Women’s Initiative at Eckert

 

Consistent with our firm’s diversity, equality, and inclusion mission, the Women’s Initiative at Eckert Seamans works to develop an inclusive environment where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. Eckert Seamans has long championed a supportive atmosphere for women in the law, embracing uniqueness in background, experience, and viewpoints. This credo has allowed the firm’s women to cultivate careers, challenge their legal skills, rise to partnership, become leaders as well as role models, and give back to the community and the generations that follow.

Co-Chairs Amy Z. Snyder and Jennifer Adams Shepler, lead the Women’s Initiative at Eckert. Chapters in each of the firm’s offices come together to exchange information, ideas, and common experiences while helping to promote recruitment, retention, community outreach, and networking both within and outside the firm. These chapters undertake externally focused projects ranging from charitable initiatives to client-centered events. Internally, the Women’s Initiative at Eckert includes informal mentoring, collaborating with practice leaders to identify and secure speaking opportunities for women attorneys, and ensuring that women are included in institutional client service teams as well as new business development teams. Assisting Amy and Jen in leading these efforts are office representatives Devorah Levine and Potoula Tournas in Boston;  Renee Montogmery in Harrisburg; Misha Shah in Newark; Karlee Martin in Princeton;  Ashley Davoli in Richmond; Jessica Glajch in Washington, D.C.; Geraldine Cheverko in White Plains; and Tara Lattomus in Wilmington.

The Women’s Initiative at Eckert focuses its efforts in several areas, including:

  • Professional development and career advancement
  • Increasing the representation of women in leadership
  • Business development
  • Work-life balance and flexible working arrangements
  • Recruiting

Embracing the following women-centered practices helps us to achieve our goals:

  • Creating women-centered marketing materials and optimizing women-centered public relations opportunities.
  • Identifying and underwriting business development training and opportunities to promote women’s participation within professional, business, trade, and bar associations at the local and national levels.
  • Building mentoring relationships between members and associates and encouraging shadowing experiences.
  • Developing firm-wide client and new business development initiatives with a focus on the inclusion of women in RFP responses and the integration of women into institutional client relationships.
  • Creating networking opportunities with women-owned and women-centered businesses and other clients, service-related organizations, bar associations, and professional schools with similar diversity and inclusiveness initiatives.
  • Affirming firm support through the funding of women-centered activities and encouraging participation in activities and community events that highlight the profile of the firm’s women and enhance business development opportunities.
  • Sharing information about women-focused events on a local, regional, and firm basis, as appropriate.
  • Identifying and promoting women-centered government relations opportunities and election-related activities.
  • Organizing efforts to promote our women in local, regional, and national lists of professional achievement and recognition, i.e., Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, Chambers USA, etc.
  • Fostering team building as a platform for success within the firm and the community and building bridges with male colleagues to promote and enhance collective achievement and success.

In October 2019, Eckert Seamans hosted its inaugural Women’s Initiative Summit in Pittsburgh. The event gathered 100 women lawyers from across the firm’s offices for a day of informative and inspirational presentations on and panel discussions led by nationally recognized experts on gender diversity and equality in the law.

Eckert Seamans was named one of the top 50 law firms for women by Working Mother magazine, which recognizes law firms that have demonstrated a commitment to work-life balance and retaining and promoting women. The rankings are based on six measured areas of firm management: workforce profile, benefits and compensation, parental leave, childcare, flexibility, and retention and advancement of women. Also, for many years running, the firm has been recognized by the Pennsylvania Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession through their Honor Roll of Legal Organizations Welcoming Women Professionals program, which honors firms and organizations that help women lawyers continue and advance in their professions. The Women’s Initiative at Eckert was lauded for undertaking mentoring, charitable causes, and business development activities, and the firm was also recognized for its flexible and innovative employee relations policies.

We celebrate all of these achievements as well as the individual achievements of each of its members through the publishing of the annual Women’s Initiative at Eckert Year in Review. We hope that you enjoy reading about these successes as much as we enjoy sharing in them.