By Aimee Hansen
Women lawyers are underrepresented in M&A primarily because they are less likely to enter and stay in the field. But some M&A women partner lawyers wonder if young lawyers know what they are missing.
The gender gap in M&A
A study of more than 17,500 lawyers at 25 law firms nationwide found that women held 48 percent of first and second year associate positions (corporate: 43 percent, M&A: 40 percent) but only 18 percent of senior equity partner positions (corporate: 16 percent, M&A: 15 percent).
While a glaring gap in women between the associate level and equity partner level exists across law, the distinguishing M&A gap is at entry level. Female enrollment in M&A courses (37%) was also noticeably below enrollment overall (45%), showing that law students are disinclined to enter, and/or discouraged from entering, the lucrative practice of M&A.
The survey’s authors speculate that perceptions about M&A keep women out, such as being testosterone-fueled, more demanding, and not family-friendly.
Being a woman in M&A
Clare O’Brien, Partner at Shearman & Sterling, entered M&A as a third year associate only because the firm had a mandatory rotation policy back then.
“I actually didn’t really want to go to M&A because it had a reputation of being very ‘male’ …” says O’Brien. “That’s a cautionary tale, in the sense that if I’d had my druthers, I wouldn’t have chosen to rotate to the M&A team, but I was really glad that I did.”
M&A law is skewed male, and investment banks (with which M&A lawyers regularly interact) more so, but O’Brien says being a woman has not impeded her advancement.
“Nobody made me feel less competent or less able than any of my male colleagues. I got opportunities to do the same sort of work, the same level of responsibilities and the same exposure to clients as my male colleagues,” O’Brien shares. “From my point of view, my preconceptions were not, as a general matter, actually born out in practice. Maybe I was lucky to work with the people I did, or maybe the preconceptions are a little bit unfair.”
Here are some of the rewarding aspects of M&A that you may not know about:
Being central to people and process
“I think it’s one of the more interesting practice groups to be in, because in a transactional practice, M&A tends to be the hub, and so people who work on the M&A team are generally responsible for the transaction documents,” says O’Brien, “which means we get to solicit and receive input from other practice groups and then incorporate that input into the transaction documents.”
According to O’Brien, more exposure to the processes of client decision-making and multiple practices positions an M&A lawyer well if she or he decides to transition to an in-house or business position.
“You are more of a generalist than any other practice area,” says O’Brien, ”which, I think, makes you a better lawyer. And you generally have closer contact with the business people than people working in other practice areas.”
Learning on an on-going basis
“We have a very cross-border practice, so, at least in my work, you get confronted with different legal regimes and questions that you don’t know the answer to and have to find out, so you’re constantly learning,” says O’Brien. “That may be true of other practice areas, but my sense is that they are more jurisdiction-based than M&A.”
This growth opportunity includes the latitude to learn about M&A as you enter the field. Among a recent panel of six senior M&A women lawyers at BC Law, few had either interest or experience in finance during underground or law school.
Having satisfying work flow
M&A lawyers report that it’s gratifying to move through the finite deal-making process from beginning to end, and that a transaction-based practice offers a sense of completion.
“The work has a flow to it, which is satisfying in the sense that you get to work on a transaction, you get to understand at least some of what your client does, as well as the business that is the subject of the deal, you get to draft and negotiate the transaction documents, and get to a signing, and then a closing,” says O’Brien. “Each signing and closing represents a milestone, and therefore an accomplishment.”
In the panel, M&A lawyers also expressed that the hands-on immediacy of the work (as opposed to litigation on past damages) and tangibility make it rewarding.
Leveraging strategic and relationship-building skills
While M&A is more associated with masculinity, much of the skills required – collaboration, listening and consensus building – are more “stereotypically” feminine.
“I think you get to be a better listener, and to exercise diplomatic skills…What you’re trying to do is to find solutions instead of erecting roadblocks,” says O’Brien, “so you have to be creative and prepared to think outside of the box. You have to be able to listen to the other side’s concerns, why they don’t want to do what you want them to do, and then, where possible, find a compromise.”
“You can’t just pound the table and say ‘it’s my way or the highway’ because that often won’t work,” says O’Brien, “and your client won’t thank you for it because your client wants to get a deal done and wants somebody who can help it do that, rather than hinder that.”
When it comes to the broader benefit of women in deal-making, a recent study of S&P 1500 companies found that organizations with a higher proportion of women on the board pay less for both acquisitions (15.4 percent less for each female director) and takeovers (7.6 percent less for each female director).
What about the schedule?
Flexibility is increasing in firms and much can be done remotely during the valleys of work, but peaks are both exciting and intense. When signing or closing a deal, being in the same room for extended hours with the client and the other side is often still necessary.
“What can be hard is the unpredictability of your schedule,“ says O’Brien. “If your client wants to do a deal and it happens they want to do it over the weekend, you have to do it over the weekend.”
