Tag Archive for: Shearman & Sterling

Loretta Pearce: Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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Loretta Pearce“It makes all the difference in the world that you don’t have to compartmentalize and say ‘this is who I am over here’ and ‘this is who I am over here,’” says Loretta Pearce. “To just be who you are everywhere is liberating.”

Yet the research is clear, the further you are from dominate prevailing culture in the workplace, the more you adapt and conform to expected norms to thrive in the organization.

Pearce shares, “I’ve spent much of my career helping others navigate this space so that they can advance their careers and be as authentic as possible given cultural workplace constraints”.

She inspires us with a love for supporting the transformation of organizations and people, checking your inner circle, embracing difference, offering up your best gifts and giving yourself, and others, some grace.

From Academia to Leading Diversity and Inclusion

Pearce’s DEI journey was seeded when she left her hometown community to become an undergrad at the University of Virginia. Though she was an honors student in the top 10% of her class and well-supported by a preparatory program as a first-generation college student, she also experienced a sense of “otherness” those years on campus that catalyzed her drive to create open and inclusive spaces for everyone: “I wanted people in any space to feel a sense of their own value as well as a sense of belonging.”

After graduation, while teaching, she worked with (predominantly black and brown) students from lower income communities in the inner-city. When that campus relocated to a suburban location, diminishing her ability for impact, Pearce moved into learning and development in corporate spaces. Given her passion for inclusion, she was repeatedly called on to facilitate conversations, coach leaders and lead DEI initiatives.

“In my heart, at the very core of who I am, I’m an educator,” Pearce shares, who is immersed in doctoral studies at Teachers College at Columbia University, “I am always seeking to support others as they endeavor to be their best selves.”

While in talent management roles, Pearce realized that no matter how much leadership development an individual had, if that person wasn’t provided with opportunities by organizations to showcase their skills and talent, her work was in vain. She began connecting people to opportunities and sponsorships as she went across various talent management roles until DEI became her focus. That has meant that not only does she focus on supporting people but also on systemic barriers to inclusive workplace practices, community outreach and engagement, recruitment and supplier diversity.

She contends that “Being strategic and intentional with a holistic view, understanding an organization’s culture and practices, developing and managing relationships with stakeholders and being steadfast and determined are essential to having impact in this space. Diversity and inclusion must be embedded into every facet of the organization; that takes time, attention, and resoluteness.” Most recently she was the DEI Global Talent Management Programs Leader at Meta (formerly Facebook) and in May of 2022 she was hired as Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) for Shearman and Sterling, LLP.

As the CDIO at Shearman and Sterling, Pearce, has responsibility for Shearman & Sterling’s global diversity and inclusion strategy. Pearce shares that she “grew up in law firms,” as after serving in academia she launched her corporate career at a law firm. She reveals that after meeting with the firm’s leadership “it was clear to me that diversity and inclusion was a key priority for the firm and that I would get the support required to continue to develop and implement the firm’s goals and vision in this area”.

Since she is an educator and it is foundational to the work she does, she finds the time to facilitate unconscious bias programming or other sessions with inclusion themes – recently for example, at Shearman and Sterling’s Associate Leadership Academy, and while “glamping” during one of the practice area retreats.

Check-In: Who is In Your Trusted Ten?

“Acknowledging and identifying your own bias is the beginning of being better,” Pearce says. “To simply recognize that you have unconscious bias, that we all have it, and then to try to understand and mitigate against it – and essentially, widen your circle.”

She challenges individuals to consider “The Trusted Ten,” those who are the closest ten people in your friend group. What are their demographics (gender, race/ethnicity, education, socioeconomic status)? If they align with you in most of these areas (which they normally do), find someone different in some way and have a conversation. The more you do that, the more open to difference you become. Pearce notes that “small, deliberate progress in this area can make a big difference”.

Pearce argues, especially when she is met with resistance from leaders around sponsorship, that “you’re sponsoring people all the time. Anytime there’s an opportunity and you put a name forward, if you’re a leader, you’re sponsoring that person – and, typically that person looks like those who are part of your trusted ten.” Pearce advises that as leaders we must endeavor to embrace difference, widen our circles, and understand the abilities of all those we lead; their talents, aspirations, and capabilities so that we can put their names forward the next time an opportunity presents itself that aligns with their experience and skill set.

Pearce brings her passion and experience to bear in her work at Shearman and Sterling, LLP and is especially excited about the culture of mentorship and sponsorship that the firm is already known for: “The firm has received numerous accolades for partners who are patient and understanding that take the time to explain assignments. Repeatedly during my listening tour, I heard that the culture was collegial, considerate, and kind. The firm’s values align with my own and we continue to make progress toward creating a more diverse and inclusive environment,” Pearce shares.

Her Success Factor: A Love For People

“The higher you are in leadership, the more removed you can become from those you impact. But I love to talk to the people that I’m endeavoring to elevate, advance and serve,” says Pearce. “What really motivates me is having conversations with the people I’m trying to serve, hearing directly about their experiences and understanding what I can do to better help them.”

Pearce would say the biggest factor behind her success is “honestly, just a love for people.” As a preacher’s kid (a PK, she quips, with a smile, adding she is also married to a man who is a pastor), she was brought up on the values of loving and treating all people with kindness, respect, and dignity.

“I believe that relationship with and service to others is foundational,” says Pearce. “No matter what situation I find myself in, I look around and ask, how can I serve?”

Strive For Excellence and Give Grace

Pearce has joy at her core and brings that into the workplace. She leads with calm and compassion and fosters a team culture of collaboration, learning and giving people the benefit of the doubt rather than jumping to judgement or blame when a mistake occurs. She emphasizes and practices the perspective of “giving people some grace.”

Pearce imparts two key pieces of advice to mentees. The first is “Strive for excellence. Mediocrity is just not acceptable, so offer your best gifts.” That came from her parents and the environment that she was raised in, but also, her family and community of origin emphasized that you must “Give yourself some grace, and if necessary, forgiveness. Take chances, be bold, mistakes offer an opportunity to grow. Learn the lesson and move on.”

Embracing Difference

As an introvert, Pearce’s stretch zone has been around extending herself in social settings, as her senior leadership and executive roles hinge on building relationships, developing, and managing them and therefore networking is essential.

“We are all humans having a human experience and so you ought to be able to connect with anybody on some level,” notes Pearce. “Different perspectives are something to embrace, not something to close yourself off to, because they help you think and see things from different perspectives – and that’s what this work is really all about.”

Role Modeling Towards the Future

Along with working on her doctorate, Pearce serves in the church and does a lot of reading. She also loves TV, movies, and science fiction, declaring: “I’m a Trekkie from way back. If it says Star Trek, I’ve watched it.” But there’s more to her Trekkie passion than entertainment.

“When Star Trek started, they had a very talented and diverse cast, and, of course, Nichelle Nicholas who played Lt Nyota Uhura, a beautiful, intelligent, competent black woman who was either 3rd or 4th in the command structure. I could see myself in the future,” says Pearce. “I loved the show and the world it created, and I loved exploring the themes they grappled with.”

With a demanding schedule, Pearce still finds time to coach and mentor those who reach out to her for support and guidance. She shares, “At the end of the day, it’s about impact and leaving the world better because you were here. I endeavor to do that every day. It fuels me and inspires me to do even more in my areas of expertise and influence.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Ashley Shan: Associate, Finance Group, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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Ashley Shan“I’m a diver,” says Ashley Shan, a fourth-year associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP’s New York office. “If I’m new to a place, I want to jump in and learn everything about it and be an active part of the community. That’s what’s driven my career, and I want to bring that opportunity to others.”

