Winston Team Wins Women in Law Hackathon

Winston & Strawn Los Angeles Partner Eva Davis, along with members of Team 9, were awarded first place at the Women in Law Hackathon live pitch event held on June 24 at Stanford Law School. This inaugural shark-tank style pitch competition aimed to generate innovative ideas to close the gender gap.

Beginning in early April 2016, Ms. Davis worked virtually with a team of five high-level partners from other firms, a Stanford Law student, and two advisors to devise a project or plan to boost the recruitment, advancement, and retention of experienced women in law firms. Charlotte Partner Kobi Kennedy Brinson represented Winston in the initial stages of the Hackathon initiative, and Houston Partner and Women’s Leadership Initiative Chair Paula Hinton also provided support and attended the pitch event.

 

 

 

The winning idea that Ms. Davis and the team presented to a group of high-profile judges was SMART (Solutions to Measure, Advance and Reward Talent), a gender neutral reporting and evaluation system that promotes the retention and advancement of women by aligning firm values and culture with compensation and promotion. Under SMART, partners and associates are “scored” in 8 categories: (1) Billable and Pro Bono Hours, (2) Business Development, (3) Advancing Diversity, (4) Quality of Work, (5) Client Satisfaction, (6) Lawyer Development, (7) Leadership and Initiative, and (8) External Visibility.  Through a dashboard (on an attorney’s laptop) and an app (on an attorney’s mobile device) that tie into a firm’s existing time sheet entry system, attorneys can set goals in each of the eight categories and track their progress toward those goals. Practice group leaders, office managing partners, and management committees can get “real-time” information on an attorney’s progress toward each goal. Each attorney’s “SMART Score” is then used for compensation and promotion, as well as an opportunity to provide regular feedback.

Winston was one of 53 top law firms that participated in this initiative, which was created by Diversity Lab in collaboration with Stanford Law School and Bloomberg Law. The winning team received a $10,000 grant, which will be awarded to Ms. JD.

SMARTies from Team 9 with their SMART mugs: Perlette Jura (Gibson Dunn), Katie Larkin-Wong (Latham & Watkins), Debbie Epstein Henry (Flex-Time Lawyers), Rachel Boochever (Stanford Law Student), Chris Groll (Holland & Hart), Eva Davis (Winston & Strawn), and Lynn Pasahow (Fenwick & West).