O’Brien emphasizes the importance of building up a support network you can rely on, and notes that M&A lawyers usually have the means to pay for that support. Also, finding flexibility, one senior M&A lawyer reports arranging her summers off with her kids.
“I think what you have to do is say OK, when I’m ready to have a family, I’m going to have a family,” says O’Brien. “If you’re waiting for the right time, there’s never going to be the right time, so you have to go ahead and do it when it’s right for you.” O’Brien’s own daughters are eleven and seventeen years old.
Is M&A for you?
Like any area of practice, M&A will not be for every women lawyer, but if you can get beyond the dissuading preconceptions, you may find yourself surprised.
“In my view, M&A is one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting practice area in corporate law, and the perceptions that women are less welcome, and are less successful, are overblown.” says Shearman & Sterling’s O’Brien. “If you decide that you want to pursue a corporate practice that is transactional, and if you’re interested in being intellectually challenged and interacting with people on a constant basis, you should seriously consider becoming an M&A lawyer.”
Voice of Experience: Saralyn Cohen, Pro Bono Counsel and Global Director, Shearman & Sterling
People, Voices of ExperienceBy Cathie Ericson
One of the keys to career success, according to Saralyn Cohen? Having an open mind about where you’re working. “You never know where you will end up – so take chances and be open-minded when opportunities present themselves,” she says. “A law degree can open multiple doors – so don’t sell yourself short. Take a chance and say ‘I would love to learn that.’ Don’t get too narrow, especially early on in your career.”
Tracing Her Successful Path One Step at A Time
Reflecting on her own route, it’s easy for Cohen to see how each step she took built upon the previous one, eventually leading to her current position, which she has held since 1999. She says that if you had told her in law school this is where she would end up, she never would have believed it. “It’s too good to be true,” she says.
Her dreams of being a lawyer began in middle school as did her passion for thoroughbred horse racing. She had intended to combine the two – forgoing the on-campus interviews during law school to pursue firms that practiced in her niche, typically in southern states. That’s why she and her adviser were shocked when a job was posted looking for someone for a thoroughbred racing law practice in a New York firm.
She got the job and spent several years there – able to practice in her niche, but since racing wasn’t a full time specialty, she was also exposed to other disciples, such as reinsurance and litigation. That led to a job with a medium-size firm where she was hired in the reinsurance practice, working her way up to junior partner.
While at the firm, she and two other associates formed a pro bono committee as a way to professionalize the pro bono practice, and upon her return from maternity leave, Cohen learned of a job availability for the pro bono position at Shearman. “I feel very fortunate to be working at a place I love and doing meaningful work I love,” she says.
Advancing the Specialty
Cohen was the only practitioner in the firm of this relatively new, unique practice and had few people to bounce ideas off of. She soon learned that was the case at most firms, and with fellow practitioners, helped formalize the discipline in the industry, forming the Association of Pro Bono Counsel (APBCo). Ten years later they have 200 members globally and benefit from the opportunity to collaborate with counterparts at other firms.
“We are doing everything we can to try to narrow the justice gap,” she says.
One current topic of great interest is immigration law, helping immigrants know their rights and obtain representation and guidance. As a federal law, it invites collaboration as the issues and the filings are the same in all states. Another new and upcoming field is social ventures, including figuring out sustainability and access to clean water and solar energy and how this discipline can benefit from pro bono.
Industry wide, they also have to counteract the image of pro bono law as “a mommy job,” which she finds slightly offensive as external contacts picture her and her counterparts flitting about the community looking for work or attending galas.
“It’s not an issue within my firm as they understand and value what I do, but one of APBCo’s goals is to underscore throughout the industry that it is a legitimate practice area,” she says, adding that she and her counterparts in the law firm pro bono industry space have the responsibility not to undervalue their work. “We add value in our firm and within the legal profession, and we work hard to do that; it’s not a frivolous job.”
On a broader scale, she hopes women continue to act as role models for more junior women. “It’s vital to have access to mentors and those who can guide you from the standpoint of being a woman lawyer,” she says, noting how grateful she is for how much Shearman is doing to advance the cause.
With a “wonderful husband and two teens,” she appreciates that her job allows her to inspire her kids that everyone can use their skills to address a need in the community. “You don’t wait around for someone to tell you what to do. Take action and get involved – if everyone does a little something, a lot can get done.”
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Is It Possible to Be an Entrepreneur within a Corporate Structure?
Career Advice, Guest ContributionAt some point in everyone’s career we begin to take inventory of what want in a job, what we seek for our professional growth and what brings us joy. In an ideal world, we’d all have jobs that don’t feel like work, pull a huge paycheck and allow us to achieve our goals. However, the reality is that many people, for reasons often beyond their control, leave work every day feeling unfulfilled – often, this is due to underutilizing a key skill set or feeling that potential is being left untapped.
