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Listen, I am surprised as anyone. When I sat down to interview Jenner & Block’s Co-Managing Partners Katya Jestin and Randy Mehrberg, I hardly anticipated being wowed by the firm’s dedication to social justice and pro bono representations, but here we are.
In this episode of The Jabot, I chat with Katya and Randy about their overall philosophy for managing a Biglaw firm, prioritizing diversity, the challenges in trying to create a unified culture across a giant firm and how has the pandemic heightened those issues. We also talk about Jenner & Block’s representation of Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight Action and the need to modernize the Voting Rights Act.
April 26, 2021 at 2:38 PM
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To be a first woman or first in anything is an honor and humbling and exciting because it provides a role model for many people women, men and others that you don’t have to fit a certain mold to succeed. Yvette Ostolaza of Sidley Austin, commenting on her recent election to serve as chair of the firm’s management committee. Ostolaza will officially take over as chair in April 2022, when she will become the first woman to lead the firm in its 155-year history. She will be the only woman of color to lead a top 10 Am Law firm and among the handful of women who lead Biglaw firms.
April 12, 2021 at 4:01 PM
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(Image via Getty)
Gender equality is given a lot of lip service in the legal profession, and yet women continue to face many disparities when they sign on for work each and every day. From pay to partnership promotions to the composition of leadership committees to family policies, there are many areas where law firms must change to keep up with the times especially during the pandemic era. Thankfully, some law firms are becoming more progressive, but which firms are doing the best they can for women in all areas?
For the third year in a row, the Yale Law Women have released a ranking of the Top Firms for Gender Equity, coupled with its annual list of the Top Family-Friendly Firms. We’ve written about the latter ranking every year (see our coverage from 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, and 2008), and covered YLW’s important new dual ranking in 2019 and 2020.
March 16, 2021 at 10:06 AM
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(Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images for Hulu)
Oh, Alan Dershowitz. He’s back in the news again, because of course he is. And he’s got advice he wants to share with Andrew Cuomo.
“Accusations don’t constitute guilt,” Dershowitz told Newsmax host Carl Higbie. “I wrote a book about it called ‘Guilt by Accusation,’ so I think that Gov. Cuomo should stick to his guns. Let there be a full investigation.”
To be clear, seven 7! women have now come forward to accuse Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment. But Dershowitz is correct, accusations alone aren’t the same as a conviction though there is an active investigation. But it is also an absurd bit of legal sleight-of-hand to say the burden of proof in a criminal case is the same as pressuring a politician to resign. Something Cuomo and David Paterson know only all too well.