At Delaware’s largest law firm, Richards, Layton & Finger, the latest leadership transition is historic in more ways than one. Doneene Damon, the new firm president as of Monday, is the first woman to hold that role, and the first African American woman to do so.

The firm also announced Monday that Lisa Schmidt will take on the role of executive vice president, putting her in line to become president in three years. Rounding out the firm’s leadership transition, partner Paul Altman has been appointed senior vice president.

In 1999, Damon was the first lawyer of color to make partner there. According to Richards Layton, she is the first African American lawyer at the head of one of Delaware’s leading law firms.

“I hope this sends the message that what some people think is impossible is actually very possible,” she said. “I really hope that my story is a model for future generations of leaders.”

Though, she noted, while her appointment is historic for the firm, “I was not chosen for that reason.”

With about 170 lawyers, Richards Layton is the largest law firm by head count headquartered in Delaware. While its top leadership is two-thirds women—and has been since 2016 when Damon became executive vice president and Schmidt became senior vice president—the partnership is just 23% women. The eight-member executive committee includes three women lawyers.

How to foster greater diversity in the law “is a question we try to answer on an annual basis. Our firm is no different than any other firm when it comes to this issue,” Damon said. A key focus in that regard, she said, is retaining diverse lawyers and providing them with the necessary training, professional development and business development opportunities to rise in the ranks.

That effort is in line with her goals more generally for her next three years as president. Damon said she wants to focus on associate professional development, which includes making opportunities for young lawyers to have client contact and creating “an environment that encourages strategic thinking.”

Additionally, one of her priorities is to launch a wellness initiative to benefit lawyers at all levels.

“The statistics with respect to depression and anxiety are quite high in our profession,” she said. “It’s something we can’t ignore.”

It’s important for lawyers to be able to focus on their personal lives in addition to their work, she said, noting that permitting flexible scheduling has been a key part of shifting toward a culture of better mental health. But, she added “I don’t like to use the term work-life balance.”

“That encourages people to work toward two sides of a scale evening out. Perhaps that’s not the right expectation,” she said. Instead, she prefers to think about it as “allowing people to manage their lives.”

“We can’t ignore the fact that we’re not defined by just our personal lives, and we’re not defined by just our professional lives,” she said.

Of the five Delaware-based law firms with more than 50 lawyers, there is one other firm with a woman lawyer in a top leadership position. Kathleen Furey McDonough is chair of the executive committee at Potter Anderson & Corroon.

Around the country, a number of other midsize firms have promoted women into their top leadership roles. Still, there are only a few boutiques and midsize law firms with women of color in lead positions. They include Portland-based Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, where Hispanic lawyer Graciela Gomez Cowger is CEO, and Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila, where managing partner Patricia Brown Holmes is, according to the firm, “the only African American woman to head a national law firm that is not women- or minority-owned.

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