For individuals who are drawn to entrepreneurship but don’t yet own a business, there’s a middle ground – the less-talked-about intrapreneurship. In a nutshell, intrapreneurs bring the entrepreneurial spirit to their corporate structure. This translates to freedom of thought, out-of-the-box problem solving, flexible brainstorming and long-range thinking that can be lost in the day-to-day grind. Intrapreneurs have the advantage of paycheck security and other benefits, all while being able to explore new avenues to sell a product or service in a role they already have familiarity with.
Another important component of intrapreneurship is the level of focus that intrapreneurs possess. An entrepreneur should view his or her company as a vision from starting point to end, but an intrapreneur works within the company to focus directly on a specific problem. Intrapreneurs, therefore, should have more directly applicable skills for a specific task. An intrapreneur takes risks, but those risks fall within the context of his or her job in the existing company. So, rather than focusing on the whole company, intrapreneurs hone in on the processes within it.
In this same vein, intrapreneurs are the primary forces of innovation within their companies. Like entrepreneurs, they look to provide solutions to unique, often market-driven problems. They focus on policies, technologies and applications that solve a specific problem, often resulting in productivity issues. In the same way that an entrepreneur starts a company to provide a service or product, an intrapreneur takes on a task within the company to strengthen it as a whole.
This sounds great, right? Somehow being able to balance your entrepreneurial ambitions with job security? Well, it’s not that easy – the first step is finding a company that’s open to intrapreneurs and their big ideas. When you’re looking for a job, make a point to find a corporate culture that supports your innovation, and actively interview for a culture that matches your values, goals and personality. Flexibility should be encouraged instead of suppressed, and the company should be comfortable with out-of-the-box thinking. It’s also worth considering exploring if the company has the budget – and internal capacity – to make the changes you might bring. Flexibility is key, but the space for implementation of your new ideas is what will actually allow intrapreneurs to fully realize their ideas.
What do intrapreneurs look like? They’re often independent, willingly autonomous individuals who like to thoroughly investigate every facet of a problem they’re presented with. They don’t respond well to micromanagement as they feel it stifles the experimental and creative processes. They’re free thinkers, but appreciate the overarching structure of a company that they feel aligns well with their values, goals and career direction. They’re the building blocks of their company’s executive teams and are a driving force behind innovation and forward motion.
If you see yourself in the description of an intrapreneur, you’re not alone – women make great intrapreneurs. We’re better equipped to challenge the status quo – we’ve been doing it as long as we’ve been alive! Fighting is in our blood, and we have great ideas that are well thought out and adaptable. Young women, in particular, have shown increasingly entrepreneurial ambitions, but many lack the experience or resources to pursue their own business at this time – however, entrepreneurially minded women may find that bringing a spirit of intrapreneurship to their corporate jobs gets them quite far. In fact, most businesses celebrate having women in higher-level positions, so why not harness this positive energy and look at ways to challenge the status quo further with big ideas, long-range thinking and out-of-the-box problem solving?
Meg Schmitz is an independent consultant of FranChoice based in Morton Grove, Ill. Her free services aid individuals along their path to professional independence, while developing a plan to achieve personal lifestyle goals through franchise investments. Contact Meg at MegSchmitz@FranChoice.com.
Why Are Women Underrepresented in These Key Job Markets?
Career Advice, Guest ContributionImage via Shutterstock
By Tiffany Rowe
Our technological world is expanding at an astounding rate and jobs in the STEM industry remain in high demand. Those holding degrees in math, technology, engineering, and the sciences have, in many cases, their pick of lucrative and rewarding jobs. When you add an advanced degree in one of those subjects or in business then the opportunities are seemingly endless.
However, while the world as a whole is contributing to advancements in these areas, the people who secure these jobs are overwhelmingly men. Women are represented equally in some of these fields but engineering and computer science degrees are given to only about 29 percent of female undergraduates. University classrooms where STEM classes are taught are generally filled with male students. Some women are the sole representatives of their gender in these classes.
Many of us have long been told that this gender gap in these fields is related to the notion that girls receive less encouragement than their male counterparts to tackle these subjects during their lower educational years. While this can’t be proven, the simple fact that men far outnumber women in the STEM industries can’t be ignored.
While you may hear many different reasons why this occurs, we’re going to look at some solutions that can help women boost their power in the STEM job market and bring their unique talents to the industry.
Erase the Stigma
Many people erroneously believe that girls are not supported nor encouraged to take on advanced classes in mathematics and sciences during their younger years or that they’re not as capable as boys are. Factually this is untrue as both boys and girls show equal results on aptitude tests for these subjects.
Women and girls are more than capable of learning the fundamentals of higher mathematics and sciences when they’re given the opportunity. However, the stigma still exists that girls are less capable of excelling at these subjects than boys are. Younger children are experiencing less of this today than they were even just a few years ago, but young women in high school and college may still feel that these fields are not right for them or that they won’t succeed.