Reflecting on her past three years at Shearman, Ashley speaks to the value of building relationships, supporting diverse lawyers and taking the initiative to make things happen.

From Philosophy to Finance

Realizing her B.A. in philosophy and sociology from Vanderbilt wasn’t going to adequately prepare her for modern legal practice, Ashley took advantage of everything Duke Law had to offer to broaden her experiences. She enrolled in the JD/LLM dual-degree program at Duke, which took her to an internship in Tokyo and a summer school in Geneva. “I was a research assistant, a teaching assistant and a senior editor on law review; I took a legal clinic, a practicum course at the business school, and an externship at the Environmental Defense Fund. I had friends from the business school, med school, public policy school and the environmental school.” She continues being active within the Duke NY community.

She encountered Shearman during 1L at a presentation on navigating the on-campus interview process while attending a diversity summit for Asian law students. She stayed in touch with the recruiting team and met other Shearman attorneys, who generously shared their experiences and mentored her. She also spent the rest of 1L reaching out to connections and getting to know other law firms, but the people she met from Shearman made the post-OCI decision simple: she took Shearman’s offer as soon as she received the letter.

Since starting at the Finance Group in 2019, Ashley has worked on a variety of transactions representing corporate borrowers, private equity sponsors and lenders in leveraged finance, structured finance and fund finance. “In the last year, I’ve gravitated towards representing corporate and private equity clients in middle market transactions because you really get to know your clients more holistically. You build a relationship and gain insight into all aspects of their business. I’ve also had the opportunity to dig deeper into more niched topics like liability management transactions and the ins-and-outs of the UCC from working with experts at the firm.”

As a problem solver, she enjoys the variety of the practice, building relationships, and working with senior attorneys, opposing counsel and specialist groups.

Building Community and Inclusion For Asian American Lawyers

When she’s not chewing on her bread-and-butter finance work, Ashley dedicates her time to building communities for AAPI lawyers inside and outside of Shearman. She is the co-chair of Shearman’s AAPI attorneys’ inclusion network – Asian Attorneys for Community, Empowerment and Success (AACES) – as well as the Vice Chair of the Membership Committee of Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY).

“Building relationships and showing up for my community is something that I enjoy and that motivates me,” says Ashley.

In addition to being a community for AAPI lawyers within Shearman, AACES also connects them with the broader AAPI legal community in New York State and nationally through organizations like AABANY, South Asian Bar Association of New York (SABANY) and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA). Last year, through Shearman’s sponsorship, Ashley attended her first NAPABA convention. “It was my first time being surrounded by so many successful AAPI legal professionals. I saw the different ways one’s career can unfold, regardless of where you were born and whether you had lawyers in your family. There’s no ‘right track’ for your career and not just one way of succeeding.”

Compelled by the experience, Ashley has taken steps to strengthen the AACES community. Working with the other co-chairs, she advocated for Shearman to sponsor more professional organizations, increased Shearman attorneys’ participation in external networking events such as the NAPABA convention and brought in a distinguished Shearman alum to share his experience and advice for junior lawyers.

Raising Your Hand Brings More Opportunity

Ashley observes that many new lawyers keep their heads down, do what is told and treat their jobs as a nine-to-five. “I’m not a dabbler; I’m a diver. So if I go into a deal, I want to understand everything about it,” says Ashley. “I won’t let a conversation finish without clearly understanding next steps. I want to know where things are and who is doing what to keep the ball rolling.”

She feels her proactive attitude has invited opportunities, especially at a well-known New York law firm like Shearman. “Since joining Shearman, I’ve worked on headline-worthy deals, presented multiple CLEs, attended industry events, put on my own events, recruited external speakers and sent colleagues to conferences across the nation.” She is well aware of the power of mentors and sponsors along the way. Last year, her practice group leaders nominated her to attend a virtual development program for diverse junior associates at the New York City Bar Association. She also regularly receives support from partners and senior attorneys who guide her based on where she wants to go. In her opinion, sponsorship is a two-way street: “Opportunity only lands on people who seek it. If you want to be sponsored, you need to give people an opportunity to get to know you: what you want to do, what your strengths are, and what challenges you might be facing.”

Looking back at her career, half of which was spent during the pandemic where the practice of law was anything but normal, she credited her growth to an advice from a CrossFit coach: “He told me when you are new to the gym, just be a sponge and observe everything. That’s exactly what I did when I started my career at Shearman.” She regularly encourages law students that she mentors to embrace spontaneity and explore what interests them instead of what they think their career should look like: “There’s no one way to approach being a lawyer, and you never know how each experience is going to ultimately serve you.”

Since participating in pub runs in Durham during law school, one of the craft beer capitals of the U.S., Ashley has seriously upped her running game. She’s done a couple half-marathons and she’s also now completed the nine races and volunteering efforts that guarantee her entry in the New York City 2023 Marathon. Like Ashley says, she’s a diver.

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Cassandra Cuellar: Partner, Venture Capital, M&A and Capital Markets, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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Cassandra CuellarAs a partner in the buzzing Emerging Growth practice, Cassandra Cuellar works with entrepreneurial clients who are launching companies and investors who are looking to back a promising venture.

Taking Ownership To Grow

“What gets me out of bed in the morning is the opportunity to work with people that are pouring their personal energy, time and wealth into the companies they’re growing,” says Cuellar. “It’s very rewarding to be a part of their journey as they start those companies, grow them and hopefully realize a successful exit. It’s life-changing for them.”

Cuellar must understand the concerns and interests of both founders and investors in her practice. She emphasizes that a collaboration mentality and solution-orientation is required to effectively advocate for her clients: “Our job is not to identify 20 roadblocks and then say we can’t go further. Our job is to identify the roadblocks, figure out if this is truly something that will be detrimental to our client, and then bring our clients in on that, figuring out the solution together.”

Cuellar enjoys the fast pace of work these days: “You get so many more people that have new ideas and diversity of thought starting companies and taking a chance on themselves. It’s great to see that and be able to be part of that.”

She is also comfortable leaning in and taking a chance on herself. “I have a willingness to take ownership over things without necessarily having to be so dependent on a hierarchical structure,” she says. “Startups run lean, so that’s the way my group approaches the practice and it’s how I’ve developed as an attorney.”

From early in her career, she had to get comfortable communicating with CEOs, CFOs, and key decision makers, but she relates learning through taking ownership to even earlier in life.

“I grew up in a small town as the oldest of four kids, and my parents had their hands full. I had to take ownership of my own professional career – getting into college, getting scholarships and making sure I was set up to move away and do my own thing,” says Cuellar. “Having that ability to do that from a young age translated well into being successful at this practice. I’m not afraid to take ownership over issues and clients and get stuff done.”

The Confidence To Trust Yourself and Others

“Latinx students going into law school don’t necessarily have readily-accessible role models that have gone into BigLaw, so often Latinx students make a choice to opt out of BigLaw, despite being more than qualified,” cautions Cuellar. “But I have found that because Latinx students often have to figure things out on their own without role models, that makes us uniquely qualified for this profession. You are used to navigating unknown waters, so it makes it easier to approach novel legal issues, transactions, and clients. The one thing I’ve learned – through negotiating the law school process, getting a job in a big law firm and now building my career – is that whatever you can throw at me, I’m going to figure it out,” she notes. “I don’t get scared off by challenge. I can rise to it because I have done it before.”

