Law Students

Superwomen JDs and What You Can Learn From Them: Featuring Tanya Jachimiak of Illinois

By Noha

Tanya L. Jachimiak received her Juris Doctor in 1998 from DePaul University College of Law.  She practiced employment law, including class action litigation, for over ten years.  Tanya left the private sector for the public, currently holding the position of Associate Director of the Office for Access and Equity, University of Illinois at Chicago.

1. How has being a woman affected your career or legal education?
Because it is such a male dominated field, I often find myself trying harder and doing more to outperform my male counterparts.  On many occasions, male firm partners have excluded me from outings with my male peers (e.g., golfing events, basketball).   

2.What advice do you wish someone had given you when you first started practicing law? 
Understand and follow the Doctrine of Completed Staff Work (http://www.dolan-heitlinger.com/Quote/StafWork.htm) .  Also, I would have benefited greatly from advice on how to navigate the often conflicting demands of multiple partners.  It took some time to figure out that when accepting an assignment, I needed to be very clear about when I would be able to complete the new assignment in light of a deadline set by another partner.  Just saying ?yes? doesn?t work in the long run.  Quality is more important than quantity.   

3. What do you think the legal profession can do to increase the number of senior level females?
Current senior level females should reach out to younger associates more frequently and be willing to mentor female associates.  In my experience, senior level females did not reach out to junior level female attorneys.   Until I became involved with NAWL, I knew very few senior level females who were willing to mentor and show junior level females the ropes, so to speak.

After the jump, the best reading for new attorneys, the truth about finding mentors in a male-dominated environment, and some thoughtful advice about how to prioritize work opportunities ...

read more

Full post as published by Ms. JD on March 01, 2010 (boomark / email).