Leadership Academy for Women | Profiles
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Sonia Martin, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal
“I certainly felt it was a value, and I think the firm felt it was a value.
If you want female leaders in your law firm, the mechanism for developing those
leaders is not simply within the law firm itself.”
Sonia Martin, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal
Sonia Martin was a young partner transitioning into complex litigation work when she heard about the Academy from her firm’s diversity manager. “The former managing partner of our D.C. office, Amy Bess, was involved with PAR, and knew about the Academy.” Sonia was tapped to go.
She said she felt lucky to be asked. “There were some other business development programs that I had not been able to participate in. So I was flattered to be invited to the Academy. These opportunities aren’t given to everyone.” The invitation, she said, hinted of the promise her firm saw in her.
Still, she was a little skeptical going into the conference, particularly since she would miss the first sessions. “I’d been to other conferences, and if they are too large, or too passive, it’s hard to get things out of it.”
When she arrived the first day, she was struck by how friendly the group seemed. “There was obviously a bonding that had taken place,” she said. “No one was playing anything close to the vest. It was the most collegial atmosphere I may have ever experienced in the legal profession. People were very comfortable with each other, and very happy to be there.”
She quickly found interactive activities that directly addressed issues she was grappling with. “I was facing challenges mentoring associates and giving feedback,” she says. The Academy offered both practical and strategic advice. The women role-played difficult conversations.
She was also won over by the range of professionals that addressed the group, including a general counsel, senior women partners, and even a doctor, who offered tips on easing the stress of balancing work/life responsibilities and how to make their lives easier. “It was a very eclectic mix,” Sonia said.
One seminar stuck with Sonia. “We had a discussion about whether you want to be a leader. Some people just assume that everyone wants to progress into management. I don’t know whether people who are put into leadership take the time to consider whether it’s really worth it. You give something up by doing it.”
The session helped Sonia see, though, that it was something she really wanted. “I hadn’t really thought it out, but it was crystallized for me in that session. I can’t say I left with a game plan, but I certainly left with the feeling that I liked the idea of being a leader. And I left knowing I liked being a partner at a big law firm.”
Now, still in her first decade of being a partner, she is managing partner of her firm’s San Francisco office, having been handpicked by her predecessor. “I didn’t ever believe I would be a managing partner at age 36,” she says. “But when the opportunity presented itself, I knew that I wanted to do it.”
She is still growing into her job of leading a 60-lawyer office, while keeping up her own practice. “I don’t think you can be trained for this. But I do go back and think about what I learned at the Academy. It helped me get to a place in my own mind that I realized this was something I wanted, and I realized I could do it. I was capable of doing it.”
View the program design, curriculum and faculty list.
To register by mail, print out the registration form and mail if with a check to the address at the bottom of the form.
For additional information about the Leadership Academy call 415-565-4640 or send us an email.
