Baker Women, Baker Donelson's women's initiative, is committed to creating an environment where women attorneys and advisors thrive, increasing the Firm's ability to provide unparalleled client service.
Baker Women's mission is to:
- Improve the recruitment and retention of all attorneys and address issues that disproportionally affect women.
- Equip and empower all attorneys for leadership positions at the Firm and the communities we serve.
- Heed the call of our clients to provide diversified attorney teams by equipping our attorneys to be trusted advisors.
- Improve career development for all attorneys, thereby enhancing the economic viability of the Firm.
The Firm is focused on recruiting and promoting women attorneys, maintaining our commitment to developing new opportunities for our women attorneys and providing innovative approaches to supporting women in the Firm.
Leadership
Women attorneys serve as leaders across the Firm and in the communities we serve. Currently, women serve as President and COO, on the Board of Directors, as office managing shareholders, department heads, and as practice group and committee chairs.
The commitment of Baker Donelson's women attorneys reaches well beyond the Firm. Many serve in positions of leadership in their communities and industries, including the past president of the American Bar Association (ABA). Baker Donelson believes that encouraging and supporting women leaders ensures a better Firm to serve our clients and our communities.
Flexibility and Work-Life Balance
The Firm's gender-neutral parental leave policy allows for 17 weeks of paid leave for all full-time and part-time attorneys/advisors surrounding the birth, adoption or foster placement of a child under the age of six. With the policy, attorneys have the ability to create their own unique parental leave plan by using their allotted leave hours intermittently in the 40 weeks surrounding a birth or adoption.
Baker Donelson's Family Planning and Support Committee includes more than 30 trained Parental Leave Advisors across the Firm's offices to provide expectant and new parents guidance on how to navigate the transitions before taking leave and upon their return, as well as serving as a contact during leave.
The Firm also offers a "Family Planning and Support Leave Policy," which allows all firm employees two weeks of paid time off to focus on family-planning situations such as fertility treatments, adoption/foster proceedings, or pregnancy loss.
Mentoring
The Firm offers various mentoring opportunities for all attorneys, including women, whereby they can receive feedback and advice to help them take ownership of their careers and advance within the Firm, the profession and the community. The Firm's overall mentoring goal is to develop top performers in our attorney ranks. We provide guidance, support and networking opportunities at all levels of career development. Mentoring opportunities include individual mentoring, mentoring circles and office level mentoring.