While launching herself into responsibility came naturally, her stretch zone has been releasing control. As a senior associate, she was accustomed to knowing every detail in every transaction and trusted herself to deliver on the high expectations she set. As she’s moved up, she’s had to learn to let go and trust in her team. Cuellar echoes other Latinas we’ve spoken to in expressing that being the one Latina within her practice, or one of few, feeds the drive to validate through performance. It makes letting go harder because more has felt at stake.

“Being a Latina, there’s not that many of us doing what I do, so I do feel a certain responsibility to be able to prove myself here and make sure that anything I work on is done at 100%,” she reflects. “That part of my identity and proving myself is impacted by this other part of me that needs to grow and trust other people to do things, even though I don’t have 100% control.”

Along with that self-awareness, she’s found that empathy is important.

“Letting go of some of that control has been hard, but I’m working on it,” she admits. “I’ve realized that everyone is an individual, and they’re not all like me, and I have to manage to each person versus to what my personal expectations, approaches, or processes would be.”

Encouraging Each Other’s Potential

Inspired by leaders she’s worked with, Cuellar models her practice upon listening and showing understanding to clients and those she is working with. She would love to see more Latinas follow a law path, and attributes her own decision to meeting a Latina lawyer in the Texas legislature, who encouraged her on the path.

At Shearman, Cuellar has felt supported in opening her possibilities by other women mentors: “I’ve always found someone willing to sit down and talk to me about things in a very honest fashion, who would guidepost, for example, that I needed to be thinking about business development, even as a second year, if I ultimately want to make Partner.”

In formal mentoring of law school students, especially Latinas and Latinos, she implores students not to limit themselves based on context or precedents, but instead to take a good look at whether a big law firm could be a match: “You work a lot, but you learn a lot, and have a lot of professional opportunities. I think it’s important that more Latinos and Latinas feel comfortable taking that risk, even if it might not be something your family understands at the time. You’re setting yourself up for your future professionally. You can at least try, and you could even be successful.”

Finding Out What Works For You

Cuellar admits it has taken her years to get comfortable in networking, but she tells students to take networking seriously as a skill to develop, the earlier the better.

But she’s also found her own approach to creating connections. “What I’ve discovered, whether it’s within the firm or with a volunteer opportunity, is my best networking is done when I’m working with someone. I take that approach of trying to get to know people by doing a good job with work they send my way, making sure that they feel valued and working from there (with common interests etc) – versus attending every networking event, because I find it hard to make deep connections in that context.”

Cuellar considers it part of the trial and error of getting to know yourself. Try out different things to see what works for you, and develop your own network style.

Her close-knit family and three year old son Max come first in her life. They enjoy cooking, celebrating birthdays and planning holidays. She enjoys connecting with close friends through the early experiences of motherhood. In this particular moment, it appears her son Max is rebelling against preschool yoga.

By Aimee Hansen

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Geline Midouin: Chief People Officer, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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“As you arrive to a real senior level, you will start to understand that people are going to have a hard time disagreeing with you. They tend to give you filtered information,” advises Geline Midouin. “If you know that, you can be much more deliberate and intentional in terms of how you ask questions, to make sure that you’re getting the real story and understanding different perspectives.”

While energetically pacing at her standing desk, where she prefers to work in the mornings, Midouin talks to valuable lessons she’s learned at entry, mid-level and executive level positions in her journey – and the excitement of sitting in a people-oriented seat amidst the talent and inclusion challenges of today.

Joy of Purpose

Born in Haiti, Midouin came to the U.S. at three years old. Her Caribbean family consisted of doctors, nurses and medical professionals, so when Midouin shared she was going to pursue a liberal arts bachelor’s degree in psychology, her mother asked her how she was going to eat. Her family believed getting an education was about job security and thought obtaining a non-tangible degree wouldn’t help.

With a master’s in Organizational Behavior from Teachers College at Columbia University and having held several leadership positions across industries in the field of people and talent – from consulting to broadcast media to healthcare advertising to big law – Midouin feels inherent joy in how she approaches her work.

“I have a sense of purpose in really helping people to bring out the best in themselves to serve the greater good, whether it’s business, our clients or our community,” she says. “I’m motivated by purpose and doing something beyond myself to create a legacy.”

Midouin has always been curious by what motivates people and why they do things – and she loves driving impact and innovation, which catalyzed her move into Big Law a year ago with Shearman & Sterling, in the new post of Chief People Officer. In this position, she’s charged with having an umbrella oversight and influence on all people-related functions at the firm.

An avid reader, she is a curious thinker who draws inspiration from many places to look at issues from different lenses. She emphasizes that in today’s shifting world, it’s important to stay curious: “I ask a lot of questions. I don’t want to hear ‘I can’t’ from my team, but rather I want us to ask, ‘well, why can’t we?’”

“We’re moving away from managing structures and instead focusing on helping people manage their expertise and their careers, so they grow both personally and professionally,” says Midouin. “How can we not just provide information, but actually engage people and then measure the things we’re doing in terms of impact, so we can prioritize?”

Part of Midouin’s mission is to continue to thread diversity and inclusion through the firm’s culture: “Like the head of the orchestra, you’re able to see how things work from a more holistic view. That becomes a secret sauce in working in a more inclusive way,” she says. “You have to integrate inclusion through recruitment and professional development, so having it under one umbrella enables me to bring the key people to the table to have the right conversations and access to resources, to work in a more cohesive manner and make changes that move the needle.”

Early On: The Confidence To Speak and Go For It

Having been the only woman and/or person of color in the room often, Midouin has learned to not be intimidated by the perception from the room that she speaks for all black women or people of color (which she notes is impossible as not all individuals of any group think the same).

“I’m one person with one point of view. So I’ve had to make sure, whether I’m the only woman or only person of color, that I’m comfortable with myself so that I can share my authentic voice,” says Midouin. “You don’t want to waste that opportunity to speak, and you also want to make sure that you share a point of view that reflects authentically who you are.”

Midouin calls her confidence to speak up a learned behavior, as very early in her career she had a critical moment where she diminished her own voice. Two weeks into a new company as a junior employee, she walked into a meeting and the CEO asked what she thought. Taken aback, she caveated her response because she was new, and he replied that he asked her because he wanted a fresh perspective.

“I never did that again because I was questioning my right to give an opinion,” she reflects. “If you’re in a meeting, you’ve earned your right to be there. People are bringing you there for a reason and they want to know your opinion. And people may disagree with you too, and that’s okay, as that’s part of what gets you to a variety of views at the table.”

Noting that we often learn the most through mistakes, Midouin also recalls hesitating to go for a position because she lacked a couple of the qualifications, while watching a male colleague who possessed only a couple of them go for it. When her manager pushed her to apply, she got the position. She now realizes the “confidence gap” was at play for her.

“After I got the position, they told me it wasn’t necessarily about what I knew. It was that I asked the right questions and showed that I’d be able to figure it out,” she recalls. “Sometimes we talk ourselves out of a risk or putting ourselves out there, because we feel like we’re not good enough or that we have to be overqualified. I really encourage people to have the confidence to push themselves and take more calculated risks.”

