In August of 2004, the Women's Leadership Forum (WLF) was established to further the Firm's commitment to the strategic retention and advancement of women and to provide a forum for our women attorneys to discuss issues and share information. A driving force for its creation was the recognition that as a national law Firm we have an enormous amount of wisdom, experience and vision within our midst, which, when collected and shared internally and externally, can empower women at all levels in their careers to achieve success and satisfaction.
In 2005, the Firm became a lead signatory to the Chicago Bar Association's Alliance for Women’s "Call to Action," a project that promotes the recruitment, retention and advancement of women in the legal profession. The “Call to Action” recognizes that without a focused effort from the leadership of law firms, the progress of women into leadership positions in the legal profession will remain static. The "Call to Action" was approved by the Chicago Bar Association’s Board of Managers in 2005, setting forth five goals for Chicago law firms and legal departments to attain by 2007, including increasing the percent of its women partners and increasing the number of women practice group leaders.
Additional examples of steps we take to fulfill the commitment and support our WLF mission include:
Professional Development
Mentoring Program
Internal Events
External Events
Annual Client Events
Recruitment
Surveys
Community Service
Professional Development
The WLF has been instrumental in organizing firmwide training in areas such as business development and networking.
Mentoring Program
The WLF has organized mentoring groups, in order to create better lines of communication among women attorneys within the Firm, with the goal of promoting professional growth and increasing retention of talented female attorneys. These mentoring groups, which meet regularly, consists of attorneys at various stages of their professional and personal lives, and practicing in various areas of law.
Internal Events
The WLF hosts regular internal events and round-table sessions to discuss specific issues that affect women in the legal workplace today, including leveraging a professional presence, balancing work and life, how to achieve financial wellness and unleashing the power of personality for more success. You will find a calendar of upcoming and past events that demonstrate the type of events we host for women attorneys within the Firm.
External Events
The WLF has joined hands, as an active event sponsor, with several community organizations that support and advance the value of women in business, including:
American Bar Association’s Women Rainmakers Section
Charlotte Business Women of the Year Leadership Forum and Luncheon
Charlotte Women‘s Bar Association
Chicago Bar Association’s Alliance for Women
Los Angeles Women’s Rights Committee on Human Rights Watch
Simpson Academy for Young Women
Women’s Bar Association of Illinois
Women’s Bar Foundation
Women’s Board of the American Cancer Society
Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
Annual Client Events
Katten’s Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Charlotte offices each host an annual client event specifically for women in business and law. The purpose of the client events is to network with women clients and colleagues in the local area, to showcase our women attorneys and demonstrate the Firm's commitment to diversity and women's issues.
Recruitment
The Firm is a regular sponsor of the Northwestern School of Law Women’s Leadership Coalition, and provides support in the form of mentoring and education by providing women attorneys as panelists for ongoing programming for women law students.
In addition, the Firm is also a sponsor of the annual conference at Harvard Law School, also sponsored by the Harvard Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law & Gender and the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.
Surveys
Katten was named to Multicultural Law Magazine’s 2005 Ranking of Top 100 U.S. Law Firms for Diversity and Top 50 Firms for Women.
The Firm participates in the Presumed Equal Survey: What America’s Top Women Lawyers Really Think About Their Law Firms, which facilitates a conversation between law students, practicing attorneys, and law firm leaders about issues that are important to women. It also allows participating firms to reflect on their womens’ initiatives, which instigates positive change.
Community Service
Katten’s Women’s Leadership Forum is committed to volunteering and sponsoring various service projects at Simpson Academy for Young Women, the only Chicago Public School exclusively for pregnant and parenting students (grades 6 - 12). The Firm’s attorneys engage students in a variety of projects designed to help them develop critical life skills, particularly in the areas of parenting and careers. Katten has also donated furniture for the Simpson Academy’s teacher’s lounge, and has planned future projects to assist the school in key areas of need, as part of a continuing commitment to Simpson Academy.