What Parents and Educators Can Do
While educational trends and how they focus on female students are changing, there are still many things that parents and educators can do to encourage interest in these subjects. Childhood curiosity knows no gender so if your daughter shows an interest in computers, math, or science do all you can to encourage that.
Learning how to write code comes very easily for younger children just as foreign languages do. If you’re an educator, encourage your school district’s administrators to implement these classes for children in lower grades. There has been a push to encourage more coding education, backed by the likes of Amazon, Google, Code.org, and more. As of just a few years ago, only 0.4 percent of college-bound women intended to major in computer science.
What Women Can Do for Themselves
Many women who have already attended university and achieved a degree in an unrelated field may think they’re now unqualified for any type of job in the STEM industry. Fortunately that’s not always the case. Many women who have undergraduate degrees in arts or humanities can take additional classes to better familiarize themselves with the fundamentals.
Earning online MBAs is a great way to get an edge in the industry. Advanced business degrees almost always include the option to narrow the focus of the program and these focuses do include some science and technology. Plus, innovations made in science and technology are useless unless the right person has the business and marketing skills to introduce them successfully to the public or direct them to the proper channels for further research and development.
It’s very easy to realize that, given the complex nature of our changing society and environment, that people with the technological skills and education to continue to make advancements for the benefit of society are invaluable. In fact, our lives and the lives of generations to come may depend on the technology we perfect and discover today. All of us can only benefit from having as many people tasked with solving complex problems as we can and that needs to include women. And with the right education, encouragement, and tools there’s no reason that can’t happen.
Voice of Experience: Hilary Rapkin, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, WEX
People, Voices of ExperienceBy Cathie Ericson
Life is a series of stages, says WEX’s Hilary Rapkin, an observation she was recently reflecting on as advice given to her by a mentor. That means what you feel like when you have a six-month-old baby is not what you’ll feel like when that child is two or four. Life changes, and you can’t base career decisions on those emotions you feel at the start, she says.
Over the years Rapkin has been able to cultivate relationships with professional women in similar stages so they could share common experiences — whether about babies, teens or elderly parents– all in an effort to have a rich life and find the elusive work/life balance. That vision and support is how women can successfully integrate a high-powered career with family, she says.
A Serendipitous Interview Launches an Illustrious Career
After law school, Rapkin joined a boutique firm in Portland, Maine, where she soon found that law firm life, specifically litigation, wasn’t a good fit for her. However, she realized she could parlay the employment discrimination work she was doing into a potential career in HR. While interviewing with WEX, the HR director noted that Rapkin’s experience was a better match to a legal position – one the company was considering creating. She was hired and has spent 22 years at the company, growing from a one-person legal department to today, where she oversees the company’s global legal footprint and has HR reporting directly to her.
Among the many noteworthy experiences she’s had over the years, Rapkin considers her involvement in WEX’s IPO in 2005 to be the professional achievement she is most proud of thus far. The team accomplished the filing in three months – while she was pregnant – and she remembers the fast learning curve as being particularly exciting.
Aside from that, she says that over the past few years she has been involved with the HR function, she has found it extremely satisfying to watch the evolution of cultural elements that make WEX special. “The process that has made our culture so strong has been very intentional, and some of the HR programs, such as philanthropy, have had a meaningful impact on employees that may be hard to measure, but you know it when you see it,” she says. “It’s made me really proud of who WEX is and how it is becoming visible to the outside world.”
She looks forward to seeing how WEX can continue to move forward along that trajectory, and to watching the forward-thinking programs and compensation plans come to fruition.
On the legal front, she is pleased to see investments in technology which will create efficiencies and opportunities for legal staff to develop deeper advisory roles with their clients. The new systems are designed to simplify core processes like contract maintenance in an effort to free up associates’ time for more strategic work, such as building business relationships and helping WEX achieve its business objectives. “It’s hard to work on becoming a trusted business partner if you are mired in contract work, so I look forward to seeing how these additional systems will help our team.”
As the department has grown, Rapkin has become an expert on new business segments, as WEX has moved into the broader payments landscape. She finds that 22 years later, her job is still challenging as she works through evolutions in technology and the complexities that a global payments company present. She thinks future lawyers will have similar interdisciplinary experiences as law schools couple with business and finance functions to groom lawyers who are more well-rounded when they enter the field.
An Environment Dedicated to Success
While Rapkin never took psychology, she remembers taking the Myers-Briggs personality test. This led her to think about who she was compared to peers, and the effect those different personality styles had on their relationships.
“By knowing your relative strengths and weaknesses, you start realizing that it’s the sum of the parts that makes companies successful, and you don’t have to have the weight of the world on your shoulders,” she says. “It’s important to figure out how to get the best out of your team by managing each individual as an individual.”
