Page 11 - Katten Annual Diversity Review

the firm and offering guidance and assistance. In
addition, Leslie Minier, who was a new Corporate
partner when I joined the firm, was an invaluable
mentor to me. As an African-American woman
who did what I was setting out to do, she helped me
assess my career goals and path. She connected me
with Vince Sergi, who offered his support and really
opened some doors for me, including the opportunity
to work in the LA office for a month when I was a
junior associate to see if I wanted to transfer there to
work in the Entertainment and Media group. I was
incredibly fortunate to have all of these firm leaders
in my corner.
At the same time that I made partner at Katten, the
GC opportunity with the Warriors opened up and I
was excited to join their organization, given that I’d
been handling work for the team and already knew
the organization and some of its key leaders.
What advice do you have for attorneys
just beginning their careers?
Whenever I get asked this question I think about
advice that Leslie gave me when I was first starting
out, which is to divide your career planning into
segments. First, as a new associate, you should
keep your head down, stay focused on the work
and on excelling as an attorney—thinking of the
partners for whom you work as a client. Then after
two or three years, you should raise your gaze to
understand more about how your piece of work fits
together in the larger scope of the matter and begin
creating relationships with others in the firm—get
out of your office a bit and meet others, even at other
firms or companies. After that, you’ve got to decide
what you want. Do you want to be a partner? If you
do, then you should start creating relationships with
the people at your level within clients’ organizations.
What are your views on diversity in the
legal environment?
It’s nowhere near where it needs to be or where it
should be. It seems as if the industry keeps having
the same conversations about increasing diversity
in the legal profession. I was fortunate at Katten to
have several key mentors who specifically sought
out diverse attorneys to help empower them. If all
law firms implemented this practice, and made it a
structural component of the firm, I think it would
help increase diversity throughout the legal industry.
For instance, while I was at Katten, Leslie connected
me with a diverse attorney—Paul Fenstermaker—
while he was still in law school because she knew
he was interested in sports law. I met with him and
gave him an overview of the kinds of work we do, and
Katten ended up hiring him as a summer associate.
His summer program started around the time I was
leaving to go to the Warriors and I knew that I would
need to hire some legal help once I was there, so I
asked Leslie if Katten would be willing to split Paul’s
summer with me—half at the firm in Chicago and half
with me at the Warriors in Oakland—which is what
we did. Paul worked for Katten for a year after law
school and then I hired him to join me at the Warriors.
As a busy father of three children, how
do you manage a work-life balance?
Family always comes first. One of the benefits of
my job is that I get to bring my kids to games and
they get to be around the team. I feel that my job
enhances my family life rather than detracts from it.
I also balance work and family with music. Music is
a great outlet for me and it’s nice to be able to release
and get away from the job in order to dive into music
for an hour or so and then feel refreshed to come
right back to work—the real work.
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