Career Development

Our approach to cultivating the careers of our women is simple, yet remarkably effective. We begin by recruiting the very best of the best from the pool of talented law school graduates.

The Women’s Initiative complements the wide array of professional development and connectivity programming that the Firm offers to all lawyers across our global offices. We provide our women with the tools they need to succeed: hands-on training, one-on-one mentoring, an extensive and formal professional development curriculum, networking opportunities, open-door policies that encourage access to partners and senior lawyers and—most importantly—varied and challenging work assignments that expose lawyers to different partners and unique legal problems across a wide range of clients and industries.

“One of the key contributors to the success of our Women’s Initiative is the mentorship from women partners. As a partner, my door is open for associates who have questions about the litigation practice or broader career-related matters.”

– Sara Razi, Washington, D.C. Litigation Partner,
Global Co-Chair of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice

The development of women lawyers remains one of the Firm’s most important priorities. Some examples of these efforts include:

An annual Women’s Leadership Conference inviting our Americas-based third-year women associates to the New York Office. The Conference is an opportunity to hear directly from Firm leadership, participate in a facilitated executive leadership workshop and connect with women across offices. Following the Conference, attendees are then invited to apply for the Women’s Leadership Cohort Program, which is a year-long leadership development initiative for fourth-year women associates.
Monthly Partner Office Hours that offer women associates in each of our offices the opportunity to meet with partners to discuss topics of interest. This initiative fosters mentoring and provides an informal setting to address career-related questions.
A quarterly virtual Connections discussion group that invites women across global offices to share their thoughts on a podcast, article or book. For example, one meeting featured a Harvard Business Review podcast exploring women’s leadership.

In 2006, Simpson Thacher formally established the partner-level Women’s Committee to monitor the progress of the Firm’s women lawyers, launch programs to support women lawyers and address any unique issues that may impact them disproportionately. To ensure we take into account the full range of ideas and perspectives of our women lawyers, the Firm’s Women’s Committee works very closely with the Women’s Advisory Council, which is comprised of counsel and associates. Together, the Women’s Committee and the Women’s Advisory Council provide strategic direction to our efforts to promote gender equity throughout the Firm.

We are also committed to external developmental opportunities for our women lawyers. This includes sending representatives to the annual Ms. JD LaddHer Up Conference, a two-day retreat in Sonoma, California. Ms. JD, a non-profit organization founded at Stanford Law School, is dedicated to the success of women lawyers. The retreat creates a unique opportunity for women law associates to personally engage in career strategy discussions with women general counsel, build business development skills and prepare for future leadership positions in the legal profession. We take the development of our talent very seriously and encourage all of our associates to attend external development opportunities in order to hone their professional skills and expand their networks.

These efforts have yielded impressive results. Each year, the number of women in the Firm’s partnership and counsel ranks continues to grow. Not only are Simpson Thacher’s women lawyers advancing within the profession, but they are also making tremendous strides within the Firm’s leadership and management.

In This Section