She’s proud of the strides WEX has made in implementing programs that she says are a clear depiction of the company’s commitment to offering choices to both women and men, including paid parental leave, which only 17 percent of companies offer. “I hear from people all the time about how that sets us apart, and certainly our profile as a diverse company is bolstered by having three female members on the executive leadership team.”
Rapkin is poised to launch an informal women’s group this summer that will encourage them to learn from one another through informal dialogue around topics like networking, perceptions of women in the workplace and goal-setting.
Gender equality is just part of who WEX is as a company so Rapkin has never felt any gender bias. She does note that sometimes it’s hard to balance parenting and work, although she stresses that her work has ultimately made her a better parent.
A Commitment to Balance
Rapkin takes every opportunity to do yoga as part of her quest for balance, and also counts philanthropy as an important component towards that end. She enjoys bringing her kids, ages 15 and 12, with her to volunteer at a local Jewish nursing home, and is also on the board of a local theater company that often produces original works.
Her kids have inherited her love of adventure, having traveled since they were babies. “We live in a beautiful place, but I want them to see the world,” she says, adding they are looking forward to a summer trip to Chile.
She is also quick to mention that she doesn’t do it all herself.
To work with M&A: Young Women Lawyers May Be Missing Out
Career AdviceWomen lawyers are underrepresented in M&A primarily because they are less likely to enter and stay in the field. But some M&A women partner lawyers wonder if young lawyers know what they are missing.
The gender gap in M&A
A study of more than 17,500 lawyers at 25 law firms nationwide found that women held 48 percent of first and second year associate positions (corporate: 43 percent, M&A: 40 percent) but only 18 percent of senior equity partner positions (corporate: 16 percent, M&A: 15 percent).
While a glaring gap in women between the associate level and equity partner level exists across law, the distinguishing M&A gap is at entry level. Female enrollment in M&A courses (37%) was also noticeably below enrollment overall (45%), showing that law students are disinclined to enter, and/or discouraged from entering, the lucrative practice of M&A.
The survey’s authors speculate that perceptions about M&A keep women out, such as being testosterone-fueled, more demanding, and not family-friendly.
Being a woman in M&A
Clare O’Brien, Partner at Shearman & Sterling, entered M&A as a third year associate only because the firm had a mandatory rotation policy back then.
“I actually didn’t really want to go to M&A because it had a reputation of being very ‘male’ …” says O’Brien. “That’s a cautionary tale, in the sense that if I’d had my druthers, I wouldn’t have chosen to rotate to the M&A team, but I was really glad that I did.”
M&A law is skewed male, and investment banks (with which M&A lawyers regularly interact) more so, but O’Brien says being a woman has not impeded her advancement.
“Nobody made me feel less competent or less able than any of my male colleagues. I got opportunities to do the same sort of work, the same level of responsibilities and the same exposure to clients as my male colleagues,” O’Brien shares. “From my point of view, my preconceptions were not, as a general matter, actually born out in practice. Maybe I was lucky to work with the people I did, or maybe the preconceptions are a little bit unfair.”
Here are some of the rewarding aspects of M&A that you may not know about:
Being central to people and process
“I think it’s one of the more interesting practice groups to be in, because in a transactional practice, M&A tends to be the hub, and so people who work on the M&A team are generally responsible for the transaction documents,” says O’Brien, “which means we get to solicit and receive input from other practice groups and then incorporate that input into the transaction documents.”
According to O’Brien, more exposure to the processes of client decision-making and multiple practices positions an M&A lawyer well if she or he decides to transition to an in-house or business position.
“You are more of a generalist than any other practice area,” says O’Brien, ”which, I think, makes you a better lawyer. And you generally have closer contact with the business people than people working in other practice areas.”
Learning on an on-going basis
“We have a very cross-border practice, so, at least in my work, you get confronted with different legal regimes and questions that you don’t know the answer to and have to find out, so you’re constantly learning,” says O’Brien. “That may be true of other practice areas, but my sense is that they are more jurisdiction-based than M&A.”
This growth opportunity includes the latitude to learn about M&A as you enter the field. Among a recent panel of six senior M&A women lawyers at BC Law, few had either interest or experience in finance during underground or law school.
Having satisfying work flow
M&A lawyers report that it’s gratifying to move through the finite deal-making process from beginning to end, and that a transaction-based practice offers a sense of completion.
“The work has a flow to it, which is satisfying in the sense that you get to work on a transaction, you get to understand at least some of what your client does, as well as the business that is the subject of the deal, you get to draft and negotiate the transaction documents, and get to a signing, and then a closing,” says O’Brien. “Each signing and closing represents a milestone, and therefore an accomplishment.”
In the panel, M&A lawyers also expressed that the hands-on immediacy of the work (as opposed to litigation on past damages) and tangibility make it rewarding.
