media for Women Lawyers Webinar

2010-11-10T09:38:40-05:00

How Women Lawyers Can Harness the Power of Social Media To Achieve Professional Goals

DATE: Thursday, DECEMBER 2, 2010
TIME: 3 pm Eastern Time
You will have two options for the webinar:

1. Teleconference option, with print out of slides sent in advance;
2. Webinar option (follow slides on the screen during the presentation)

COST: $35.00

One lucky registrant will receive a copy of Social Media for Lawyers. All registrants will have the ability to purchase the book at a discount rate.

Please contact Carolyn Elefant at carolyn.elefant@gmail.com or Nicole Black at nicole@nicoleblackesq.com with additional questions.

Unlike any other presentation you may have attended on social media, this webinar/teleconference focuses on specifically on these issues largely unique to women. We’ll cover the following topics:

Why social media is such a powerful rainmaking tool for women lawyers;
How social media can benefit women lawyers working part-time or seeking re-entry to legal practice;
How to ease into social media without feeling overwhelmed by technology or information overload;
The tried and true formula for successful engagement of social media;
Time management strategies for power use of social media while maintaining work-life balance;
BONUS: In addition to these more general topics, we’ll show how to put them into practice with a step-by-step strategy on using social media to identify and secure speaking engagements in front of your target marketing audience and media coverage.

The webinar will be taught by Carolyn Elefant and Nicole Black, co-authors of the ABA bestseller, Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier. Carolyn and Nicole are lawyers who have used the power of social media to benefit their respective careers. They offer trainings to law firms, bar associations and law schools on using social media to achieve professional goals.

You can register for the webinar here and learn more about it here.

Appropriate Attire for Women Attorneys

2010-04-27T13:22:15-04:00

This week's Daily Record column is entitled "Appropriate Attire for Women Attorneys."

A pdf of the article can be found here and my past Daily Record articles can be accessed here.

*****

Appropriate Attire for Women Attorneys

Earlier this month I had the privilege to attend a local alumni event sponsored by my alma mater, Albany Law School: “Successes and Challenges Facing Women Attorneys.”

It featured Lauren Stiller Rikleen, attorney and author of “Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law.” Stiller Rikleen gave an amazing presentation full of depressing statistics about the fate of women lawyers in our profession.

I think my favorite depressing fact was that women lawyers who are married see decreases in income, while married men see increases. The statistics regarding the disparities in the career paths and incomes of women attorneys versus male attorneys was striking, but not unfamiliar to me. At this stage of the game, men and women simply fare differently in our profession for any number of reasons.

The Chicago Bar Association also held an event targeted to law students this month, “What Not To Wear Fashion Show,” which was covered by the Above the Law blog. The show’s panel consisted of judges, law professors, lawyers and fashion industry experts who offered advice on appropriate attire for lawyers.

Apparently, the event should have been called “What Women Lawyers Shouldn’t Wear,” since the vast majority of the advice centered on appropriate attire for women attorneys, with male attire being a mere afterthought.

One issue that appeared to be of great concern to the panelists was that women should avoid revealing their “form,” lest they “tempt” the “married men at law firms” or “distract” the judges.

Yes, apparently the panelists, one of whom was a judge of the feminine persuasion, actually suggested that it is the job of women lawyers everywhere to hide their “form” in order to ensure male attorneys stay focused on the task of practicing law.

One wonders how male gynecologists manage to perform their job in the face of seemingly insurmountable distractions, but I digress.

The panel reminded me of one with a similar focus, held in Memphis in 2008, at which a group of lawyers and judges met to discuss the issue of a dress code proposed by a number of Memphis Bar Associations.

The proposed rule at issue was: “All attorneys should wear appropriate attire. Men shall wear coats, ties, slacks and appro- priate footwear, which does not include athletic shoes or shoes without socks. Women shall wear professional and conservative attire, such as dresses with jackets, suits or pantsuits (with appropriate tops), and appropriate footwear, which does not include cocktail shoes or sandals or athletic shoes.”

I think my favorite part of the rule is that the attire for women is specifically described as “conservative.” For some reason, men need not dress “conservatively.” Presumably 1970s-style leisure suits would be perfectly appropriate for men to wear court.

One also wonders how cold-weather-climate attor- neys such as myself are expected to handle the issue of boots in the winter. Boots most certainly are not “appropriate footwear” under the proposed rule. They are an absolute necessity, however, when you have to walk a few blocks to court in the middle of an Upstate winter. Men have the luxury of slipping “rubbers” over their (flat) shoes. Many wear the unattractive foot coverings into court as well, and I’ve never heard any complaints about that particular practice.

The Memphis panel, like the Chicago one, seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time complaining about the fashion choices of women lawyers, paying mere lip service to the choices of men. Another day, another sexist panel.

One day, perhaps, “fashion” panels that seemingly exist solely to criticize women attorneys will be looked upon as tacky tribunals of generations past.

One day, there no longer will be a need to hold panels focus- ing on gender disparities in promotions and pay.

One day, the gender of an attorney will be a mere afterthought.

When I entered law school I assumed, naively, that day had long since arrived. Now I simply hope that day will come at some point in my lifetime.

"Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier" Preview Launch at ABA TechShow

2010-03-19T15:43:56-04:00

My new book, Social Media for Lawyers: The Next Frontier, will be published in just a few weeks. My co-author, Carolyn Elefant and I are extremely excited about it and will be launching a preview of the book at the upcoming ABA TechShow in Chicago.

Hopefully, we'll have the chance to see many of you at TechShow and discuss our book and social media issues in general!

