The Cowen Group Launches WomenToKnow
Now more than ever, women need a plan and the right mentors, sponsors and gurus to help them advance their career. With that in mind, The Cowen Group is proud to announce our new Women to Know program.
Solving these issues is not easy. But it is crucial that girls and women thrive, rather than be intimidated, in science, technology, engineering and math. And to get to broad equality in our legal community will take nuanced and diverse efforts.
With that in mind, The Cowen Group is proud to announce our new “Women to Know” program (http://www.womentoknow.org). The initial Board of Advisors includes women in leadership roles; Google Inc.; Gilead Sciences Inc.; Sutter Health; AIG; McKesson; FTC; The Office of the White House; JP Morgan Chase; Sherman & Sterling; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Vedder Price; and Redgrave.
Women to Know is a multi-layered project, with live breakfasts and dinners, and “virtual” meetings by phone. Inspired by The Sedona Conference, it kicks off with four “working groups” addressing specific topics. More will evolve as the the organization grows—the format is designed to be flexible “ecosystem” to address issues as they arise over the years.
The first working groups are:
1) How to Create Your 2020 Career Plan.
2) How to Select and Recruit Your Advisory Board: Mentors, Coaches & Gurus.
3) Telling Your Story.
4) Landing Positions on Corporate Boards.
San Francisco Launch
We debuted the new program in San Francisco last week, at a breakfast with 28 women from the Bay Area’s legal community. Attendees included high-level Big Law lawyers; corporate counsel in financial, health care, technology, utilities and other arenas; and e-discovery and information governance professionals; among others.
The conversation was electric and engaging. Said Meghan Brosnahan, director of e-discovery services in the Office of General Counsel at Sutter Health, “W2K brings together the energy, focus, and brilliance of women at the intersection of litigation and technology. Our first working session made it clear that together we can really lean in to our careers and our lives. I’m excited to be part of this effort and can’t wait to see where it leads.”
The breakfast brought together “an amazing group of women engaged in professional pursuits in a very closely knit industry,” said Deborah Baron, chief strategy officer at Align Matters and former CEO North America at Nuix .”Tell your people about this! Tell them to sign up for the kick-off in your city.”
Kimber Tate, senior manager, litigation support, at McKesson Corp., was equally enthusastic about the inaugural event: “In my experience, women have very few opportunities to participate in self-improvement and/or networking programs where the content is designed specifically for women,” she said. “This group definitely filled that void, and was exactly what I needed—a group of professional women willing to share, coach, mentor and develop on every possible level. The best part, there was no judging, just frank conversation, and the offer of real solutions and camaraderie.”
“The workshop presented a wonderful balance of women at different stages in their careers,” said Karen Hourigan, partner at Redgrave. “All are committed to taking stock of where they are now—and looking ahead to the future and defining how much time and attention they would like to devote to important areas of their lives, including self, family, social, professional, philanthropy and finances. ”
“WomenToKnow advocates the notion that we need mentors, coaches, advisors and sponsors to help us achieve our goals—whatever they may be and however we define them,” she said. “The San Francisco workshop provided a great opportunity to connect with friends and colleagues, and meet other women, and look across the room knowing that each of us will likely play the role of mentor, coach, advisor or sponsor for each other as we all identify or assess opportunities that may not otherwise have presented themselves.
Thank you to our founding sponsors for making this program possible – Nightowl Discovery, LexisNexis and Xerox.
And a very special thank you to Monica Bay for her insight, inspiration and support.
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
If you are interested in joining Women to Know, please visit the website (http://www.womentoknow.org) or call us at 212-661-0025. the only requirement for membership is the desire to help yourself by helping others.
Upcoming events include breakfasts in New York City (July 30) and Chicago (August 5) and dinners in Washington, D.C. (July 27), New York City (July 29), Chicago (August 4) and our ILTA Kickoff Breakfast Workshop in Las Vegas (Sept 1) If you are interested in attending, click here.
—David Cowen, president and managing director, The Cowen Group