Leveraging strategic and relationship-building skills
While M&A is more associated with masculinity, much of the skills required – collaboration, listening and consensus building – are more “stereotypically” feminine.
“I think you get to be a better listener, and to exercise diplomatic skills…What you’re trying to do is to find solutions instead of erecting roadblocks,” says O’Brien, “so you have to be creative and prepared to think outside of the box. You have to be able to listen to the other side’s concerns, why they don’t want to do what you want them to do, and then, where possible, find a compromise.”
“You can’t just pound the table and say ‘it’s my way or the highway’ because that often won’t work,” says O’Brien, “and your client won’t thank you for it because your client wants to get a deal done and wants somebody who can help it do that, rather than hinder that.”
When it comes to the broader benefit of women in deal-making, a recent study of S&P 1500 companies found that organizations with a higher proportion of women on the board pay less for both acquisitions (15.4 percent less for each female director) and takeovers (7.6 percent less for each female director).
What about the schedule?
Flexibility is increasing in firms and much can be done remotely during the valleys of work, but peaks are both exciting and intense. When signing or closing a deal, being in the same room for extended hours with the client and the other side is often still necessary.
“What can be hard is the unpredictability of your schedule,“ says O’Brien. “If your client wants to do a deal and it happens they want to do it over the weekend, you have to do it over the weekend.”
O’Brien emphasizes the importance of building up a support network you can rely on, and notes that M&A lawyers usually have the means to pay for that support. Also, finding flexibility, one senior M&A lawyer reports arranging her summers off with her kids.
“I think what you have to do is say OK, when I’m ready to have a family, I’m going to have a family,” says O’Brien. “If you’re waiting for the right time, there’s never going to be the right time, so you have to go ahead and do it when it’s right for you.” O’Brien’s own daughters are eleven and seventeen years old.
Is M&A for you?
Like any area of practice, M&A will not be for every women lawyer, but if you can get beyond the dissuading preconceptions, you may find yourself surprised.
“In my view, M&A is one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting practice area in corporate law, and the perceptions that women are less welcome, and are less successful, are overblown.” says Shearman & Sterling’s O’Brien. “If you decide that you want to pursue a corporate practice that is transactional, and if you’re interested in being intellectually challenged and interacting with people on a constant basis, you should seriously consider becoming an M&A lawyer.”
Ask Yourself These Questions before Accepting That Job Offer
Career Advice, Next LevelOf course, our first impulse is to take the job. Yet, there are many things to consider when you receive a job offer at a new company. It’s common to focus first on the compensation and benefits package, the new title and responsibilities. We can get distracted by all this. But if you are ambitious and forward thinking, you also need to consider what the new company can offer YOU in terms of your long range career goals and potential advancement.
Here are some questions you should ask when evaluating a new company:
Are there women in senior executive roles?
One of the first things to look at is the organizational chart to determine if there currently are women in leadership roles. If there is some representation of women at a high level, where did these women come from? Were they promoted from within or recruited from the outside?
The answer to this question is important in order to determine if the company is invested in building a pipeline of women and committed to nurturing that pipeline to leadership roles.
Do senior women have P&L responsibility?
Many companies will boast that they have promoted women to assume leadership roles, but when you take a good look at the organizational chart you may discover that these positions do not come with any fiscal responsibility. In other words, the company may have gendered roles even at the senior level. A lack of female role models has been noted to be an obstacle for high achieving women.
Do women have power and influence?
What role do women play in the overall operations and strategy of the company? Do they have any involvement in setting the direction of the company? Are there women on the Board of Directors? Do women at all levels sit on committees that have a voice with senior management?
Does the company invest in developing women leaders?
Is there a women’s network? If so, is it supported by senior management? Does the initiative have a reasonable budget? The budget is a big clue! Many of these programs lack any financial support which most likely indicates the company is paying lip service to supporting the advancement of women. Very little can be accomplished without money or executive sponsorship.
Does the company have a program for high potentials?
If so, what is the representation of women in this program? Are the criteria for inclusion in the program clearly defined? Are women moving to leadership positions once enrolled in this initiative?
Does the company have a formal sponsorship program?
Once again, it’s important to determine if women are included in sponsorship programs because these programs provide the type of advocacy and support that lead to promotions. What is the result of their sponsorship? If there isn’t a formal program, are women being sponsored or are they stuck in the mentorship trap? Speak with HR to determine if sponsorship for high potential women is recognized as important and actively promoted with senior leadership support.
Does the culture of the company align with your values?
This question is perhaps the most important one of all. Does the overall culture of the organization align with your core values and your ambition? The culture can support you or stifle you and unless you take the time to meet with people and ask questions, it is extremely difficult to see what’s happening behind the scenes.
