The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling

For years, law firms and corporations across industries have rolled out mentoring programs, women’s and diversity initiatives, and other programs designed to enhance the recruitment, retention, and advancement of talented women and multi-cultural professionals. Despite these efforts, there has been frustratingly little change in the upper echelons of law firms, law departments, or c-suites.

In a series of ground-breaking studies, the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) revealed what’s holding back a broader range of talent from reaching the highest levels of leadership: Many lack the powerful backing necessary to inspire, propel and protect them as they navigate through upper management. They lack, in a word, sponsorship.

Please join Crowell & Moring and guest speaker Lauren Chivée of CTI for a presentation and discussion of The Sponsor Effect.

We will focus on how sponsorship differs from mentoring, and requires advocacy from men and women in positions of power.  These sponsors advocate and facilitate career moves; they push their protégés to achieve high-level visibility and forge crucial connections. Without sponsors, it is nearly impossible to climb the last and steepest rungs of the career ladder—where competition is at its most intense. We’ll discuss how these mutually beneficial relationships form, what keeps them going for both parties, and what role executive presence -- gravitas, communication and appearance --  plays.
 
Crowell & Moring launched the first law firm sponsorship initiative of its kind in the country, and will share its own experiences in building a firm-wide culture of sponsorship. Together with senior in-house leaders, we will explore best practices and the challenges of embedding sponsorship in both corporate and law firm settings.

We hope you are able to attend this important discussion.