The Complete Lawyer

What determines whether a woman attorney in a law firm at the senior associate, of counsel or non-equity partner level will be promoted to shareholder? Is it technical competence? No—she would not have made it this far if she hadn’t already been judged capable of excellent legal work. Even a book of business is necessary but not sufficient (unless it approaches $2 million). Some successful business developers have not been promoted whereas others with less business “of their own” become equity partners.

During my ten years of coaching women lawyers to achieve partnership, I’ve learned many secrets about how to cross this threshold. Women lawyers consistently say that exclusion from informal networks and lack of mentoring are among the most significant obstacles to career advancement. Firms have tried to address this by creating all varieties of mentoring programs: formally assigned mentor-mentee programs, mentoring circles and group mentoring are common. Still, the percentage of women partners in large law firms remains stalled.

I’ve written elsewhere about the multiple barriers to the advancement of women in their firms (See Lawyers Life Coach) From my perspective, one very significant reality is that having a mentor does not guarantee career progress. This is very troubling. As surprising as it may be to those firms that have paid consultants to design elaborate mentoring programs—to say nothing of the costs of the time invested in actual mentoring activities—it comes as an even greater shock to the woman lawyer who has been a dutiful mentee only to discover she is not being considered for promotion.

Not All Aspects Of Mentoring Lead To Career Success

Mentoring may serve many different functions. It can enhance an attorney’s career prospects by increasing her human capital, that is, helping her develop job-related knowledge, skills and abilities. Prior to the establishment of the current law school curriculum, this is how most lawyers were trained. Many of the woman lawyers I’ve coached over the years have found excellent mentors, either within or outside of their firms, to assist them in refining their analytical and writing skills. However, studies of mentoring in law firms indicate that this aspect of mentoring is insufficient to enable women to reach the highest levels of law-firm leadership.¹

Mentoring can also help integrate attorneys into the workplace. Lawyers whose mentors “show them the ropes,” by helping them negotiate the organization and providing insider information about organizational politics, benefit from this kind of support. Given the enormous work burdens and time constraints facing most senior attorneys, this mentoring function is now typically provided by more senior associates. Many firm mentoring programs assign “buddies” to new attorneys to help them more quickly and easily become integrated into the firm. However, there is no evidence that this kind of mentoring is significantly associated with career advancement or compensation.

Having A Sponsor Is Crucial

A third function of mentoring is that of increasing the protégé’s social capital. No less an expert that Robert J. Grey, Jr. (ABA President, 2004-2005) once told me that the most crucial ingredient for career advancement—especially for a woman or minority attorney—is having an advocate: someone with power who will watch the young attorney’s back and campaign for her behind the scene.²

The mentee’s career benefits when her mentor provides a junior attorney access to his network, facilitates her participation in collaborative projects, promotes her to others thereby augmenting her visibility and credibility, protects and champions her behind the scenes, provides challenging and highly noticeable work assignments, brings her along on client meetings and ensures that she plays an active role, and by association signals her legitimacy to decision-makers. A mentor like this functions as a sponsor. Unfortunately, in my experience, I’ve found few law firm mentoring programs that focus on this critical role.

Yet having a sponsor makes all the difference in enabling women to advance to full equity partnership. Among the first questions I ask all the women law firm attorneys I coach is, “Do you have a sponsor?” If the answer is “no” then, assuming her goal is to advance, this becomes a top agenda item. Establishing mentoring relationships with high-level, powerful insiders is essential for women pursuing career advancement in the legal profession.³

Studies of the relationship between mentoring and the career success of women in professional service firms, and law firms in particular, suggest that a senior male attorney is likely to most effectively fill this mentoring role.⁴ If for no other reason than the fact that the overwhelming majority of law firm partners and leaders are men, this is probably not very surprising. However, the gendered culture of law firms also influences the differential effects of male vs. female mentors for the careers of women attorneys. Success in most firms requires the ability to thrive in a highly competitive, aggressive, individualistic, “heroic” culture. Attributes stereotypically associated with masculine behavior are viewed as indicators of potential and “fit.” Decision-makers always have imperfect information about candidates for advancement. In the absence of sufficient, objective information to allow for a rational means of discriminating among aspiring attorneys, having a powerful male mentor signals to the predominantly male leadership that a woman lawyer possesses those sought-after competencies and qualities typically associated with her male peers.

I have often observed this male-sponsorship effect. Yet many women lawyers who hope to become firm shareholders don’t have a sponsor, a fact which constantly surprises me. Research indicates that women with senior male mentors are more likely to advance and to receive higher compensation. In contrast, the career attainment of male lawyers is not significantly affected by having a senior male mentor.⁵

Furthermore, formal mentoring programs are unlikely to help women reap the benefit of this mentoring function. Rather, the voluntary selection of a protégé by a senior male signals to other firm leaders that she possesses those qualities believed to be requirements for success.⁶

Interestingly, the assumption that women do not have access to such mentoring has not been entirely supported by recent research. At least at mid- to senior-associate levels, male and female lawyers may be equally likely to find senior men to mentor them. The disparity in the representation of men and women in the upper levels of law firms may well be occurring early in the career cycle.⁷ It seems likely that high attrition among women and women of color during their fourth and fifth years at firms is in part a response to their difficulty obtaining needed sponsorship. It is possible that senior men only mentor women who seem to be doing well beyond this crucial juncture. Further research is needed in order to determine the best way to guide young women with partnership ambitions. Should we advise them not to expect senior males to sponsor them during their early associate years or to more aggressively seek out such advocacy?

Women Need More Than Sponsors

Either way, women also need to know that while the sponsorship of a powerful senior male attorney is likely to facilitate career advancement, it does not appear to prepare women well for assuming the role and identity of partner, nor inspire the confidence and satisfaction it is supposed to bring. The lack of women at the highest levels leaves many new women partners without a clear picture of how to “act the part.”⁸ Without models for self-presentation, women can become less confident and more anxious. In addition, male mentors typically fail to provide a fourth function of mentoring: the “psychosocial” function, which includes social support, role-modeling and advice concerning role ambiguity and work-family conflict. Research indicates that this function is better served by women mentors.⁹

Unfortunately, the scarcity of women partners can make finding this kind of mentoring even more difficult than obtaining career-advancement sponsorship from a man. In addition, many junior women do not identify with the work-family models offered by senior women. And senior women are often concerned about the risks to their own career of spending political capital on someone unproven. Work and family demands may also place much more burden on their time.

Peer mentoring can address this gap. Sometimes women can obtain this kind of role modeling and support through women’s bar groups or women lawyers’ leadership coaching groups. Since 2004, 6-10 women have been participating on a bi-monthly conference call that I facilitate. They receive coaching, support, advice, models and alternatives to assist them in developing their identity as leaders and their effectiveness in managing others. “Graduates” have gone on to lead practice groups, build satellite offices for their firms, and increase their leadership responsibilities in corporate legal departments. Every one either had already developed a mentoring relationship with a senior male sponsor or used the help of the group to do so. And having grabbed the brass ring, their peers in the coaching group helped them take on and feel confident in their new leadership identity.