You can determine quite easily if there are flexible work options and other policies that are important to your ongoing success by looking at the employee handbook or consulting with human resources. Answering these questions will certainly help you to determine if the company is supportive of high achieving women and working mothers.
But on a very basic level, you should answer this question for yourself: What type of culture will best support my ambition? If you want to create visibility and credibility for yourself, are you more likely to succeed in a hierarchical structure or a consensus driven organization, a conservative or cutting edge culture? Where will you be able to voice your opinion and make a difference?
Every company has its unique culture and it’s dangerous to stereotype based on the industry; all the more reason to take the time to figure out if the organization aligns with who you are, how you like to work, and where you want to go with your career.
The bottom line here is that our eagerness to take a job offer in a new company may seem like the best move to make. But before you accept the offer, consider whether or not the company is the right company for YOU.
Bonnie Marcus, M.Ed., is the President of Women’s Success Coaching, where she helps professional women advance their careers. She is the author of THE POLITICS OF PROMOTION: How High-Achieving Women Get Ahead and Stay Ahead (Wiley).
Guest contributed by Bonnie Marcus
Best of Career Tips
Career Advice, Career Tip of the Week!Our resident Executive Coach and Organizational Psychologist Nicki Gilmour writes a regular inspiring and useful career tip column for theglasshammer that helps women navigate through their career.
If you are interested in hiring an Executive Coach you may contact Nicki directly on Nicki@theglasshammer.com for a no obligation chat about our services.
Take a look at the some of the previous articles Nicki has written:
Leadership: How to be authentic at work and why sincerity can hinder that
The trouble with “authenticity” in the workplace is that there are many definitions of what being authentic is and in reality we are often defined by the role we play.
Why wanting more at work can be a good and bad thing
I am very guilty of living in the future and this can lead to not being 100% engaged in the present.
Voice of Experience: Amanda Rubin, Managing Director, Global co-Head of Brand and Content Strategy, Goldman Sachs
People, Voices of ExperienceBy Cathie Ericson
“When you work with a group of intelligent and diverse people there are bound to be those who disagree with your opinion, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t speak up,” says Goldman Sachs’ Amanda Rubin.
When first beginning a new position, she recommends focusing on excelling in the fundamentals of your role. But once you have mastered some of your tasks, Rubin advocates communicating your opinions with confidence. “Sharing a thoughtful opinion backed by good judgment and facts will allow you to differentiate yourself and move forward in a meaningful way,” she says.
As your career progresses, Rubin advises that you are responsible for harvesting talent, and this means allowing junior members on your team to express their points of view: “Remember that your team is looking at you and your actions – from how you treat people and encourage them to be involved in the dialogue to how you engage in your day-to-day activities.”
An Evolving Industry, Ripe For Disruption
After earning her BA in Political Science from Emory University and an MBA from The George Washington School of Government and Business Administration, Rubin dove into the advertising world. She earned positions at top agencies such as Chiat Day, Ogilvy & Mather and DDB Needham Worldwide, where her MBA made her a perfect match with industry-leading financial services clients.
Building on her robust background working with clients in the space, Rubin joined Goldman Sachs’ Brand Marketing and Digital Strategy Group in the late 1990s, eager to parlay her experience into helping to establish the firm’s marketing department. At the time, the firm was just beginning to enhance its external communication efforts as it built its brand in advance of its initial public offering. In support of these efforts, Rubin helped launch Goldman Sachs’ first public website; developed a series of advertising campaigns designed to position Goldman Sachs competitively; and created recruitment marketing materials to further cement the firm as an employer of choice globally.
Almost a decade later as the financial crisis began, Rubin and the team had to evolve their strategy as the firm made a conscious effort to combat an increasingly negative narrative in traditional and social media. “We realized that a lot of people didn’t know what Goldman Sachs does, so we began to actively engage the public in our communication efforts,” she explains. Previously Goldman Sachs had only targeted a limited set of stakeholders with its marketing outreach, but the crisis became a pivot point in her career as this set of constituents broadened and changed.
Creating her team is the professional achievement Rubin is most proud of to date. “When I look across the floor and see this talented group of people who are making an impact, it’s gratifying to consider the important role we are playing in shaping the firm’s narrative and explaining the role of Goldman Sachs in the economy and markets. I am proud of what the team has accomplished and the profile we have earned for the firm.”
As Goldman Sachs has begun its foray into the retail space by taking deposits and making loans, her team has been working closely with the consumer group as they look at new ways to engage and leverage what she describes as “the most innovative toolkit available.” From Facebook to Twitter, they are constantly seeking new ways to introduce Goldman Sachs’ thinking and expertise to new channels and audiences.
This focus is more important than ever given the general disruption surrounding the intersection of advertising, media and brands. Previously, each was a separate pillar: a brand would depend on agencies to develop content, which media companies would then distribute. Now, as brands have the ability to be publishers of content, it allows them to directly share insights with their audience. “Lines will continue to be blurred, which creates opportunities to establish our own thought leadership platform, distribute content efficiently and partner with new entities,” Rubin says.
