Sign in or create a free account to get FREE SHIPPING and DISCOUNTS

Best Friends At the Bar: Top-Down Leadership for Women

Authors
  • Susan Smith Blakely
Series / Aspen Select Series
Teaching Materials
NO
Description
In her continuing quest to raise the retention rates for women lawyers, Susan Smith Blakely takes the messages of her award-winning Best Friends at the Bar project to a new audience. The first two books in the Best Friends at the Bar series, What Women Need to Know about a Career in the Law and The New Balance for Todayand#8217;s Woman Lawyer, address the challenges of the law profession for women lawyers and the responsibilities of young women to take charge of their professional lives to develop successful and satisfying careers. With this new book, the author shifts her focus to law firm leaders and their responsibility for helping women lawyers meet the challenges of law practice and for retaining the considerable talent that women lawyers bring to firms and to the profession. Through the use of proven leadership concepts, the author tells law firm leaders what others are afraid to tell them about the failings of their leadership styles, particularly as applied to young women lawyers. As a former law firm partner, a chief of staff in public service, and a wife and mother, Susan Blakely understands leadership for women lawyers and how it must be responsive to the values that are unique to women in the workplace. You will learn
  • Why Women Lawyers Leave;
  • Why Law Firms Should Care;
  • Why Past Retention Efforts Have Failed and What Needs to Be Included in a Successful Law Firm Womenand#8217;s Initiative;
  • Why Mentors and Leaders are Critical to the Success of Women Lawyers;
  • Who the Millennial Lawyers Are and Why Law Firm Leaders Do Not Understand Them;
  • What Makes an Effective Law Firm Leader for Women Lawyers; and
  • How to Have Conversations about the Important Challenges Facing Women Lawyers Today.
Included in the book are check lists to initiate the conversations between leaders and women lawyers to retain talent and positively affect succession plans for law firms.

Read More
Professor Materials
Please sign in or register to view Professor Materials. These materials are only available for validated professor accounts. If you are registering for the first time, validation may take up to 2 business days.
About the authors
Susan Blakely

Susan Blakely has been teaching and mentoring for most of her life. What Women Need to Know About a Career in the Law—Best Friends at the Bar is the first in a planned series of books to help young women lawyers develop careers that will allow them to continue in and prosper in their chosen profession.

With the assistance of her own "Best Friends at the Bar," Ms. Blakely presents the reader with critical and practical advice that will prove invaluable to young women undergraduates considering law school, young women law students, and young women lawyers in their initial years of practice. Her book is the first of its kind and grew out of her concern for the discouraging retention rates for young women lawyers and the difficulties these young women face, presented by the elusive work-life balance and related struggles. By reading her book and taking advantage of the collective wisdom and advice of over 50 women lawyers and judges, young women will be better equipped for the challenges of advancing in a male-dominated profession and reaching positions of leadership and management where they can positively affect policy and improve the condition of women in the practice.

Ms. Blakely brings a lifetime of experience to this endeavor. As a teacher in the public schools after graduating from the University of Wisconsin and later as a teaching fellow while attending Georgetown University Law Center, she laid the foundation for a lifetime of mentoring. In her practice, which spanned 25 years and included both private law firm and public sector experience, Ms. Blakely saw the legal profession from many perspectives—from associate to counsel to partner and as a Chief of Staff in the public sector. In those roles, she has mentored many young lawyers and continues to enjoy that work through this book and her interaction with those in and aspiring to her profession.

"This book has been a labor of love for me, and I consider it to be my most important contribution to my profession. I hope that it will be widely read and that it will accomplish my objective of helping young women help themselves in reaching their professional goals. I also hope that it will encourage all young women lawyers to reach out to others in need and become someone else's Best Friend at the Bar.

Product Information
Publication date
Pages
244
Subject
Gender and the Law
Select Format Show Hide
Select Format Hide