Emilie Delo and Marie Martin are currently participating in the Allegheny County Bar Association's Women’s Institute for Leadership in Law (WILL) program, established by the Gender-Equality Committee of the ACBA, of which Christie Tillapaugh serves as Co-Chair. There are 28 women enrolled in the inaugural nine-month program, which aims to prepare female attorneys for advancement to leadership positions in Pittsburgh-area law firms. An opening retreat was held in March at Carnegie Mellon University, and future monthly meetings will provide education and training on finance, developing business relationships and leveraging networks, effective negotiating, efficient leadership and resilience, among other topics.

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Vol. 20 No. 12 June 8, 2018The Journal of the Allegheny County Bar Association
WILL’s nine-month program kicks off preparing
women attorneys for leadership positions
By Rebecca Canterbury
After working seven years as an
associate attorney at K&L Gates,
Mary Thibadeau is eager to advance.
“I want to move to the next step in my
career,” she said. “I’m ready to move
to the partnership ranks.”
But women comprise fewer than 20
percent of law-firm leadership positions
nationwide. In Allegheny County, the
figure is even lower – just 14 percent.
Indeed, there are more CEOs
named John and David than there are
female CEOs.
Women often begin their careers
with leadership-advancement aspirations,
but data shows that typically they lose
the ambitions to climb the ladder to
senior levels within just two years.
“Women can really get ambition
beaten out of them quickly because
they face unconscious biases in the
workplace that men don’t face,” said
Thibadeau. “It would be a loss to the
legal profession if they didn’t get to
advance to the highest stages.”
Thibadeau is one of 28 women
currently enrolled in the Women’s
Institute for Leadership in Law (WILL),
an intensive, nine-month program that
prepares female attorneys for
advancement to leadership positions
in Pittsburgh-area law firms.
WILL recruits women on the cusp
of attaining leadership roles, attracting
a diverse array of attorneys from
virtually every practice area and
background – including large firms,
solo practitioners, and in-house
counsel, according to ACBA Director
of Diversity and Gender Equality
Alysia Keating.
The program aims to develop a
“pipeline to leadership” by focusing
on everything from rainmaking to
commanding executive presence, said
ACBA Gender-Equality Committee
Co-Chair Beverly Block.
Attendees at the first meeting in
March learned tips and strategies on
deepening self-awareness, unlocking
self-limiting beliefs, countering uncon-
scious bias, building strong networks
and crafting an authentic leadership
brand with a sense of purpose.
“Women deal with backlash when
acting in their own self-interest,” said
program speaker Leanne Meyer, who
serves as executive director of the
Accelerate Leadership Center at
Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper
School of Business. “If a woman acts
ambitious, self-interested, advocates
for herself or is aggressive, we see her
as all the horrible words that can be
used for women.”
Participants learned how to combat
negative perceptions of women and
take action to achieve their goals.
“Hopefully, when more women are
at the top things will change,”
Thibadeau suggests, “but there aren’t
that many women at the top.”
The program’s focus on work-life
balance particularly resonated with
solo practitioner Abigail Salisbury, who
joined WILL in search of a community
of similarly situated lawyers.
“Focusing on building business is
super-important,” said Salisbury, “but
it’s also important to ensure your
life doesn’t fall apart while you’re
building it.”
Participants completed personality
surveys for the second meeting,
entitled: “Cultivating Self-Confidence
and Self-Assessment.” They discussed
ways to identify personality traits that
trigger emotional responses and ways
to give and receive feedback in a
positive manner, recounts family-law
attorney Mary McKinney-Flaherty.
David Lassman, professor of
organizational management at CMU
Heinz College, led WILL’s May program,
entitled “The Importance of Grit, a
Growth Mindset and Resilience to
your Success.” That session taught
the cohort necessary internal traits
and concrete steps to propel their
careers forward.
Future meetings will provide education
and training on law firm compensation
models and budgeting issues, finance,
developing business relationships and
leveraging networks, maintaining
internal and external business rela-
tionships, leadership presence, team
management, effective negotiating,
efficient leadership, and resilience.
Motivated by the monthly meetings
with the same group of high-achieving
women, Salisbury enjoys the
extended period of interaction to
grow as a group.
“It really gave me excitement for
the future,” she said. “I really like that
Continued on page 8
PHOTOS BY ERIKA DOWD
All participants in the inaugural ACBA Women’s Institute for Leadership in Law Opening Retreat at Carnegie
Mellon University gather under the skylights of CMU’s Posner Hall for a class photo on March 23.
Leanne Meyer, Executive Director
of the Accelerate Leadership Center
at Carnegie Mellon University
Tepper School of Business and
Program Director of the Carnegie
Mellon Leadership and Negotiation
Academy for Women shows the
WILL participants a “power
stance” during the afternoon at
the Opening Retreat program.
Mary Thibadeau of K&L Gates and Gosia Kosturek of Eckert Seamans
Cherin & Mellott entertain each other with comedic life stories during a
break in the programming at the WILL’s first session.

2. Page 8 / June 8, 2018
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monthly drumbeat of checking in with
the group of people and finding out
how things are going for them.”
Stephanie Solomon, a partner at
Burns White who hopes to elevate her
position to equity partner, said she
already has put into practice some of
the tips offered by the program. She
has made a more concerted effort to
interact with decision-makers and
leaders of the firm.
“Being a young female partner is
difficult in a male-dominated industry,”
Solomon said. “Most of our clients are
WILL PROGRAM
continued from front cover
male; most of our superiors are male.
It’s that ongoing struggle to have them
view you as an equal, as somebody that
they’re confident in relying upon.”
Perhaps surprisingly, some attendees
said that the #MeToo movement
against sexual harassment has
adversely affected women in the
workplace by chilling communication.
WILL isn’t a “fix-the-women”
program, explains Meyer.
Rather, law firms are required to
participate and encouraged to adapt
their systems to enable more advance-
ment for female attorneys. A law-firm
steward, or sponsor, works with
participants to ensure that the program’s
teachings are applied at the firm.
Midway through the program,
Meyer will provide implicit-bias training
for WILL stewards, discussing effective
mentorship, how to efficiently work
with a protégé and what can be done
differently in work environments to
support women.
“A program like this,” said Meyer,
“allows women to reclaim their
ambition.” I
Continued on page 9
PHOTO BY ERIKA DOWD
Mallory Gold of Evashavik, DiLucente & Tetlow, LLC takes notes during
Leanne Meyer’s presentation on strategies for women to succeed in the
legal and business worlds on March 23.
Need clients?
The Lawyer Referral Service can help bring them to you.
For details, contact Whitney Hughes
at 412-402-6703 or whughes@acba.org.
To learn more, see getapittsburghlawyer.com.

3. June 8, 2018 / Page 9
WILL PROGRAM
continued from page 8
PHOTOS BY BRIAN ESTADT
WILL’s second session titled “Cultivating Self-Confidence & Self-Assessment”
was facilitated by Alyson Lyon, MBA, Executive Leadership Coach at
Higher View Coaching & Consulting LLC and Adjunct Professor at Duquesne
University, School of Leadership on April 12 at the Koppers Building.
Aman Bhullar and
Marie Batz Martin –
both of Arconic Inc. –
share a laugh during a
hands-on exercise
during the session.
The WILL participants listen intently to Lyon as she discusses the key
predictor of success is a leader’s self-awareness and the leader’s ability
to increase effectiveness by managing relationships.
Stephanie Solomon
of Burns White and
Christina Johansen
of FedEx Ground
Package System,
Inc. listen in during
a group learning
during the program.