Continuous Learning Yields Growth
One reason Rubin has been able to thrive during this time of disruption in the traditional marketing environment is her enjoyment of continuous learning.
“It’s not possible to keep up with changes in this industry if you’re not willing to continuously learn and ask questions, which can be uncomfortable at times,” she acknowledges. However, she believes being intellectually curious and leveraging talented people is a strength.
In addition to staying abreast of industry changes, Rubin advises that networking is also vital to success in the space. “That’s the only way you can expand your day-to-day world and contribute in a valuable way to people beyond your immediate sphere,” she says.
An advocate for more formal networking involvement as well, Rubin served as co-chair of the Legal, Compliance, Internal Audit and Executive Office Women’s Network from 2010 to 2014.
“One of the greatest things about Goldman Sachs is our people, and you have a unique opportunity while working here to connect with and learn from a group of incredibly intelligent and accomplished individuals,” she says.
Work and Family: Mutually Beneficial
With two teenagers and a husband, Rubin embraces both her time at work and at home. She finds that being a mom gives her valuable perspective that helps her in the workplace, and in turn, her colleagues give her perspective that helps her be a better mom.
Voice of Experience: Leilani Farol, Executive Director, Program Management at J.P. Morgan
LGBT celebration, People, Voices of ExperienceBy Cathie Ericson
“Remember why you were hired, and you will continue to outperform. We brought you in not to conform but to shake things up,” is the advice JP Morgan’s Leilani Farol gives young women.
Soft Skills Make the Difference
Leilani is proof that grades aren’t everything. As a self-described C-student, she never let her grades hold her back.
In fact Leilani hoped to parlay her degrees in marketing and computer information services into a position with one of the big companies that was conducting on-campus interviews. She visited one of the IBM recruiters while he was planning for the evening meetings but he told her she wasn’t on the list due to her grades. She persisted, and he said she could talk to him while he prepped for the first real interview; she impressed him so much she got the job.
Her career took off with stops at IBM, 1-800-Flowers, Estee Lauder, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals and finally JP Morgan. This has been her longest tenure to date, a place she has stayed because of the variety of roles within the firm, from tech operations to cybersecurity and her current position in global technology infrastructure.
While she started out as a technical developer, she soon realized her social skills lent themselves to success as a business analyst; Leilani credits these soft skills with being able to attain “unexpected wins” despite her non-traditional background. In an environment where most people rise within the financial industry, she was recently promoted to executive director even though she came into the industry through a different route.
She’s also learned to trust herself. “I could have taken my ‘C-student-ness’ and said that was my path, but I know my ability and what I can offer to any organization so when I was given an opportunity I knew I would take it and run with it. It’s fun to come in every day and be thrown into the deep end.”
One area of particular fascination within the financial industry is technology risk, given the potential for cybersecurity incidents. “We always have to stay diligent with both active and passive plans to address any potential attacks. The hacker’s job is to attack, and mine is to thwart it. It’s a high-stakes game.”
Finding Support As a Woman and LGBT
Leilani counsels women not to put a gender barrier on themselves by assuming they will hit a ceiling. “I encourage them to work on realizing their value as a tremendous asset to the technology industry. You need to get out of your own way and be bold and fearless with all you bring to the table,” she says.
And women need to help one another. One moment that stands out was meeting the CTO who reported to President Obama at a Lesbians Who Tech Conference. At the time Leilani’s six-year-old hated computers, and she was trying to show her the many ways that women were successful in tech. “She gave me her card and asked my daughter to email her. This woman was so busy and did it anyway, and that meant a lot to me.”
In addition to her outside groups, Leilani appreciates the dedicated JP Morgan business resource groups such as Women in Tech and Women in FinTech and notes she’s always been able to find a supportive network of women in technology willing to bring people along.
She also recognizes great strides that have been made in the LGBT movement. She laughs that when she first started in the corporate world, there technically was a LGBT group, yet it was a “secret list.” Fast forward to 2015 when she co-chaired the Tri State Pride Network, marching her family proudly down Fifth Avenue. “It was positively overwhelming to look around and see the support.
“Being gay is a non-event for me in my corporate life, but it didn’t happen because I did it but because of the fact others paved the way,” she says.
Leilani says that her two daughters, age nine and two, are as different as can be — one more gender nonspecific and the other “a princess.” She appreciates her wife, who is a psychotherapist and has adjusted her schedule to be with the kids most of the time.
Originally transplanted to the east coast on a volleyball scholarship, she still enjoys sports, particularly following beach volleyball.
Are You Dying to Get to the Top?
Career Advice, Guest ContributionGuest contributed by Laleh Hancock
Image via Shutterstock