Gina Maisto Smith, Chair of the Institutional Response Group with Cozen O'Connor.

Name: Gina Maisto Smith

Category: Law Firm: Lifetime Achievement

Firm/Company: Cozen O'Connor

Title: Shareholder and Chair, Institutional Response Group

Time in Position: Since 2017

What was your route to the top? 

I am a public servant at heart—within that framework, I do not view the construct of the "top" as my marker of success. The successful professional journey for me is marked by a tenacious and perpetual commitment to humility, warmheartedness, gratitude, excellence and passion. During my teens, my grandfather shared a 1976 Hubert H. Humphrey quote that framed the underpinnings of my professional passion and launched this journey: "The moral test of government is how it treats those in dawn of life, the youth; the twilight of life, the elderly; and the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped." I first had the opportunity to live out that moral test by serving as a sex crimes, family violence and child abuse prosecutor for nearly 20 years. During that time, I had the privilege of walking with thousands of victims of abuse. My experience as a prosecutor energized and challenged me to find ways to serve victims in a way that went beyond what the law could offer. In my work I routinely observed that when abuse occurred in the context of an institutional setting (educational, religious, corporate, medical and child-serving organizations), institutional responses were often not aligned with underlying institutional values and missions. Effective prevention and compassionate responses were lacking—my identification of this gap sparked the creation of a unique practice area dedicated to effective and holistic institutional responses. Although ridiculed by some in the legal community when I introduced this practice in 2006, I was not daunted. I pressed on and established the nation's first practice of this kind—the Institutional Response Group. IRG has grown from one lawyer into a team of more than a dozen professionals. The practice is premised on a keen understanding of the unique psychological and cultural considerations attendant to child abuse and sexual, gender-based and interpersonal harassment and violence in the institutional setting.

I am grateful for the gift of this practice and note that the journey to the "top" emerged organically from a passion to meet a societal need. This success is tied to the combined efforts of the many who have come before me and others who now walk beside me. I strive to bring humility, warmheartedness, fluency and experience to every opportunity to serve others, and to instill and cultivate those same traits within the IRG team.

What keeps you up at night?

Maintaining consistency in providing values-based and excellent advice as the practice area grows keeps me awake at night. I am also challenged by the conundrum of delivering informed and affordable service to all populations that need assistance but may not have the resources.

What is the best leadership advice you've given or received, and why do you think it was effective?

The best advice came through the example and teaching of supervisors and mentors who taught me the value of servant leadership by serving me in achieving my career goals and enabling me to thrive and grow in my confidence and professional and personal development. Because of that servant leadership, I was able to parent five children and maintain a successful legal career. Mindful of its positive impact on me, as I lead a team, providing servant leadership is my highest priority.

Looking back, what do you wish you had known when you started out in the legal profession?

I wish I had known that a successful career is not built overnight, but on the collection of moments of combined legal excellence, compassion for others, maintaining and developing strong professional relationships, and an unwavering commitment to doing the right thing.

What is the most valuable career advice anyone has ever given you?

The most valuable advice I have ever received was a combination of two concepts that came from my mother and my grandmother. My mother, with a fist in the air, ­forcefully announced, "Speak the truth without fear or ­hesitation"; my grandmother in a soft voice followed, ­advising, "Bite your tongue so that you may find the words that will be heard." The integration of those concepts—speaking directly, but only after listening with an earnest intent to hear—have served me well both personally and professionally.