Our Women

A culture…a commitment…a way of life…

At Steptoe & Johnson LLP, we strive to differentiate ourselves not only by delivering the highest-quality legal services to the best clients, but also by accomplishing that goal with a talented, creative, diverse, and engaged team of professionals.  Steptoe’s women attorneys have been full and active participants in the development of this productive workplace community.  Steptoe was recognized as a 2008 Best Law Firm for Women by Working Mother Magazine.

Steptoe recognizes that the unique perspectives of our women attorneys must be cultivated and supported, and the firm has established a variety of programs to do just that:

• Professional Development:  A number of women partners at Steptoe have held senior positions in the federal government and have served as leaders in the Bar and other associations.  With the full support of the firm, such women continue to dedicate significant time and resources to leading these communities, including national and international groups promoting access to justice for women.
  
• Flexible Career Paths:  Steptoe attorneys come to the firm with a wide range of skills, backgrounds, and personal commitments.  We craft individual career paths that enhance and maximize individual and team strengths, in the long run as well as the short term.
• Mentors:  Women attorneys at Steptoe benefit from the experience and advice of other women who hold firm-wide leadership positions and manage key client relationships, as illustrated by our Women's Stories.
  
• Alumni:  Women attorneys also have access to the valuable expertise of Steptoe Alumni through our Alumni program.
• Speeches and Publications:  Our women attorneys are noted authorities.  They are sought-out speakers on a broad range of topics. Each year, they publish numerous professional articles and papers, both in their fields of expertise and on topics relevant to women and the law.
  
• Women’s Forum:  Steptoe founded the Women's Forum more than 5 years ago, with the full support of firm leadership.  This group sponsors activities that advance, recognize, and connect our women attorneys.
• Comprehensive Benefits:  Steptoe has an unwavering commitment to full benefits, flexible working arrangements, and support services for all lawyers.  We integrate these services and benefits with a series of checks and balances to monitor their effectiveness, enabling firm leaders to evaluate and modify our programs so that continual improvement in our benefits package is the norm, not the exception. 

As Steptoe women know, our commitments drive our actions. Our women partners have long functioned in the most senior firm management roles: two women partners have served as the Vice Chair of the Firm, and women partners have chaired both the firm's Compensation Committee with responsibility for partner compensation, and the Firm's Professional Advancement Committee, with responsibility for attorneys' advancement to partner. Our women attorneys not only participate across the board, they are leading the firm into the 21^st century:

• Partners:  20% women
• Executive Committee:  Antonia Ianniello, Lucinda Low, and Jane Ryan.
• Chief Diversity Partner: Sandy Chamblee
• Diversity Committee:  Sandy Chamblee, co-chair
• Professional Advancement Committee: Gwendolyn Prothro, Sandy Chamblee, and Ruth Kahn
• Hiring Committee:  Sandy Chamblee, co-chair
• Finance Committee:  Jane Ryan, vice chair
• Technology Committee: Morgan Hodgson, chair
  
• Professional Training Committee: Alice Kipel and Lisa Zarlenga co-chairs
• Strategic Planning Committee: Antonia Ianniello
• Associates Committee:  Gwendolyn Prothro, chair
• Public Service Committee: Barbara Kagan
• International Department and International Trade Group: Susan Esserman, chair
• Insurance Practice Group:  Antonia Ianniello, chair
• Deputies Committee: Jane Ryan, Alice Kipel, Gwendolyn Prothro, and Suzanne Ross McDowell
  
• Compensation Committee: Gwendolyn Prothro and Antonia Ianniello
• Associate class, 2007:  48% women and minorities
• Summer associate class, 2008:  37% women