Mid-Level: Managing People Who Are Different To You

Another key learning moment in Midouin’s earlier career was shifting from an individual contributor to a manager. The transition from being measured for your individual results to your ability to motivate the team was a wake-up call for her when a 360-degree performance review arrived: “The people who were on my team that thought more like me, loved me and my style, but the feedback from the people who were not like me was very different.”

Midouin learned that she had to pay attention to individuals and adjust her management style depending on what they needed. While she is a problem-solver who can deal with ambiguity, bring chaos to order and prefers not to be micro-managed, she realized others need structure, a more methodical agenda and more “touching base” time to flourish.

“People tend to begin by managing people how they like to be managed. You have to learn to be thoughtful and intentional about managing people that are not like you,” says Midouin. “And then, it’s not only making sure you’re hiring varied people of different styles, but also asking yourself if you are catering to all types of styles that you have on your team. Or, are the only people that are excelling, the people who are just like you?”

Executive Level: Leading with Self-Awareness

When it comes to success in the C-suite, Midouin emphasizes the value of self-awareness – including knowing what you’re good at, not good at and surrounding yourself with a team complementary to your skills.

Midouin also notes how critical it is to not surround yourself with people that only validate your viewpoint, but rather those who have the courage to disagree and give an authentic view. One time she said something intentionally ridiculous, observing that people try to be agreeable to senior figures. After no one disagreed with her, she gently chided her team with “come on.”

“I will purposely invite my team to play devil’s advocate and give me a contrary point of view, because that’s what you need in an organization. Let’s argue the opposite point of view – the one we’re not looking at,” she says. “If you’re in a team where you’re not getting dissenting points of view, you should be worried because you’ve probably hired too many people just like you and you’re looking at things in a one-dimensional way. If that is happening, ask yourself if you are creating a safe space where all people can really share their point of view, or do you need to help pull out some of the less expressed views?”

Motivating in Today’s Context

In these times when inclusion is in demand, and the Great Resignation has led to talent wars, it’s a unique moment to be in Midouin’s seat, with an increasing focus on retention and reducing turnover.

“The biggest difference is about motivation – historically you’ve competed against other organizations and now you’re competing against ideology and alternate careers and lifestyles and priorities. Because of the pandemic, people are rethinking what place work should have in their lives. Then you have generational shifts too,” she says. “Now we have to think about how to attract and retain a workforce that wants something different. What is that difference? How does that fit with your employee value proposition? And how do you shift that?”

As one example of alternative approaches, Midouin notes how Shearman & Sterling is leveraging its alumni as recruitment ambassadors, as research shows that when you hire people through a referral, they tend to stay longer than other types of hiring. Therefore, the recruitment strategy is already incorporating a consideration of retention. In addition to a direct payment, alumni also have the opportunity to gift their referral to one of a dozen charities.

Giving Back Where It’s Needed

Midouin’s family passion is tennis. In order to teach her youngest son, who is on the autism spectrum, tennis, she and her husband were driving 1.5 hours to Queens, NY to have him participate in Aceing Autism, a program that uses the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) method to teach tennis to children on the spectrum. When Midouin discovered that New Jersey, where she lives, had the highest per capita representation of autism, she and her husband introduced a six-week clinic through the tennis club in their local community, which they run twice per year. Midouin is also on the board of directors for MJHS, one of the largest not-for-profit health systems in the region.

“It’s about impact, and how do you leave the world a better place?” she says. “Finding a way to give back is actually more pleasurable for me.”

By Aimee Hansen

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Sara Coelho: Partner, Financial Restructuring & Insolvency, Shearman & Sterling LLP

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Sara Coelho“I’m open to things going in a lot of different directions and to seeing things in a different way than people expect,” says Sara Coelho. “I really try to foster that approach, because novel solutions bubble up.”

Coelho talks about why her practice is a jack-of-all-trades art, standing her ground as a woman and the creativity of receptivity within law.

The “Liberal Arts Area of Law”

With Shearman & Sterling since 2016, and promoted to partner this past July, Coelho has been in the insolvency practice for fifteen years.

“Any time you have an insolvency situation, by definition people can’t follow the law. When something isn’t working, you get to take a deep dive into why and have to figure out a way to make something of that, and the tools really vary depending on the business,” she says. “Every situation has its own dimensions, so you constantly get to learn something new. If you are a liberal arts major, you would like what I do.”

Coelho continues, “I’m often doing things I have no prior expertise in, for example, negotiating tax debt and tax statutes, because of the underlying needs of the situation,” she further explains. “Sometimes we litigate to get to a resolution of a dispute. Sometimes we create deals. We’ll use any field of law to construct a deal that takes the situation to a better place.”

Her area is so flexible that when students ask her about a typical day, Coelho tells them to give her a year and she’ll say what she was doing in that period of time. Collaboration with other lawyers and financial advisors is critical to her work: often part of the solution is bringing in the expert who knows the tried-and-true approach, and another is confronting an issue alien to anything she’s ever done. Hence, the sophistication of problems, quality of people and intellectual challenges have held her attention in this field.

The Creativity of Receptivity

Coelho feels persistence has served her. She has always been able to put her head down and commit to a project she’s taken on. She’s been called a “lawyer’s lawyer” in that she has an analytical curiosity and loves to go deep into a problem, which means encouraging a spaciousness for unexpected solutions.

“There’s often a real reluctance to bring forward something that is a little off the wall,” she observes, “but you could miss an opportunity that way.”

In law, creativity is often less conceiving of something new and bringing it into existence, but rather an artful receptivity to the hidden key that already exists that you’re not yet seeing.

“So much of law is a very set underlying body of concepts, and people lose track of a big percentage of it. So often there is just something lurking there, that’s pretty direct and obvious, but actually very hard to see if you don’t come at it with an open mindset,” she explains. “It’s a receptivity, an orientation of faith that there’s going to be useful things that emerge. It’s a melding of a creative mindset with the orthodox.”

Staking Her Ground As A Woman

While Coelho admits her field has an inadequate representation of women, especially senior partners, she also often finds there are more women than she realized. She also feels the reputation of being male-dominated deters women from considering a field they might thrive in: “There are women who are thriving in all of the difficult roles and more than you would think.”

At the same time, Coelho acknowledges that she does feels some pressure to be beyond perfect and tends to speak concisely, getting to her point quickly while she has the moment, whereas she witnesses men talk at length without the social pressure to be precise.

“I’m working on trying to take up more time and space, and defending the perimeter to be able to do that,” she notes, “because sometimes you can’t appropriately advocate otherwise.”

Coelho acknowledges that being a woman distinguishes you, but that advantage can backfire if you’re perceived as the woman lawyer and especially if there’s a general assumption of irrelevance.

For example, on a conference call for a major deal where both Coelho and another female counterpart lawyer represented different clients with predictably different perspectives, the opposing side confused their two arguments, because, she suspects, the woman lawyers’ voices were understood as interchangeable. Coelho finds it hard to imagine that same bewildering lack of differentiation occurring for a man.

“Things still go on, but at the same time, you’re just focused on the problem and the work,” says Coelho. She notes that self-validating verbal feedback from highly respected top lawyers has been a touchstone to measure her lawyering and has kept her from falling into an unproductive level of self-questioning, especially when she’s confronted with aggression or doubt.

