The 2012 Transformative Leadership Award winners
These trailblazers are making a difference for women and minorities in-house and across the legal profession
September 23, 2012 at 08:00 PM
25 minute read
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What makes a leader?
Some say it's power and a strong voice. Others say it's achievement and guidance, or innovation and creativity.
Whatever characteristics you assign to the word, one thing is clear: Leaders inspire. And inspire is exactly what the 2012 Transformative Leadership Award winners do.
In this story, InsideCounsel showcases the exceptional in-house counsel, law firm lawyers and other individuals of influence who the magazine honored at this year's Transformative Leadership Awards dinners in Chicago and San Francisco in April and September, respectively.
These award winners are making their mark on the corporate legal profession through their devotion to initiatives promoting women and minorities in law. Through their own accomplishments and leadership skills, they are inspiring their peers and future generations of legal professionals.
Read on to learn more about how the 2012 Transformative Leadership Award winners focus on mentoring and promoting women and diverse lawyers.
Click here to watch exclusive interviews with this year's Transformative Leadership Award winners.
Rainmaker Award
Lawrie Demorest, Partner, Alston & Bird
By the time she was in her late 30s, Lawrie Demorest was a successful litigator. But she was tired of going through the motions.
“I got to the point where every month I was going to another trial,” she says. “I was working on what was probably my 15th trial in a two-year period and found myself driving to court to begin a trial one day thinking, 'Ugh.' I kind of caught myself thinking that and thought, 'OK, [I'm representing] a physician who cares very much about his reputation, and his practice is on the line. Get it together.'”
Demorest did get it together, and she ended up winning the case. But at that point she was ready to take a break from law.
“I wanted to figure out how I was going to get the most out of life and contribute the most to life,” she says.
She took a leave of absence from her job and began volunteering with the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts in Boston and the Human Rights Campaign. After a year of personal reflection, Demorest realized she missed law. “But I realized it's OK to not focus totally on that in my life,” she says.
Ever since, Demorest has focused on imparting this wisdom on her younger colleagues. She encourages them to be thoughtful about their paths early on. “Make sure you're being deliberate about understanding what you want and then planning a course of action,” she says. “The lawyers who do that are much more successful and much more content with where they are.”
Read Lawrie Demorest's full Q&A here.
Age: 58
Law School: Emory University School of Law
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