Jennifer Fitchen, Sidley Austin

Jennifer Fitchen, the global co-leader of Sidley Austin's mergers and acquisitions practice, acted as co-lead counsel to streaming music service Pandora Media Inc. in its sale to Sirius XM Holdings for $3.5 billion. Fitchen, who is being recognized as one of 21 Women Leaders in Tech Law as part of The Recorder's California Leaders in Tech Law and Innovation Awards, recently reflected on her accomplishments of the past year.

The Recorder: What's your proudest professional achievement of the past year and why?

Fitchen: The consistently seamless collaboration among Sidley lawyers to consistently deliver fantastic results to clients like Pandora in its sale to SiriusXM and Palo Alto Networks in its acquisitions of PureSec and Twistlock. Each of those transactions was a truly collaborative effort with Sidley colleagues both within the M&A group and other practices within the firm. I could not be more proud to be practicing at a place where everyone jumps in to support each other and the client.

What's your proudest personal achievement of the past year and why?

Sending my son off to college, knowing that he has the courage, integrity and tenacity to achieve his personal best. He is the one who has developed those skills; I am simply proud to have provided him with the support, and the space, to do so.

What's one piece of advice you'd give to a woman starting out in tech law?

Know your goals, and focus on the process to get there but not on the outcome. Don't become paralyzed with inaction by fretting that you won't succeed. If you spend your time focusing on the key components you've identified as being key to achieve your goal, the result will take care of itself.

What concrete steps could be made to increase the number of women in tech law?

There are many successful women in tech law and many women who are drawn to that area of legal practice. That said, whether within law firms or companies, I'd like to see increased advancement and retention of those women into higher positions of power. Advancement and retention are both improved when women have opportunities to take on new challenges and others make sure to not only give them the credit for, but also shine the light on, their resulting achievements.