You can catch up with us at any of the following events:

We're presenting at TechShow on Thursday March 25th at 8:30 a.m.--Creating your online presence
There will be a "Meet the Authors" session held on March 25th at 4 p.m.
We're also hosting "Taste of TechShow" dinners on both Thursday and Friday nights (3/25 and 3/26). You can sign up at TechShow.

You can view an excerpt of the book here and soon you will be able to pre-order the book here--just enter product code 5110710.

ABA speaking engagement: Social media for lawyers in Philadelphia on 5/6

2010-02-23T17:01:33-05:00

I'll be speaking at the ABA Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law's annual Symposia on May 7th in Philadelphia. The panel is entitled: "The New Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn-Blessing or Plague?"

We'll be discussing the following issues:

How social media is making company information - be true or false, good or bad - can strengthen or damage a corporation or individual brand
The role legal counsel should have in managing this information. What can be done to protect an organization?
Opportunities and challenges of social media and provide practical solutions for legal counsel to assist their clients

You can learn more about the program and the entire symposia here. Hope to see you there!

The latest lawtechTalk episode

2010-01-06T08:39:51-05:00

If you're in the market for new legal technology products for your law practice, you may want to check out the latest lawtechTalk screencast, available for viewing at not cost, which features, and is sponsored by, the following legal technology products:

MyCaption--Provides a Blackberry application that converts speech to text within minutes and synchronizes seamlessly with Outlook.

Legal Workspace--Provides an internet-hosted (aka cloud computing) legal IT environment using many of the desktop software products already used in many law offices, including Amicus, Quickbooks and Time Slips.

Winscribe--Provides digital dictation and work management software that can be either server-based or cloud-based.

In this episode of lawtechTalk, I've tweaked the format a bit. During each screencast and demo, I'll be interviewing a representative from each company. Hopefully this interactivity will make the screencast even more interesting for you, the viewer.

You can access all four parts of this episode by scrolling through and clicking on each segment below.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-24T14:39:38-05:00

Wishing you and yours Happy Holidays!

BREAKING NEWS! Women lawyers are underrepresented in law firms!

2009-10-26T09:14:11-04:00

This just in from the National Association of Women Lawyers (who took it upon themselves to conduct yet another study doomed to have depressing results from the very start)--they've reached the "astounding" conclusion that women lawyers are "terribly underrepresented" in the upper ranks of large law firms.

Via the ABA Journal one of the findings of the study was that:

Women play “a surprisingly small role” in the highest levels of firm leadership. The highest governing committee at the average large law firm is made up of only 15 percent women. Only about 6 percent of law firms have women managing partners, a small increase from 2006, when only 5 percent of the managing partners were women.

Say what? Good lord--really?!?! Why, I had no idea. Thank goodness NAWL conducted this study. Now that we know all about the gender disparities in the legal profession--now that they're documented--things will no doubt improve, right?

I don't know about you, but I'm not holding my breath.

And neither is Joanne Lipman, who wrote an amazing op-ed in the New York Times this weekend about gender and our culture: The Mismeasure of Woman.

If you do nothing else today, read this article. It sums up so many of my experiences and feelings about gender issues.

From the article:

The truth is, women haven't come nearly as far as we would have predicted 25 years ago. Somewhere along the line, especially in recent years, progress for women has stalled. And attitudes have taken a giant leap backward.

I never expected that we would be in this predicament. My generation of professional women took equality for granted. When I was in college in the 1980s, many of us looked derisively at the women's liberation movement. That was something that strident, humorless, shrill women had done before us.

We were sure we were beyond it. We were post-feminists. After all, we lived equally with men. We felt that when we took our place in society, issues of gender - and race too - wouldn't be a factor.

Back in college, my friends and I never even had a conversation about balancing work and family. We had never heard of glass ceilings. We didn't talk about sexual harassment - that was just part of life.

I continue to wonder how I glossed over these issues in my youth. I seemed to think that everything would magically fall into place. I was disdainful of stay at home mothers. Domestic duties were unimportant, simplistic and most certainly beneath me.

Somehow, I would achieve professional success and everything else would somehow, magically, work itself out.

Sadly, that wasn't the case. Running a home and parenting children actually take up time and energy.

Kids gets sick at the most inconvenient times--and never at the same time as their siblings. People who repair furnaces, plumbing and roofing tend to want to accomplish those tasks in the daytime, during regular work hours.

Another factor I never fully appreciated until I had kids: if my kids leave the house with uncombed hair, but they're with daddy, it's "sweet". If they're with me, I'm a horrible, unfit mother who doesn't care for her kids.

People never approach my husband to volunteer for school activities--they always approach me--even though I work full-time. And, if my husband makes an appearance as a volunteer at a school activity, it's unexpected and "cute". If I do so, it's normal and expected-- if fail to do so, I'm an uncaring, selfish mother.

It's not easy being a woman and a mom. We're all doing the best we can do. Which is why I loved the concluding paragraphs of Lipman's article:

Women do have a different culture from men. And that can give us some tremendous advantages. Women are built to withstand hardship and pain. (Anyone who has given birth knows what I'm talking about.) That's a big benefit at a time like this, with the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent and rising.

Women define success differently; for some it may be a career, for others the ability to stay home with children. They also define themselves differently. I'm in the unfortunate position of witnessing many friends and colleagues laid off over the past year. But the women are less apt to fall apart - and this goes even for the primary breadwinners - because they are less likely to define themselves by their job in the first place.

Certainly, when you look at the numbers, women have made tremendous strides over the past 25 years. But in the process, we lost sight of something important. After focusing for so long on better jobs and higher pay, maybe the best thing - the enduring thing - we can do is make sure respect is part of the equation too.

If we can change the conversation about women, the numbers will finally add up. And that's what real progress looks like.