Brenda Liss, who for 30 years has been representing school districts and private and charter schools, was recently chosen as general counsel to the Newark Public School District upon the conclusion of its 22-year period under state authority. She handled the state's first bond issue for a charter school, and has represented clients on many teacher tenure and school ethics matters. Her recent appellate matters include representation of charter schools in cases raising the issue of enrollment increases and their alleged impact on racial makeup of public schools. Liss previously was executive director of the Rutgers Institute on Education Law and Policy,

What's your single best piece of advice for handling a crisis?

“Remain calm” and “trust your instincts” are important, but the single best piece of advice is to have a crisis plan in place before a crisis occurs and remember to refer to that plan when it does, because you may very well fail to remain calm and your instincts may very well fail you.

Name a mentor or someone you admire, and why.

Steven Hoskins, a partner at McCarter & English, was my mentor for 16 years. He taught me the importance of knowing the substantive law well (he had encyclopedic knowledge of every provision of the New Jersey school laws) but that even when you do, and even when you're the smartest and most knowledgeable person in the room, you still won't have all the answers, so humility is a virtue. He pushed me to always do the very best work I could and encouraged me to be confident in my ability. And he taught me that it's possible to be both a good lawyer and a good—kind, considerate, generous—person.

Best advice you ever got…

“Maybe you should go to law school …,” my mother said.

What has the #MeToo movement meant to the legal profession?

Aside from causing a potential surge in sexual harassment claims and therefore more work for employment lawyers on both sides, the #MeToo movement's impact on the legal profession is the same as its impact on our culture generally: women have been encouraged to speak up when they're harassed and about harassment they've suffered in the past; and men have been warned that inappropriate conduct may not be tolerated, and any such conduct could come back to haunt them long after they thought it was forgotten. However, women also have been shown that even when their testimony about harassment (or worse) is credible and credited, the decision-maker may reject it nevertheless and the conduct may go unpunished. The result, unfortunately, may be that our faith that justice will prevail has been diminished. That can't be good for the legal profession.

In 50 words or less, what does the legal profession need to do to improve opportunities for women lawyers?

The legal profession needs to exert its influence to allow and encourage men to be supportive partners of hard-working, ambitious women, so that women lawyers and those in other professions can pursue their careers and also have happy, healthy family lives to the same extent that men can do so.