Clarifying The “Stupid Questions“

In addition to helping associates become familiar with the essential craft of her “renaissance profession,” Coelho seeks to demystify some of the basics that challenged her. When she first began, she felt one of the hardest parts was just figuring out how things got done – down to how you frame an e-mail and how long you wait to chase up on it.

Coelho volunteers information and invites the conversation around questions she found perplexing when starting out, especially if the response she had was reactive or dismissive: “I try to ask, what would have been the most constructive response for me?”

“For example, as a lawyer, to say how much time should I spend on something is a very loaded question because obviously you should do the best job possible for the client. Well, the best job possible might mean thousands of hours or significant expense, and maybe the client doesn’t want that,” she notes. “So there’s always this judgment about how exactly to approach the problem, how much depth to go in and what are the optimal things to focus on. These are complex judgements people have to make, so I like to be transparent about that kind of process.”

Boiling down why inviting questions as a senior lawyer is important, Coelho says: “The stupid question is the most important one to ask because you definitely don’t want to make a stupid mistake.”

For women in particular, Coelho also emphasizes the importance of really stepping back to ask what you personally want, rather than letting the ongoing demands of your external environment, including simply keeping up with the work, dictate where you end up.

An Unforgettable Mentor

Coelho considers her grandmother the most mindful person she has ever met. As a child, Coelho would join her in hanging laundry, picking fruit or doing some other form of tending to ordinary things.

The most unforgettable moment that affected her was listening to her grandmother talk about one single lemon with such elaborate understanding and appreciation that it underlined a whole wisdom of her Grandmother’s way of living in the world: “Listening to her talk about this lemon and what it was, exactly why it had a different flavor than others and how you would use it, in such depth, crystallized for me her way of being and how wonderful that is. And how much better life is, if you can bring that sort of appreciation and experience to whatever it is you’re doing.”

Coelho adores her three and a half year old son, Caleb, and, in addition to being a prolific reader of social sciences “light” and economics, loves to garden – and as her grandmother, tend attentively to the small and sacred matters of the home.

By Aimee Hansen

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Emily Leitch: Capital Markets Partner, Shearman & Sterling

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Emily Leitch “Early in my law career, I felt like there was an established hierarchy and I was hesitant to speak out of turn. I wish I’d broken that notion sooner and had more confidence in my own voice,” reflects Emily Leitch. For sure, respect is earned along the way, but I love seeing the confidence of the incoming female associates today and value their insights. I hope I had a small hand in creating more open dialogue for future generations.”

Leitch speaks to staying focused on your path, leveraging your unique presence and sustaining yourself through the long Big Law journey.

Gravitating Towards Capital Markets

Leitch began in investment banking out of college before deciding to attend University of Texas School of Law after two years. Exploring both securities and mergers and acquisitions (M&A), she felt more magnetized to becoming an expert in capital markets.

“I love that we get to interact with the heart of leadership of the company, and to hear not only about the transaction, but also their strategies and their business,” she says. “You come to know and understand the company’s business, so that you can describe it properly to investors, and ascertain the potential risks and opportunities.”

Not only does Leitch enjoy the high profile client interaction and broad business exposure, but because the intense transactional periods are often accorded in timing to SEC deadlines, she also feels the overall flow is less volatile than the peaks and valleys of M&A law.

Reflecting back, she was probably most surprised to realize how rules-based and regulatory in nature the practice is, which means constantly keeping up with changes in laws and regulations that come with different administrations and different agendas.

Joining Shearman in February, she loves that there’s always more growth and a new challenge: “This is not a career where you’re learning curve ever really flattens. It’s always on an upward trajectory and constantly being engaged intellectually has been something I really enjoy. And the people that I get to work with and am surrounded by — the associates, partners, clients — are all smart, motivated, wonderful, and well-rounded people.”

Staying Attuned To Your Own Development

“As a young associate, you hear ‘so and so billed this many hours’, ‘so and so got to work on that transaction’, and people can get really wrapped up in the competitive nature of it. But from the start of my career, I was pretty good at tuning out that noise,” reflects Leitch on what has contributed to her personal success: “I was good at keeping my head down, doing good work that I was proud of, and walking into the office every day thinking, ‘I’m going to do the very best I can do’.”

Making partner at just eight years and named by Law360 in 2017 as one of the top five lawyers nationally under 40 in the area of capital markets, her focus on her own work has served her well.

“I’m a good team player, so people generally like working with me. I think being naturally social has also helped a lot, as my network is really wide. I enjoy taking part in organizations and leadership teams and committees — from the legal profession to church to school — which also helps me keep some context in this industry,” notes Leitch. “As you grow in this business, it becomes so relationship-driven.”

She’s often heard the reflection that she is high energy, confident and strong, even when she hasn’t exactly felt that way — especially when she was juggling young children with returning to work.

A highly memorable moment of her journey was when, with two babies at home, she had reached a breaking point and was ready to side-shift to any kind of less demanding peripheral position. While informing Leitch that she just short of making partner, a head of her department encouraged her to hold on through the difficult phase and keep the course, and the team just needed to give her the support she needed.

“I’m so glad I held on, because when you make partner in this industry, it opens a lot more doors. If I had gone all that way to stop right before that finish line, my career would be totally different, and I wouldn’t be where I am today,” reflects Leitch. “But sometimes, as women you just you need that support. You need to vent to somebody or say I can’t do this. She was able to really help me through that, and I remember because it was absolutely career-defining.”

Leveraging Your Presence in The Room

While there have been many female associates across firms she’s worked in, Leitch has often been the only female partner in the room or even only woman at all, considering she works a lot with investment bankers, but notes that she didn’t use to notice it and has rarely focused on it — somehow seeing mostly male faces on Zoom has made it more salient.

“It’s not something that I’ve considered a bad thing, and frankly, I’ve probably considered it an asset and used that as an opportunity to stand out,” says Leitch. “I’ve been fortunate along my career to work with very supportive men, who are supportive of women and have helped me develop my career tremendously.”

While it might not be at a conscious level, Leitch is aware that even her presence in the room commands noticing, and feels perhaps that has empowered her to value and use her voice and her ability to influence.

“People see me as a female leader, and I think younger female associates have always looked up to me as a trailblazer in a sense,” she observes. “I’ve never really thought of myself that way: I just did my best work along the way and didn’t care if I was a man or a woman or who I was working with, but it’s nice to help bring other women up behind me.”

Remember It’s a Long Career Journey

“If I could go back and change one thing, it would be to ask more questions and to have more confidence approaching senior people,” says Leitch. “When I was the junior associate, I’d try to figure it out on my own or go to another associate.”

With the value of hindsight, she intentionally tries to be approachable and open.

Leitch has also learned through experience, and impresses upon associates, that while every transaction may feel like a dead sprint, it’s important to remember you’re in it for the marathon.

“It’s a long career and so easy to get wrapped up in the here and the now, especially when you start out,” she notes. “But you really have to remember — when you feel overwhelmed, when you’re in a transaction and it’s all-consuming — you have to be able to ride those waves and think from a long-term perspective.”

With time, she’s learned where to give it her all, which she often has, and where to put her boundaries up and give focus where it’s needed now, to make work-life integration work for her.

“Some days work has to come first. Some days, children have to come first. Some days my husband has to come first,” says Leitch. “We’re all balancing things in our lives, and the longer you do it, the more you instinctively know where the ball cannot be dropped that day.”

