Sheppard Mullin thinks it’s found a way for women in-house counsel to polish their leadership skills while putting the AmLaw 100 firm on the radar screen of these potential future general counsel.
It’s a general counsel workshop it launched in 2019 that brings together rising in-house talent with veteran legal leaders for a day of learning on the intangible skills of leadership that lawyers don’t get in school or, in many cases, at law firms.
What’s key to the program, according to Whitney Roy, a litigation partner at the firm who heads Project General Counsel Workshop, isn’t the hard skills of the GC job but the soft skills of leadership.
“How do you work with boards?” Roy told Legal Dive. “How do you support a C-suite and become a trusted advisor to your CEO? All of those intangible things that nobody teaches you in law school you probably don’t learn in a law firm because the dynamic is different.”
Although women have made leadership gains, Roy said, there remains a stubborn gap with men, including in pay, and that’s a big driver of the program.
“Our big picture goal is the statistics about the number of women in general counsel positions,” she said. “We haven’t received parity yet. We have a ways to go. And I genuinely believe that when we can get parity in that role, you’re going to see a trickle-down effect in the profession in terms of more opportunities for women lawyers.”
A typical day at the workshop includes substantive panels led by people who've been in the general counsel seat, followed by interactive breakout sessions where participants tackle real-world scenarios.
“Typically, I like to have maybe two substantive panels, where people are up there talking,” she said. “Nobody wants to hear from me, right? You want to hear from people who are doing the general counsel work.”
The breakout groups are organized by experience level, enabling junior and senior participants to connect with peers facing similar challenges.
Roy sees the program as beneficial not only to participants but also to Sheppard Mullin and law firms generally.
"The firm wants to grow business, right?” she said. “But this, to me, is a much more effective and personal way to connect with clients than the typical banquet or basketball game."
Project GC offers law firms an opportunity to support their clients while cultivating personal and professional growth among attorneys.
“I can do something good for my profession,” said Roy, speaking from the standpoint of a participant. “I can form friendships that help me personally. I can do business development all at the same time and then also get educated to be a better lawyer.”
Roy said a number of participants have in fact transitioned to general counsel roles or otherwise advanced in their careers, which speaks to the need to keep the effort going.
“I do feel at times, in the last few years, we’ve let off of the push to achieve equality,” she said. “We need to keep pushing for it.”
The program has been implemented in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Roy envisions expanding the program to other cities and even replicating it with support from Sheppard Mullin’s partners in offices nationwide.
“My intention is to keep doing it every year and then support our other women partners and our other offices to replicate and do it in there,” she said.
For women seeking a career in corporate law, Roy’s advice is to them is that they commit fully to their growth and engage with the financial and business sides of the role.
“You need to learn the financials,” she said. “You need to learn who are the sources of power and how you’re going to become their trusted advisor. And you have to do that with intention.”
