National expert on rainmaking: It’s about using the skills you already have, regardless of gender by Paula Saha @PaulaSaha
Patricia Gillette is a top-rated trial lawyer and best-selling author. She is also a sought-after speaker who is invited all over the country to talk to law firms about the characteristics and skills that make the best “rainmakers.”
And she’s always fascinated to watch as more men show up to her presentations than women.
“That is the social norm that women have been taught,” she said. “That they shouldn’t think of themselves as rainmakers.”
On Nov. 13, Gillette will be moderating “Making It (Ethically) Rain,” a program co-hosted by the NJ Institute for Continuing Legal Education (NJICLE) and the association’s Women in the Profession Section. Gillette will be joined by Christine Amalfe of Gibbons, Tanya Holcomb of Honeywell International, Inc., Tamara L. Linde of PSEG, Inc. and Diana Manning of Bressler, Amery & Ross.
In 2013, Gillette was a special consultant on the first large-scale study of highly successful law firm rainmakers. In a letter introducing the study, she wrote “The characteristics of rainmakers are quantifiable and are not bound by gender. Rather the characteristics that make rainmakers successful are grounded in their backgrounds, their personal experiences, and the way they view themselves.”
“It became important to say that out loud so we would stop having women thought of and thinking of themselves as second-class citizens,” she said. “You have the skills. Don’t think you have to do something special to get them.”
Gender diversity and equality in the workplace have long been personal passions for Gillette. Ten years ago, she and a colleague published The Opt-In Project, a paper examining the structural impediments in law firms to women achieving leadership positions.
“My theory was that we needed to stop talking about work-life balance because it was a symptom, not a cause, of what was wrong with the legal industry,” she said. Among the recommendations she and her co-author made included taking a hard look at rewards and compensation in law firms, tracking associates by skills acquired instead of year of law school graduation and changing the way employees are evaluated to be more collaborative and include more timely feedback.
It took some time to start seeing changes, she said (“Law firms are built on tradition, and lawyers are cognizant of precedent,” she said), but they are slowly coming to be. The changes, she noted, aren’t just about gender – today, they are also very applicable to the so-called “millennial generation.”
“What men and women are looking for in the workplace is a lot more similar now than ever before,” she said.
For more information, and to register for the Nov. 13th event, with run from 9 a.m. to noon at the New Jersey Law Center, go to
www.njsba.com.
