In April 2016, 80 women lawyers from all walks of life, from big law to solo, gathered to have difficult, yet necessary conversations at the Shape the Law unconference. The theme was wellness, wealth, and wisdom.
How often do you get to connect with lawyers from all walks of life who share similar issues and have conversations about those issues? My guess is, not very often. This has been a source of frustration for me for many years. I’d meet lawyers and they would share their struggles, challenges, and issues, but there wasn’t a setting where we could gather and have deep, meaningful, authentic conversations about these topics.
When I attended my first unconference at Google, I was completely blown away. The event was sponsored by Wisdom 2.0. Wisdom 2.0 addresses the great challenge of our age: to not only live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work, and useful to the world.
First, let me explain what an unconference is. At an unconference, participants gather around a theme or very broad topic. In the beginning of the day, participants gather and each person is given a topic card. He or she is free to write down whatever topic he or she chooses. Then the topics are grouped, and the schedule for the day is set according to those topic cards.
At Shape the Law, we had eight concurrent breakout sessions. The topics included:
- feeling/finding purpose and value in the workplace
- alternative careers for lawyers
- moving from aggression to wisdom
- pay inequality
- how to add joy to law practice
- creating a sustainable, supportive community for in-house lawyers
- taking it to the next level
The guidelines for an unconference are basic and simple.
- radical inclusion: everyone is encouraged to share his or her thoughts (especially those people who are more reserved or shy)
- there are no experts
- you don’t need to have all the answers to share
- you are free to leave one session and move to a different session
We had three breakout sessions, so the participants had an opportunity to choose from 32 different sessions. Two of the most popular sessions, not surprisingly, were work/life balance and career transition.
The wonderful thing about an unconference is that it creates a space where everyone feels included and feels free to share his or her thoughts, struggles, and experiences. It’s a way to create community.
I feel so fortunate to have been part of building and designing this unconference. Not only because of the amazing women attorneys that attended the event but also because of my collaborators. I met all three of them on Twitter, so never underestimate the power of social media connection, or the power of a tweet.
My collaborators were:
Alexandra “Alix” Devendra, legal design consultant. Alix left big law to follow her passion for design. She teaches other attorneys how to use design principles to innovate their practices. Alix also consults for legal tech startups on a wide range of issues, including user-experience design and content strategy.
Laura J. Maechtlen, partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Laura is the National Vice-Chair of Seyfarth’s Labor & Employment Department and Co-Chair of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion Action Team.
Mary Redzic, in-house counsel at Vionic Group, a comfort shoe company in the Bay Area. Mary also runs the boutique law practice Beta Law Group and blogs about legal technology at disrupt.legal. As a side project, she is also learning how to code.
We had women from big law, including Seyfarth Shaw LLP (one of the main sponsors), Goodwin Procter LLP, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Reed Smith, Drinker Biddle & Reath, and Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. This created a space where the lawyers can share and compare notes about what is happening at their firm. We also had in-house counsel, as well as solo practitioners. Then there were the women lawyers who chose an alternative career path.
For me, the most powerful moments were when one woman shared something she’d been going through and struggling with, and many other women in the group said, “Me too.”
Shape the Law wants to bring unconferences to cities across the U.S. If you want to get involved, drop us an email: [email protected]
This article previously appeared on Above the Law.