Representative Cases

As part of its Women’s Initiative, we were asked to coach a woman partner who had recently made a lateral transition to the firm. Coaching focused on developing relationships with key stakeholders, acquiring important institutional knowledge and internal marketing. Read More

The new woman managing partner of an office of the firm was offered coaching as part of the firm’s leadership development program. Multiple interviews were conducted and combined with the results of objective assessments in order to design an individualized leadership development plan. The partner was able to change a formerly competitive office culture into a collaborative one, improve productivity among partners in the office and develop a strengths-based approach to leadership. Read More

A woman partner asked us to coach her as she transitioned from the Asia practices of one firm to another. Coaching goals included becoming integrated into her new firm, developing important relationships throughout the firm, retaining old and developing new clients, integrating her practice with appropriate others, getting needed resources and effectively negotiating the fine line of promoting herself internally without eliciting backlash from the largely male partnership. Read More

The managing partner of a small matrimonial firm sought our services to assist with a difficult split among the partnership. Coaching helped her manage the dissolution of the firm and the creation of a new firm. “Lessons learned” from the experience at the prior firm became useful foundations for the development of effective new systems and approaches to management. Read More

A woman partner at a large firm was frustrated by her compensation and significant challenges integrating work and family, including frequent questioning by male partners about her absences from the office. She sought coaching to help her decide whether to try to negotiate a better arrangement at the firm or to consider alternatives. She concluded that starting her own practice would allow her to choose her clients and work flexible hours. Shortly after starting her own firm she was able to accomplish these goals as well as exceed the compensation she’d been receiving at the large firm. Read More

An associate at a regional firm did not foresee good prospects at her current firm. She sought coaching to help her examine options, consider her practice strengths and interests and assess her marketability. She viewed coaching as a means to proactively take control of her career rather than waiting to see what her firm would do. Read More

Developed an interview protocol and conducted in-person interviews of 100s of associates of a large firm in order to provide feedback to supervisors as well as information for the firm about associate morale, diversity issues and office- and practice-group-specific- feedback. Prepared an extensive report to the firm about strengths and weaknesses of its diversity and inclusion efforts and areas for improvement. Read More

Retained by firm management to provide strategic consultation to the firm’s recently created Women’s Initiative. Worked with leadership to develop a multi-year strategic plan with buy-in from the highest levels of the firm’s leadership. To date, activities have included: Half-day Workshop on Leadership and Social Capital for the firm’s first Women’s Leadership Retreat Ongoing coaching of Women’s Initiative leadership Executive coaching for high-potential women partners Work with Women’s Initiative leaders to create a Networking Circles program to facilitate cross-firm and cross-practice connections among the firm’s women partners. Provide ongoing training to Networking Circle facilitators Provide training on unconscious bias to firm’s associate evaluation committee Advise on the development of an intranet for the firm’s women attorneys Advise on business development programming Advise on the creation of a process to address concerns about fair allocation of credit to women attorneys Advise on the creation of a process to facilitate the inclusion of women attorneys in joint client development activities Read More

We provided on-going business development coaching for a group of non-equity partners located within one office of a global firm. Coaching focused on creating individual business development plans, breaking these into action steps and providing accountability for the implementation of plans. The group format enabled the participants to network with one another, provide each other with needed contacts, connections and advice and to cross-sell their services to one another and to other’s practice groups. Tracking of progress indicated significant increases in marketing activities as well as revenue for each year the program was offered. Read More