Leitch has enjoyed the opportunity to pick her nine year old son and seven year old daughter up from school everyday, as a result of the remote workplace. Much of her personal time is spent engaging in what excites them — from Astros’ baseball games to Tik Tok dance videos.

She’s all about her Peloton at the moment (a pandemic purchase) and as a creative outlet to her highly mental vocation, she feeds her life-long affection for theatre, finding pocketed opportunities to perform, including playful covers of Lady Gaga, Whitney Houston, Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer at Teacher Appreciation Days at her kids’ schools. With a mix of fun, family and a successful legal career, ‘you can’t touch her’.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Lara Aryani: Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions, Shearman & Sterling

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“I think what junior lawyers need to understand is that the conversations you have with your firm about what you want for yourself are brief and fleeting, but they’re iterative,” says Lara Aryani. “Associates need to be having these conversations early, they need to build the ramp, so that it is there when they need to actually use it.”


Aryani speaks to the broad and dynamic nature of M&A, the importance of listening, modesty and asking, and being supported when it mattered the most for her family.

Conducting the Dynamic Orchestra

Aryani began working in both capital markets and M&A, and gravitated towards M&A when she moved to Shearman & Sterling in 2014, finding she loved the generalist and technically challenging orientation of the practice.

“If you’re representing a company as an M&A lawyer, you’re really advising them on everything,” she says, “you are the conductor of an orchestra that involves a whole range of legal expertise.”

Aryani notes you get to learn “enough to be dangerous” about many specialist areas while keeping a broad, dynamic overview and strong client interaction, which she thoroughly enjoys.

She admits that though her group has women associates and female partners, throughout her career she has often found herself to be the only woman in a negotiation room. M&A has a reputation for being male-dominated, though Aryani feels that this reputation might have become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“Let’s be honest: there aren’t enough women in leadership positions, there aren’t enough women in M&A, there aren’t enough women in Big Law and there aren’t enough women in law, period,” says Aryani. “But there’s nothing about the technical nature of M&A that is more or less male or female friendly relative to other legal practices. Though it’s possible that cultures that exist outside of the practice of law may create a perception that deters women from the practice of M&A.”

The Importance of Resilience

As Aryani has become more experienced, she’s realized that being open, empathetic and socially adept can really make the difference between an ordinary and an extraordinary practitioner. But it also takes a little courage and vulnerability, and a lot of luck and support to scale a career.

“Everybody that survives in Big Law should be technically excellent, that goes without saying, but to thrive, it isn’t good enough to put your head down and simply be a technically good lawyer,” says Aryani. “It takes a lot of additional qualities to succeed in Big Law, but as a starting point, to make partner you need to put yourself out there and have conversations with the leadership that may feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar to you. No one can make it in this business alone, and so to garner support you need to be able to ask for it and by implication, be prepared to be scrutinized and rejected.”

“You don’t get what you don’t ask for, as the old adage goes. Hopefully, the worst thing that will happen is somebody will say no and forget about it. You are the only person driving your career, and it’s sometimes hard to remember that, particularly in private practice. People should be thinking more proactively about their futures rather than letting inertia determine it for them. They should also be having conversations about it a lot earlier than they think they deserve to,” she says.

Aryani observes people often hesitate to talk about future career prospects because they feel both uncertainty and that it’s too early to be appropriate to discuss. She argues the conversation is iterative and builds over time.

“You can’t just come in as a very senior associate and start building the ramp for the first time,” says Aryani. “We need to start having these conversations earlier, so that the process becomes more fluid, open and transparent, expectations are created and everybody can work from the same playbook. People will need to revisit these conversations regularly to ensure that expectations remain aligned and progress is being made. The process of professional development can feel painstakingly slow, so it may take a while before it feels like anything tangible has happened.”

“As important as it is to initiate these conversations and follow up on the goals that they establish,” Aryani says, “it is also important to figure out how you fit within the larger business framework and the extent to which your skills and ambitions complement and further the firm’s business goals,” she says.

The Value of Respect and Change in Relationships

Through experience, Aryani has found that in a practice where you’re interacting with and representing people from many different places – whether that be geography, language, culture or markets – it’s important to approach things with more respect and receptivity than she sometimes witnesses in the field.

“We are being hired for our expertise and for what we know, but everybody around the table has something to learn from everybody else, including those junior to you,” says Aryani. “I try to approach deal tables with an understanding that the way we do things is not necessarily the only way to do it, and I need to listen as much as I need to weigh in with my advice.”

Her approach to mentorship is to be open and to remember that while there is a hierarchal environment in private practice, that hierarchy is fluid.

“The associate hierarchy is very rigid, partners are always senior to senior associates, who are always senior to midlevels who are always senior to juniors. But people who have been around for longer understand that eventually these hierarchies can flatten or even flip, either within the law firm or because someone leaves and becomes a client,” says Aryani. “So as hierarchical as our structures are within the law firm, the relationships that we build with people throughout the hierarchy change and our orientation and position in that hierarchy, with respect to any one particular person, is absolutely subject to change, and will likely change.”

“Every year law firms move further away from their guild-like origins and the business aspect of the practice becomes more and more prominent,” she notes. “The relationships we have with our colleagues, counterparts and clients are important and need to be respected and cultivated not only because it feels like the right thing to do, but because it makes good business sense.”

Being Supported When It Really Mattered

Aryani had previously heard the startling advice from peers at other firms that being pregnant and being promoted were incompatible. With some disbelief, she notes: “I was advised: ‘get pregnant at the place that you don’t want to make partner, because once the partners see you as pregnant, they’ll never be able to see you as anything else.’

Fast-forward to four years ago, while with Shearman & Sterling, Aryani’s identical twin sons were born three months prematurely as micro-preemies. Weighing in at only 1.6 and 1.3 pounds, each needed to stay in the hospital, for six and nine months respectively.

After recovering from her C-section with disability leave, she asked about returning to the office to “preserve” her maternity leave for when the twins came home from the hospital. Instead, the firm encouraged her to stay with her kids through hospitalization and begin her formal maternity leave only once they came home.

Aryani returned to work 13 months after the birth: “My firm never pushed me to come back. They never had a conversation about cutting my pay. They paid me full salary and bonuses, and I had insurance. They were a hundred percent fully supportive and said: ‘Your family is what you need to be doing right now and we want to help. When you’re ready to come back, give us a call.’”

“I’m not saying that being a working parent in M&A or Big Law, no matter where I am, is easy,” she reflects. “But when it really mattered, my firm stood by me and my family. And so, that’s really important and meaningful.”

The time and attention Aryani and her husband were able to give their sons during those critical months made a huge difference in their survival, recovery and development. Each weekend these days Aryani and her family go hiking in the forests or mountains near NYC. The longest hike her four-year olds have taken this summer was 5 miles long, “with elevation!” she brags, “that’s more than most adults can do and they have to take twice as many steps!”

She finds it so therapeutic and relaxing she can’t believe it took all these years to really appreciate getting out of the city.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Katherine Stoller: Partner, Litigation, Shearman & Sterling

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Katherine Stoller“You have to be able to step back and think about not only the problem in front of you right now, but what are the next several months of this case going to look like?” reflects Katherine Stoller. “Where are the risks that we’re not focused on today, but we need to be able to see coming at us from other directions?”

Stoller speaks to how listening matters, the importance of presence and anticipation, and bringing the hard-to-navigate topics into the office chat.

