Thrive, Achieve, Grow

Sidley is that rare combination of a successful global law firm and a professional service workplace where women thrive. The firm’s culture embraces and builds upon the diverse perspectives, experiences and backgrounds of our lawyers, our clients and the communities we serve. In the Sidley workplace, women have successfully cultivated their careers, challenged their legal skills, risen to partnership, become leaders as well as role models and given back.

Committee on Retention and Promotion of Women

Sidley has an extremely active Committee on Retention and Promotion of Women. Because the firm is committed to gender diversity, it created a committee whose mission is to build on our success in retaining women lawyers, promoting women associates to partnership and promoting women partners to positions of leadership within the firm. We currently have more than 600 women lawyers firmwide and more than 120 (approximately 19%) women partners with collective experience in virtually every area of our practice. The class of lawyers promoted to partnership in 2007 was comprised of 10 (nearly 30%) women. Almost half of our associates are women.

Laurin Blumenthal Kleiman, a New York partner, and Kathleen L. Roach, a Chicago partner, serve as firmwide co-chairs of the Committee on Retention and Promotion of Women. Click here for a  list of Committee chairs.

The Committee’s mandates include all issues relating to the retention and advancement of women in the firm. Committee members periodically review and report on recruiting and attrition, rates of promotion to partner and total percentage of women in the partnership and the representation of women in leadership positions in the firm. Co-chairs of the Committee confer regularly with Sidley’s Executive and Management Committees as well as members of the Committees on Diversity, Recruiting of Associates and Assignment and Compensation.

In 2005, the firm welcomed Kathryn R. Stell as the firmwide Director of Diversity. Ms. Stell is a lawyer with over ten years of experience in developing and administering policies and programs designed to promote a diverse and inclusive environment. She works in partnership with the firm’s Diversity Committee and the Committee on Retention and Promotion of Women to advance Sidley’s firmwide diversity initiatives.

Women & Leadership - A Program for Personal and Professional Growth

We are passionate about expanding horizons for women in the firm, our clients and the business community as a whole. Sidley’s Women & Leadership event series promotes networking for women, including the firm’s lawyers, in-house counsel and other professionals. Whether emphasizing informal networking or formal presentations, these events give Sidley’s women lawyers the opportunity to build relationships and develop skills that are essential to successful business development.

Women & Leadership events feature women of accomplishment from many walks of life, including: 

• Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno 
• ACLU President Nadine Strossen 
• Shareholder activist Nell Minow 
• Merrill Lynch General Counsel Rosemary Berkery 
• National Public Radio legal correspondent Nina Totenberg 
• Dean of the White House Press Corps and United Press International reporter Helen Thomas 

In addition to Women & Leadership events, the Committee hosts social events and receptions of various types in each office. These women-only events bring together lawyers from all areas of the firm and provide critical networking opportunities. For example: 

• Chicago events have included a reception at the Lincoln Park Conservatory and a backstage look at the acclaimed “Tutankhamen and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibit at the Field Museum 
• In Los Angeles, women lawyers recently held a Lee National Denim Day to raise money for the fight against breast cancer, hosted a reception to ring in the New Year and supported an office-wide team for the Revlon Run/Walk to raise money in the fight against breast cancer 
• New York events have included a recent discussion about flex-time, as well as tours of prominent New York art galleries, community projects and the annual Sidley Women’s Summer Golf Invitational 
• San Francisco women lawyers hosted a champagne tasting to benefit Dress for Success, an organization that provides professional office attire to women who are entering the workforce for the first time 
• Washington, D.C. events have included programs on “what I know now that I wish I knew when I started practicing,” rainmaking, maternity leave issues, marketing and practice development, as well as summer and winter women’s dinners hosted at a committee member’s home

Mentoring/Professional Development

Sidley recognizes that effective mentoring is key to professional development and provides both formal and informal mentoring on many levels.

Upon entering the firm, each associate is assigned a practice group mentor. To ensure that the progress of women and diverse lawyers is closely tracked and supported, however, both the Diversity Committee and the Committee on Retention and Promotion of Women have additional formal mentoring programs, tailored to the composition and needs of the various offices.

For example, in our larger offices, the Committee on Retention and Promotion of Women assigns each incoming female associate to a “mentoring circle” that is comprised of women lawyers across a range of seniority and practice groups. In smaller offices, mentoring groups may include all of the women in the office. These mentoring programs allow each junior female lawyer immediate access to multiple women partners and counsel outside of her working group, offering a wide variety of personalities and perspectives. Each of these mentoring circles or groups is encouraged to meets professionally and socially several times a year, not only to provide mentoring but also to teach mentoring skills that enable junior lawyers to become effective mentors for the next generation.

