In March, Venable announced that Jennifer Bruton, a partner in Venable's Real Estate Practice Group and administrative partner of the firm's Washington, DC office, would succeed Stephanie DeLong as chair of Women Attorneys at Venable (WAVe). Since helping found WAVe in 2011, Stephanie has built a robust affinity group that plays an invaluable role in supporting the women in the firm in creating and growing a strong, sustainable practice and career. Now, as Jennifer takes the reins, she is looking forward to continuing to facilitate events that bolster business development networking, education, and professional development, both within and outside the firm, while also exploring new pathways to support our female attorneys and professionals.
Following the announcement of her new role, Jennifer paid tribute to Stephanie's efforts, and vowed to build on WAVe's success as her tenure begins:
"I am humbled by the opportunity to follow in Stephanie's footsteps," she said. "Under her leadership, WAVe has had a quantifiable impact on the firm's culture and practices at large. Effecting change in a law firm setting is rarely easy, and there is still significant progress to be made. I look forward to guiding this program into the next phase of its life as we continue to promote the advancement of women throughout the legal industry."
In addition to helping our members build their professional network through fun and engaging events, WAVe has been instrumental in furthering the retention, promotion, and advancement of women attorneys, and increasing the number and strength of women attorney applicants. Some recent achievements among our members include the promotion of Stacie Tobin to partner-in-charge of Venable's Baltimore office and the appointment of Lisa Tavares to co-chair of the Business Division. Lisa is also now a member of the firm's Management Committee and of the Venable board, where she joins WAVe members Claudia Lewis, Sharon Kroupa, Michele Mulrooney, Lindsay Meyer, and Stephanie DeLong. Furthermore, in the past year alone, six of our female attorneys were named to equity partner, eight were promoted to non-equity partner, seventeen were promoted to counsel, and the firm named eight women to new positions leading practice groups. In addition, Venable's pipeline is stronger than ever, with women making up fully 65% of our 2019 summer class and almost 70% of our first-year associates.