Nancy Shane Rappaport partner with DLA Piper.

Nancy Shane Rappaport, DLA Piper

Throughout her career, Rappaport has observed differences in how women associates present themselves and how they are perceived in various roles compared to their male counterparts in the firm. Determined to make a change, she spoke with her female partners about creating opportunities within the LAW platform to strengthen their communication, marketing and presentation skills and maximize their talents and techniques. As a result, Rappaport, along with other Philadelphia-based female partners, created a professional development program for female associates. Partners present on various topics, including communication skills, self- and cross-promotion, career planning, advocacy and branding.

She takes her role as mentor and champion seriously; she credits her own mentors and champions for the success she has achieved in all aspects of her career and personal life. She is a guest lecturer and often presents on panels at Villanova Law School, where she always includes a discourse on mentoring and the unique challenges women face as litigators—no matter what the pre-determined topic.

Why is mentorship important in the legal profession? Mentors and champions are essential to developing your own career path. While learning how to manage a case or close a deal will certainly help you develop your skills as a lawyer, they won't help you consider your own trajectory, whether it be partner, judge, attorney general, general counsel, professor or something outside the legal profession. There is so much more than legal research, negotiation, writing and advocacy skills that go into developing your future in the profession, and we can only learn from what we see and experience working with those who have forged their own paths ahead of us. Mentorship in the legal profession encompasses more than finding counsel from more senior lawyers—we rely upon mentors and champions to help us get ahead. A mentor acts like a career adviser, providing advice on our career path. It can be someone who is assigned to us, or it can result from a more organic relationship with someone with whom we work. A champion, on the other hand, is a more senior colleague or contact within the profession who invites you to client meetings and conferences, introducing you to influential people both within and outside the firm, company, institution or profession. He or she is your advocate, speaking on your behalf to partners and clients, and pushing you toward bigger and better things for your career, and helping you build a network. This is a more two-sided relationship where the champion and the protégé each benefit from each other's services. The protégé must earn a champion's respect and nurture that relationship. Developing both of these kinds of relationships is paramount to success in the legal profession, because no matter how good of a lawyer you are, if you don't have a champion, it makes any path difficult, especially when you don't look like or sound like most of those in the boardroom or the partnership.