Where could you find more than 900 female lawyers from September 23 to September 25, 2024? Chi-town. But these women were not in Chicago just to explore Pedway or attend a baseball game at the renowned Wrigley Field, or visit Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). Instead, these women were at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place attending ALM | Law.com Corporate Counsel's Women, Influence, & Power in Law (WIPL) conference.

While the weather was wet, grey, and gloomy, the energy throughout the conference was vibrant, positive, and exciting. As I attended the networking breakfast and awaited the opening plenary session, I observed the attendees as they kept filling the room. Many of them greeted each other with warm smiles and hugs, dispersing a sense of camaraderie and community as they reunited once again at WIPL. It struck me how different this vibe was in comparison to other professional services-related conferences where both men and women were present. For an analyst on ALM's Pacesetter Research team, a non-lawyer like myself, who has attended other legal conferences and can feel intimidated being in the company of legal experts, the energy of WIPL quickly reduced that unsettling feeling – - of course, it also helps that I am a woman.

ALM's Pacesetter Research team is focused on innovation in law and professional services. The Pacesetter team recently conducted a study to better understand the career journey of lawyers, specifically lawyers who work at law firms and lawyers who work within an organization's in-house legal department. Among the most prominent findings were two: 35% of lawyers feel that their gender/sex has negatively impacted their career growth, 29% were female, and 59% of lawyers indicated that their career growth has been (or would be) impacted negatively by family-life obligations, of which 35% were female. These statistics suggest that there is still room for improvement within the legal industry and help put into perspective the need and value of a conference like WIPL.