O'Melveny Wins Best International Mentoring Program at Euromoney's Americas Women in Business Law Awards

6월 25, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Amber Burke
O’Melveny & Myers LLP
415.984.8891
aburke@omm.com

NEW YORK, NY ─ JUNE 25, 2013 ─ O’Melveny & Myers LLP took home the “Best International Mentoring Program” award at Euromoney Legal Media Group’s second annual Americas Women in Business Law Awards, held on June 5, 2013, in New York. The awards acknowledge law firms and professional services firms for their efforts and achievements in helping women advance in the legal profession, as well as individual women leading the field in the legal sector across the Americas. O’Melveny competed among 200 other firms for the award.

O’Melveny takes a firmwide approach to mentoring and offers a number of programs aimed at ensuring fair and consistent opportunities for all its attorneys.

Key programs in the US include the Take a Work Coordinator to Lunch/Coffee Program, Take a Partner to Lunch Program, and Take a Lateral/Transfer to Lunch Program, which encourage more interaction between the Firm’s lawyers across all levels; the New Associate Mentoring Program, Midlevel Associate Advisor Program, and New Partner Advisor Program, which are tailored to lawyers’ needs at specific points in their development; and March Mentoring Madness, a mentoring game that allows associates to select a counsel/partner mentor to join them for a three-week competition.

O’Melveny’s international offices also have extensive mentoring-focused activities. In Asia, offices support office-specific mentoring programs for summer associates and summer interns. Asia lateral hires also take advantage of mentoring opportunities through training, practice group meetings, weekly and monthly professionals’ small group discussions, and extensive assignment-specific mentoring. Asia attorneys also participate in the Take a Partner to Lunch program, as well as informal mentoring. The London office has a formal mentoring program which pairs associates and trainees with counsel and partners outside of their practice groups. Held every 6 to 8 weeks, these mentor meetings provide an opportunity for the mentor and individual counsel/associate/trainee to catch-up, keep track of workloads, and assist with professional and personal development goals.

“Mentoring is powerful. The more we connect, the more we learn and grow as professionals,” said Rochelle Karr, O’Melveny’s Director of Attorney Professional Development and Alumni Relations. “At O’Melveny, we recognize that many associates and counsel want additional opportunities to build relationships with partners and that’s why we’ve developed a variety of unique programs to help meet these needs. The Firm views these relationships as critical to the success of each individual attorney and to the success of our collective mission.”

O’Melveny was shortlisted in an additional seven categories, including “Best Gender Diversity Initiative by an International Firm," “Best International Firm for Diversity,” “Best International Firm for Work-Life Balance,” “Most Innovative International Firm,” “Best International Firm for Women in Business Law,” “Best Overall - US West,” and an individual award for partner Liz McKeen (NB), who was nominated as a Rising Star in Litigation. Along with the Firm’s varied mentoring programs, other initiatives that led Euromoney to recognize O’Melveny include the Firm’s Women’s Initiative, Women’s Employee Networks, and CustOMMize workplace flexibility initiative.

This year’s winners were selected by senior Euromoney Legal Media Group editorial staff following an extensive interview and research process. Firms were judged on their ability to support the development of women in the legal profession through a variety of approaches. Criteria included the retention of women associates to partner level and other diversity metrics, and specific diversity initiatives. Part of Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, Euromoney Legal Media Group comprises a wide range of legal publications including Managing Intellectual Property, International Financial Law Review, IFLR1000, International Tax Review, Expert Guides and Benchmark Litigation.