Shelly A. DeRousse, partner with Freeborn & Peters.

Name: Shelly A. DeRousse

Category: Law Firm: Women's Legal Awards

Firm/Company: Freeborn & Peters

Title: Partner

Time in Position: Since 2015

What was your route to the top? 

I began my career at Sidley Austin in the Restructuring Group, from 2001 to 2007. While I was at Sidley, I started volunteering for the Women's Bar Foundation of Illinois, a nonprofit organization with the sole purpose to raise funds and provide scholarships to ­exceptional women attending law school in Illinois. I was invited to join the board of directors of the WBF in 2007. I became a partner at a boutique full-service commercial law firm in Chicago in 2008, focusing on bankruptcy and ­restructuring. In 2014, I moved to Freeborn & Peters, a midsized law firm, and have been the practice group leader in 2015. After serving in various Executive Board positions, I was nominated as the President of the WBF in 2016 and continue to serve in that position. My work on the WBF has provided the opportunity for me to meet and honor women at the highest level of law in our state, from circuit court judges, state supreme court justices, the attorney general, states attorneys, federal and Illinois state court judges, members of the Illinois Legislature and general counsel of corporations.

What keeps you up at night?

Restructuring tends to be like the emergency room of corporate law. When problems arise, they are often big and need to be addressed immediately. Whether it's representing a company whose bank account was swept and cannot make payroll or a lender who discovers that its borrower has been making fraudulent transfers, I often bring my work home in my head, trying to come up with creative solutions to difficult problems, because I know that there is so much riding on the advice I am giving.

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

Leaders who lead by example are more successful. If I am asking others to help run an event, I will take on tasks myself, be there early and stay late. The same goes with drafting a brief or preparing for trial. If my team is working late, I am too. People will be more willing to work for you if they see you working hard, too.

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

I wish I understood when I started my career how difficult it would be as a woman to advance at a law firm and that the only sure way to have power, freedom of my own schedule and guaranteed marketability is to develop my own book of business. Women with their own clients are still an exception to the norm. If I knew that earlier, I could have started even sooner on the business development process.

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

Find a mentor. When I was a young attorney, I met a woman who was well-established in my practice area, who served on boards of multiple organizations and seemed to know everyone in my field. I invited her to lunch and asked her what I should be doing as a young attorney. She gave me a list of every conference and event I should attend and who I should meet. We became good friends, and she introduced me to her contacts all across the country.