Description

Companies and law firms have the responsibility to look at how they evaluate and promote female employees and ensure that women are being given a fair shot. Many are now more proactive in finding new ways to address the gender imbalances within their organization, but clearly there is still a lot of work that can be done to reduce, and eventually erase, institutional bias.

Beyond institutional bias, there are also other challenges that may hold back women lawyers from gaining satisfaction in their jobs. achieving coveted leadership positions or leading effectively:

• Lacking confidence to ask for what they need, whether it’s for a raise, a more flexible schedule or additional team support
• Experiencing imposter syndrome or other limiting beliefs
• Not realizing that doing good work is only part of the puzzle to getting a seat at the table.
• Not knowing how to find allies and sponsors to champion them
• Not getting the support they need to be successful for the long term

This roundtable will consist of an interactive panel discussion spotlighting women law firm partners, general counsels and chief legal officers for a robust roundtable discussion; to share their stories and lessons learned on their journey to leadership; and provide insights on how women lawyers can thrive and succeed within their organizations. The roundtable will be held virtually for ninety minutes.

This discussion will be moderated by Susan Seah, Founder and CEO of The Koa Club and Micha Goebig, Founder of Go Big Coaching and Confidence Coach focused on women in male dominated industries.

Women in Law Leadership Program

This roundtable is held in conjunction with the six-month Women in Law Leadership Program hosted by The Koa Club’s FollowMyLead division, starting in May 2023.

The Program is based on monthly two-hour workshops, specifically for women lawyers to boldly take on, and learn effective strategies to manage issues that include self-doubt, the dreaded imposter syndrome, fear of not being taken seriously, lack of appropriate role models, and the stress and burnout from working in the intense legal field. The participants are also assigned to Mentorship Huddles™, facilitated by a peer mentor, where they can collaborate closely in a small group setting with other participants from the tech industry to share insights, best practices, and helpful encouragement throughout the length of the program.

“In addition to organizations finding more ways to elevate and support female talent, it is key to help their women overcome issues that hold them back, so that they can succeed in attaining leadership roles and thrive once they get there,” said Susan Seah, CEO and founder of The Koa Club.

More details on the Women in Law Leadership Program can be found at: Women in Law Program – The Koa Club. For additional information, please contact info@thekoaclub.com.

Panelists

Adriana Sosa, General Counsel at FullStack Labs

Adriana is a dynamic and innovative Legal leader with 20 years of experience in the Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing sectors, specializing in international transactions, complex contract negotiations, and channel distribution matters. She is passionate about people development, simplification, globalization, and a business-first approach to delivering legal services. Adriana has a strong track record of attracting and developing culturally diverse, high-performing, business-focused, international and domestic teams, and she has held worldwide legal leadership roles for Fortune 200 companies.

Jennifer Handa, Associate General Counsel, Global Compliance & Ethics at Accenture.

Jennifer has overall responsibility for the development, implementation and monitoring of its global compliance programs (anticorruption, anti-money laundering, competition law, confidentiality, data and AI compliance, data privacy, government compliance and trade compliance) and ethics program at Accenture (which includes Accenture’s Code of Business Ethics (COBE), Conduct Counts, policy oversight, required Ethics Compliance training, and more). She works with senior management to ensure Accenture’s 700,000+ employees together with its business intermediaries understand and comply with applicable rules, regulations and company policies and that Accenture’ business conduct conforms to its compliance programs and COBE. In 2007/2008, Jennifer had spent some time traveling all seven continents and even worked at McMurdo Station in Antarctica through a subcontractor for the U.S. Antarctic Program.

Nicole Trudeau, Director, Crypto Legal and Associate General Counsel at Robinhood 

Nicole has been working with the law at the intersection of technology and finance, applying more than a decade of experience as a traditional corporate, financial services and securities regulatory attorney to emerging FinTech, cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Some career highlights include being General Counsel of a global cryptocurrency exchange with more than four million retail users and various B2B and Institutional product offerings, four years as the head of the Legal and Compliance Department for a roughly $7 billion registered investment adviser and broker-dealer with 15 publicly-traded funds and global subsidiaries focusing on deploying environmental, sustainable and governance (ESG) investment strategies, and more than 10 years of financial services regulatory expertise practicing at various international law firms in Washington, DC representing a range of clients before financial services regulators including the SEC. She has launched several actively managed UCITS ETFs in Europe, one with a first of its kind carbon offset feature and obtained no-action relief on behalf of the entire asset management industry from the SEC allowing compliance with international financial regimes (MiFID II).

Dianne Sweeney, Lead Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP Silicon Valley office Litigation team and Managing Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Silicon Valley office. 

Dianne leads the Silicon Valley Litigation team and is the managing partner of Pillsbury’s Silicon Valley office. A skilled commercial and technology trial lawyer, Dianne represents clients on complex business issues in federal and state courts as well as before administrative panels. Her experience in complex corporate transactions and litigation proceedings encompasses merger, shareholder, joint venture and earnout disputes in California and Delaware; antitrust cases; contested property tax assessments; key executive employment disputes and trade secret claims. Dianne also provides risk management assessment and strategic litigation counsel to emerging businesses, especially clients in the high-tech sector. Among the many awards and honors bestowed on Dianne throughout her career, she was most recently recognized by Best Lawyers (published by BL Rankings LLC), Commercial Litigation (2022 – 2023), and was the recipient of the 2021 Santa Clara County Bar Association Salsman Award.

Siân Skelton, Partner and member of the management board of Taylor Wessing LLP London office.

Siân specialises in all aspects of technology and privacy law. She works with technology companies of all sizes, from startups to global brands, and guides them through contract negotiations, crossborder compliance matters and privacy governance. She’s embedded in London’s tech ecosystem through her work with our Tech City programme and a regular advisor to North American tech startups looking to expand into the UK and Europe. Siân also sits on the UK executive board of Taylor Wessing representing Diversity and Inclusion across the firm. Sian has won numerous awards during her career, including for the Legal 500 UK 2022 for Retail and consumer, Legal 500 UK 2022 for IT and telecoms Next generation partner and The Lawyer Awards 2020 for best talent and inclusion initiative – development and continued implementation of the award’s Gender Plan.

Moderators

Susan Seah, Founder & CEO of The Koa Club, Head of Legal at eGain Corporation, Founding Partner at CounselGS LLP

Micha Goebig, Confidence Coach for Women; Founder and CEO of Go Big Coaching & Communications

Who Can Attend & Fee

Public Event – Open to the public. We especially welcome all women who are in the legal field, whether working in a law firm, for a company, a non-profit or in government.

Location/ Date & Time

Online via Zoom only:

*****Zoom link will be provided in the RSVP confirmation email*******

Date:  Thursday, April 6, 2023

Time: 9am – 10:30amPT/10am-11:30amMT/11am-12:30amCT/12pm-1:30pmET