About the Awards: Women, Influence and Power in Law 2022

About the Awards is a new series of Q&As with our editors across ALM Media’s publications that aims to give readers and potential nominees insight into our judging process for awards related to ALM Recognition Events. We hope this will guide you as you draft your submissions, and we welcome any additional questions you may have.

For our next column, we’ll be discussing our WIPL awards with executive editor Heather Nevitt, who will be leading the judging across all categories. For more information about the WIPL 2022 contest, please visit the awards site. The deadline for submissions is July 8. You can also view other upcoming ALM contest submission deadlines and sign up for marketing notifications here.

Heather, can you tell us more about yourself?

I am the editor-in-chief of Corporate Counsel, Corporate Counsel Advance and Global Leaders in Law, a private network for general counsel. I oversee the news coverage and thought leadership that focuses exclusively on the in-house legal community and the evolving role and global nature of the GC for ALM. You will also find me at many of our ALM events (like WIPL!) where I lead discussions around trending topics for the in-house audience. I am also a licensed attorney and practiced law for several years before joining ALM in 2005. I currently live in Dallas, Texas with my husband and teenage son. My happy place is being with my family in the outdoors surrounded by nature!

Is WIPL a new contest? 

No. WIPL has been part of ALM for six years. Hard to believe I have been around for that long, too! 

Do nominees have to be based in the United States?

Yes, for this recognition event. However, we also have WIPL UK for international nominees.

Can nominees send in a self nomination?

Of course! There is no weight given a submission based on who submits it. So feel free to submit on behalf of yourself, your team or your client!

Can law professions who are not attorneys be nominated?

This award is currently for women lawyers only. But we know there are great legal professionals out there doing amazing work. So next year as we grow our awards, we will be adding categories to recognize those team members! 

How many nominations can a firm submit in each category?

Feel free to submit as many nominations as you would like. We do however typically only recognize one or two people from a firm or department. So the more you submit per category the more likely they will be competing against each other. 

Will you accept confidential information?

Yes – we accept all information you want to send. Although we encourage you to send information we can publish so we are able to recognize the amazing accomplishments of the nominee.  

Who should be interested in submitting nominations for this contest?

Corporate legal departments, law firms and outside providers who are proud of the work their women legal leaders are doing and want them to be recognized in a global publication. 

Who is judging this contest?

All entries will be judged by ALM’s editorial staff, including myself and others associated with Law.com, Corporate Counsel, The American Lawyer, and others where relevant within ALM.

What are the judges looking for?

Above all else, we are looking for women legal leaders who are making a difference in the industry. What are some unique and innovative things about the work that you’re doing? What makes what you accomplished last year stand out amongst your peers? Was last year extraordinarily challenging? If so, how did you get through it? We know legal departments and law firms had a challenging year, so we want to know how you met those challenges and overcame them!

What do you want to see in submissions?

A short story on how you stood out in the legal world or to your business. What did you do differently to get to a better outcome? What did you and/or your team implement this past year that made a difference or moved the diversity needle? Be sure to tell us how you did it.

The deadline for submissions for WIPL is July 8, 2022.

For more information about WIPL and other Recognition Events awards, please contact Recognition Events desk manager Pearl Wu at [email protected].