The firm also holds orientation and training sessions for lawyers at many different levels, each of which include panels specifically designed to reflect the goals of the Committee on Retention and Promotion of Women and to provide tips for success and advancement.

Committee presentations are made regularly at firm programs including: 

• The New Associate Orientation, which is held in the fall of each year for all incoming associates from all offices which is designed to provide information to get associates off to a good start 
• “Tips” seminars for junior women lawyers after a number of months with the firm, which provide additional tips for success and to answer questions 
• The Mid-Level Associates Conference, which is held each year for all fifth year associates from all offices. In addition to the formal Committee presentation, women attendees meet for dinner with women partners to discuss positioning for promotion to partnership.
• The Women Partners' Retreat, which provides career development and networking opportunities for women partners and senior counsel

In addition to programs focused on success within the firm, the Committee also sponsors presentations on personal success, such as business development and financial planning seminars tailored to the needs of women.

Work/Life Resources

Sidley’s work/life initiatives include: 

• Reduced Hours Policy: The firm, as a matter of policy and practice, recognizes the value of and strongly supports reduced work schedules for lawyers in appropriate circumstances. Currently, more than 5% of Sidley lawyers (and more than 3.5% of Sidley partners) work on a reduced hours basis. Sidley’s reduced hours policy allows lawyers – women and men – to meet a percentage of the time commitment expected of full-time lawyers while remaining on partnership track and retaining benefits and bonus eligibility. 
• Parental Leave Policy: Sidley provides lawyers – women and men – paid parental leave following the birth or adoption of a child. 
• Same-sex Domestic Partner Benefits 
• Backup Child Care 
• Fully-Equipped Workrooms for Nursing Mothers 
• Firmwide Seminars on Hiring Child Care and Elder Care

Giving Back

Sidley’s women lawyers are at the forefront of understanding that being a leader means giving back to the community.

The firm’s award-winning pro bono work includes significant involvement and commitment to a number of organizations dedicated to improving the lives of women and children. These organizations include: 

• The Center for Family Representation, which assists families in poverty and crisis 
• InMotion, which provides legal and related services to low-income underserved and abused women 
• The Downtown Women’s Center, which provides housing for homeless women 
• The Alliance for Children’s Rights, which seeks to protect the rights and futures of abused and impoverished children 
• Dress for Success, which seeks to promote economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire and support as well as career development services

Sidley also regularly handles pro bono cases that support women’s issues and has represented the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The firm also has an active asylum assistance practice, providing legal services to victims of political and social oppression and their families.

In addition, each of the offices supports and participates in local community service projects at various charities, providing ample opportunities for lawyers to “give back” on an individual level.

Achievement and Recognition

Sidley has been named as one of the 2008 Best Law Firms for Women by Working Mother magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers, a national consulting firm advising lawyers and legal employers on work-life balance and the retention and advancement of women. Selection criteria included workforce profile, family-friendly benefits and policies, flexibility, leadership, compensation and advancement and retention of women. Sidley was also named to the inaugural list of 50 Best Law Firms for Women in 2007.

In 2005, Sidley became the second law firm to win the Catalyst Award, presented by Catalyst, the leading research and advisory organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for women and business. Sidley was recognized for bringing diverse talent into the firm and promoting women to partnership and to positions of authority within firm management. The program has produced measurable results: 

• In 2007, almost 20 percent of the total partnership is comprised of women 
• One-third of the firm’s women partners currently hold positions as firmwide or office committee chairs or co-chairs 
• Women at Sidley hold significant leadership positions and serve on the firm's Management and Executive Committees

Among Chicago law firms graded on their comfort level for female lawyers, Sidley ranked number two in a survey of 4,000 women at 150 of the country’s top law firms in Presumed Equal: What America’s Top Women Lawyers Really Think About Their Firms. (2006)

Sidley participates in a number of initiatives committed to achieving specific and recognizable goals with respect to diversity, including: 

• Signatory, Chicago Bar Association’s “Call to Action” on Women’s Leadership in the Legal Profession 
• Signatory, Association of the Bar of the City of New York “Statement of Diversity Principles” 
• Founding member, the Project for Attorney Retention (PAR), an initiative of the Center for Worklife Law at University of California Hastings College of Law 
• Sponsor, Ms. JD