Growing Through High Intensity

Working in the litigation practice, Stoller represents clients in criminal and regulatory investigations – representing people and companies involved in government investigations that can involve allegations of money laundering, sanctions violations, securities fraud, insider trading and market manipulation. She also represents clients in civil litigation, advises financial institutions on their ongoing relationships with regulators and conducts internal investigations.

“By the time clients bring in an enforcement lawyer, they’re frequently in high-stakes situations with a potential crisis on the horizon, so you come in as the steady hand and repeat player. You have to be a good listener,” says Stoller. “The first job is always to understand the facts and figure out the strategy , and then be ready to adjust the strategy as you go. It’s fascinating working with clients through these high intensity stretches.”

Not only is Stoller energized by the caliber of clients she works with on both the legal and business side, but she finds the cross-border aspect of her practice means that she is constantly learning – be it political, legal or cultural differences among the various international jurisdictions.

“Every case involves a different geography and a different business. You have to get steeped in the facts and the relationships among the clients and the regulators or enforcement agencies,” says Stoller. “You learn so much about how other countries operate, and I love that.”

Holding Grace Under Fire

Stoller finds good listening is a prerequisite of being an effective lawyer.

“I think a lot of lawyers come in and think it’s their job to start speaking right away. But there’s so much listening you need to do to understand the business, what the authorities are looking at and what matters to each of the stakeholders,” she says. “Taking all that information and building it into a strategy, and making sure you’re not missing out on what’s important to each of the stakeholders, is a really important skill.”

Stoller feels that understanding “the importance of narrative” is also very important, the ability to shape the story in a way that people can not only understand it, but follow the facts that are crucial to your argument.

As the daughter of an M&A partner at Skadden, she remembers hearing her father on the phone and even as a girl, she picked up that he modeled being a trusted advisor: “He was always calm and precise. You could count on his judgment. There’s a presence to being the calmest person in the room when things become challenging and intense. I hope I picked some of that up from listening to him.”

Moving More Towards Vision and Anticipation

Stoller joined Shearman & Sterling in January 2020, recognizing the opportunity to thrive with the firm, and made partner on July 1st of this year.

As a junior lawyer in the investigations space, doing well was about being meticulous, understanding the record well and not losing track of the details. But as she’s grown more senior as a lawyer, Stoller notes the remit has moved much more to big picture strategy and anticipation.

“The more senior you get, the more you are responsible for steering and being able to see around the corner and anticipating the different challenges that you’ll face along the way,” she observes. “You get more experienced at identifying the problems you may be seeing tomorrow.”

Stoller also values being able to effectively mediate conversations through difficult or stuck places so they can move forward, and without having to be a “bang-on-the-table sort of lawyer”.

Learning from Witnessing, Including Yourself

Having joined Shearman just a few weeks before the lockdowns, with few days in the office, Stoller looks forward to again experiencing in-office time with colleagues.

She notes that for her, much of her most valuable mentorship has happened through witnessing other lawyers in action when it counts: “I’ve learned a lot from sitting in people’s offices on the days when things are going wrong, when you get bad news and you respond to it, and one call leads to another. The chance to watch how excellent senior lawyers practice is important for more junior lawyers.”

Stoller emphasizes to those whom she mentors that it’s up to them to think about where they want to go, what they are good at and what they still need to learn.

“I think young lawyers need to feel empowered to ask for the kind of work they want and to speak up in meetings. There’s a strong tendency to stay quiet, which is the flip side of how important it is to learn from listening,” notes Stoller. “I encourage my junior associates to jump in, tell me if I missed something, ask a question, make the point someone else didn’t make, and start getting used to the sound of your own voice and advice. Of course, you also need to back that up by being diligent and having command of the facts and details.”

Bridging the Conversations

Stoller believes certain conversations should happen more often around law offices, so she will often bring up the topics that more junior lawyers may be reticent about.

“There are conversations that are hard to have and times where you don’t know if it’s okay to ask for something,” says Stoller. “I try to open the door to conversations I wanted to have when I was starting out. It can be a matter of just saying to someone, how are you doing? What kind of support do you need?”

Taking care of very little ones while managing a career that values long hours and lots of face time is one topic example, and a challenge she navigated some years back: “It’s hard to talk about the reality of your career during those few years when you need to leave the office at a certain point, or you don’t know when you’re going to be able to get the baby to sleep.” She feels it needs to be spoken to more explicitly, so parents can be open about what’s going on.

With a son of nine and a daughter of six and a passion for reading herself, Stoller makes sure to read to her kids every night and is currently in middle of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book, quite the throwback to her own childhood.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Grace Jamgochian: Partner, Mergers & Acquisitions, Shearman & Sterling

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Grace Jamgochian“Law professionals are not selling widgets. We’re selling thoughts. We’re selling our expertise. We’re selling relationships,” advises Grace Jamgochian. “So remembering the human nature of our business is so integral to what we do.”

Jamgochian speaks to why M&A is animating every single day, the pay-off of being goal-oriented and why it’s important to treat law as a service-oriented business.

Loving the Hub Responsibility of M&A

As a full-service Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP (Shearman), Jamgochian works across a broad general corporate practice — from public M&A, to private M&A, to private equity — gravitating towards the areas of tech, media, and telecom, infrastructure, and consumer products.

“M&A is a quasi-business and business strategy function. We advise our clients on more than just the technical aspects of the law. We partner with them to achieve their objectives, and we work closely with our internal specialists to make sure all bases are covered,” says Jamgochian. “As an M&A lawyer, you’re responsible for managing, coordinating and completing the entire deal. I love M&A because that responsibility fits well with my personality and drives me.”

Jamgochian thrives on the pace, breadth, variety and overview that M&A demands of her at Shearman.

“Every day is different. I have a general sense of my to-do list but M&A is often a series of fire drills,” she says, “Being on my toes is the type of practice that I’ve always wanted, and that’s why I’ve continued in M&A for more than a decade.”

Jamgochian also enjoys the teamwork needed for M&A transactions. “M&A is the central hub for a deal. My group handles the “corporate” pieces but we also collect the input of specialists such as in IP, Tax, Compensation, Real Estate, and Regulatory. I view a transaction agreement like a complex puzzle, and each person contributes a few pieces into the big puzzle that I’m ultimately 100% responsible for,” she says.

Jamgochian credits a year-ish long stint as an in-house attorney at Thomson Reuters, right after graduating from Cornell Law School, with immersing her into the business perspective of law from the very beginning.

“While others used the Shearman associate deferral year in 2010 for non-professional pursuits, I chose to work at a client handling M&A and securities matters so that I could get my feet wet right out of the gate. Having this opportunity set me up to be a practical, business-minded and solution-oriented attorney from the start,” Jamgochian reflects. “A deal needs business-minded lawyers. It can’t just be working in theory. You need to assess and advise on the risks, but you also need a good dose of reality and know what market practice is.”

Being Goal-Oriented As Her Key to Success

Though Jamgochian is newly elected to the Shearman partnership this year, it’s been in her sights since she first began her law career. Her journey to partner felt both intentional and linear.

“Always give yourself options. From Day 1, I tried to put myself in a position to be partner down the road, even if I couldn’t predict the future and would have been open to other paths. I volunteered for basically everything, from deals to extracurricular responsibilities like involvement in inclusion networks and bar associations. If you want to be a partner, you don’t wake up one day and suddenly have the skills. You should start thinking about business development early on and what technical and “soft” skills you’ll need to develop,” says Jamgochian.

She says her colleagues would most likely also remark on her efficiency, organization and ability to carry through a goal to completion.

“I’m a goal-oriented person. If we all have an idea in mind of what we think should be the finish line, let’s get there and let’s be efficient about it,” says Jamgochian. “In order to do that, you need to be organized, create processes, reduce any inefficiencies of people not knowing what their role is and communicate clearly. That’s me in a nutshell.”

When it comes to her next level goal, Jamgochian would love to continue to develop herself as an M&A lawyer to rank among the top of her field.

Law is Foremost About People

Early on, it was imparted on Jamgochian that law is a service-oriented industry in which the business is “people” and “our minds”.

“We’re getting paid to think. It’s about essentially our brains and our relationships: these intangibles. So the thing that lawyers need to focus on and remember throughout our careers is our clients and to develop those relationships with clients,” says Jamgochian. “Provide them with the best legal advice, which is essentially your thoughts and expertise, but then also don’t forget that everything is people-based in law firms, whether your clients or those you work with.”

When it comes to diversity, M&A as an industry is a more white male dominated area in particular.

“I have definitely had occasions where I’m the only woman in a room of thirty people. Once you already have a male-dominated industry, then you have the lack of mentorship, you have the lack of role models and it kind of snowballs from that,” observes Jamgochian. “But I think all firms, and the industry itself, are trying to pull the reins in. Shearman is really focused on D&I efforts, plus an increasing client focus on diversity is also helping to increase the law firm diversity focus as well.”

Busy Summer and Time for Family

As it’s only a block away from home, Jamgochian has been working out of the office this year, where her workload — focusing largely on tech, media, and telecom and infrastructure — has continued to boom when she might normally see a summer slowdown.

She notes that with the change of executive administration, as well as regulatory and tax changes in the air, many people and organizations are wanting to work through deals quickly. So these days, her expertise is a commodity in fast demand.

Jamgochian’s husband is also a Big Law lawyer, and with both of them having a high-intensity lifestyle, time with their five year old son is precious. They enjoy weekend picnics in Central Park and being surrounded by family in New York City and nearby.

With a background in dance history, Jamgochian turns to movement as part of keeping her balance, which may very well help in flowing with the pace of her work. She also loves learning instruments and reading music to stay sharp – along with piano and flute, she has recently also taken up ukelele.

By: Aimee Hansen

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Anna Salek: Partner, Private Client Team Leader, Shearman & Sterling LLC

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Anna Salek“Junior level women lawyers sometimes ask me for career advice, and I find the reoccurring theme is that they do not have a good understanding of their professional value,” says Anna Salek. “Very often, women grossly underestimate their value.”

Salek talks about her genuine appreciation for cutting-edge legal work, the growth in a lateral move, the two-way street of value and daring to do what scares you.

The Gratification of Top-Tier Work

“I get immense satisfaction from solving complex problems,” says Salek, who enjoys tackling legal issues that perhaps no other firm has been able to solve sufficiently or that have never before even been considered.

As the private client team leader at Shearman & Sterling with over 20 years of direct experience, Salek works with high-net-worth individuals and families to meet their wide range of legal needs and specializes the areas of trust and estates, tax planning and not-for-profit law.

“I am lucky to work at a top-tier firm like Shearman where the clients are interesting and the legal work is challenging,” she says. “I love the cutting-edge work where often there’s no precedent and the client is relying on my judgment and experience.”

Salek joined Shearman in early 2019 to lead their private client team and was drawn there by the firm’s rich history, impressive client base and dynamic women.

Be Willing to Move To Expand

“I think women, more than men, are more prone to say, ‘they’ve been so good to me here’ and view moving on to another firm as being disloyal or ungrateful. Well, that’s fine that they’ve been good to you – they should be good to you,” says Salek. “But you should also be good to yourself and not be shy about exploring other opportunities.”

While the practice of trusts and estates is generally gender diverse, it is more often men who head up the practice, so replacing C. Jones Perry at Shearman when he retired as team leader was a strong leap ahead for women in leadership in law.

“I was very dedicated and happy at another top-tier-firm where I grew up as a lawyer, and I stayed there for a long time. But moving to another firm made me a better lawyer as it allowed me to grow in different directions than I otherwise would have,” says Salek. “Making a lateral move can help you grow professionally, but equally as important, you are bringing value to your new firm by contributing your own unique skills, experience and perspective.”

“I’m not suggesting women should job hop or even leave their job, but I do think everyone should consider it from time to time – even if only to confirm how good you have it. Men change firms more frequently than women, and it’s not a bad thing. With each move you’re not only likely to increase your compensation, but it’s also a huge personal and professional growth opportunity.”

Know Your Self-Worth

On a similar thread, the guidance that Salek consistently emphasizes to junior level women lawyers is to value themselves as professionals.

“You are valuable to your firm. It’s not just a one-way street. I find that women sometimes almost can’t hear that,” iterates Salek. “They’re reluctant to ask for anything—equity, more compensation. a flexible work schedule, for example – or give themselves credit. Reminding women of their professional contributions to their firm is what I end up doing in almost every single one of those conversations.”

The Relationship Side of Private Client Work

On top of being challenged by the academic intricacies of her practice area, Salek loves the client interaction and deep relationships involved in her area of law. She enjoys working with individuals and families, many of whom have been long-term generational clients of the firm.

“The clients I work with tend to be extremely interesting people,” says Salek, for whom “field trips” to clients’ homes and offices are as much a part of her job as being behind her desk.

“When people invite you into the world of their personal finances, they inevitably invite you into their family and personal lives,” says Salek who feels that women especially thrive in cultivating relationships and trust.

“Not only do you have to be a proficient lawyer, you need to be personable and trustworthy. There’s just an element of being trusted that’s not something you can learn and that quality has helped me a lot, second certainly to really knowing what I’m doing,” she says. “I have clients who are women who have said they picked me because they prefer to work with a woman, and I have had male clients who say the same thing.”

Do What Scares You

“My advice to junior lawyers would be: don’t shy away from things that intimidate you. In fact, seek them out. Do something that scares you every day,” Salek says. “I’m not talking about skydiving. I’m talking about challenging yourself. Don’t like public speaking? Do a webinar, go sit on a panel. Don’t think you know enough about something? Help a client with that particular issue or publish an article about it. Shy? Invite someone you would like to get to know or learn from for lunch or coffee.”

Salek credits her own integration of this advice for having made her into a more confident lawyer today.

”I feel women especially don’t like to be outside of their comfort zone, but that’s the only place where you can grow,” she says. “It’s really important to push your own boundaries.”

Practicing Work-Life Integration

A rewarding aspect of her work has been the pro bono cases where Salek has been able to champion people and organizations in critical financial wins, where she sometimes gets as involved in interpersonal dynamics as with her private clients.

Salek finds that for her, work enters home life and home life enters work, so she embraces the work-life integration approach of keeping both in even keel, rather than “the two-iPhone approach” of work-life balance, which she feels is a false separation of parts of life that live inside of the same universe.

She is married with two teenagers, a daughter of 16 and a son of 14, and notes one silver lining of the pandemic is that people who were technology-resistant have been forced to embrace technology, opening up more remote working possibilities.

Salek is an avid, hands-in-the-dirt gardener. Her favorite season is spring, and she finds that “observing the earth awakening is so good for the soul.”

By Aimee Hansen

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