The Jabot

In this episode, Kathryn speaks with Stephanie Wachman, CEO and founder of Symetree, about the evolution of her career and the founding of Symetree. They discuss pressing issues in the industry, such as balancing a law career and "real life," dealing with the stress of career challenges, and strategies for business development. Stephanie also speaks about how she helps women lawyers grow their practices and achieve leadership roles in their firms.

Episode Resources

• Connect with Stephanie Wachman
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachsteph
• https://stephaniewachman.com/ Episode Highlights
• The power of being consistent in business development
• The importance of awareness in professional development with law firms
• Why lawyers are expected to be managers simultaneously
• What it takes to thrive in the legal industry
• The Rule of Five in networking

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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with family law attorney Aliza Shatzman, who recently submitted a Statement for the Record for the House Judiciary Committee hearing about harassment in the judiciary. Aliza discusses her Statement, what happened with the judge, why the system that currently exists is insufficient, and what should be done to change it.

Episode Resources

• Statement for the Record of Aliza Shatzman
• Connect with Aliza Shatzman:
• https://twitter.com/alizashatzman?lang=en
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliza-shatzman-58b55223/ Episode Highlights
• Possessing Strong Sense of Moral Outrage on Women Injustice
• Handling Red Flags During Judicial Clerkship
• Why Lack of Workplace Protection for Law Clerks Enables Misconduct to Fester
• Judiciary Accountability and Conducting Workplace Culture Assessment

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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with author and professor Gilda Daniels, about the process of writing her book, Uncounted. Gilda speaks about the current voter suppression efforts and the throughline from Jim Crow era efforts to what we are seeing today. Gilda discusses whether there is any hope that the Supreme Court will protect voting rights, and what Congress can do to protect such rights.

Episode Resources

• https://www.lexisnexis.com/lexis-plus
• http://www.gildadaniels.com/
• http://law.ubalt.edu/faculty/profiles/daniels.cfm
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilda-daniels-2382a79 Episode Highlights
• Why did Gilda Daniels decide to go to law school? - 1:46
• The impetus in writing the book. - 4:13
• Most outrageous examples Gilda encountered. - 7:08
• How she connects to different independent small things to come together to have a larger impact on specific communities. - 12:07
• The evolution of the Voting Rights Act. - 15:54
• What can we do about the crisis of voting rights? - 22:05
• Important reminder: The war for voting rights is not over. - 27:16

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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with Sahar Aziz, author, and Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School. Sahar shares how she first became interested in her book, The Racial Muslim. She details some historical examples of how the book's hypothesis is supported and discusses how far back the ideas go. Sahar also talks about the dichotomy between belief in the First Amendment and how that squares away in modern political discourse with the reality of how Muslims are treated.

Episode Resources

• https://twitter.com/saharazizlaw
• https://www.facebook.com/saharazizlaw
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahar-aziz-0b3b764
• https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520382299/the-racial-muslim Episode Highlights
• Why did Sahar enter law school? - 01:11
• Career: Twist and Turns - 02:47
• The Racial Muslim: the historical basis which culminated in 9/11 - 06:07
• Racialization as a negative phenomenon - 12:05
• Impact of war on terror to the civil rights of Muslims and Arabs in the US - 15:26
• War is a device for government power expansion - 19:48
• The critical race theory - 23:45
• Where do privileges come from?: Why Muslims fell down the hierarchy after 9/11 - 25:28
• A center for security, race, and rights - 29:16 Subscribe, Share and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In The Jabot's 100th episode, Kathryn is joined by Jennifer Schramm, a partner at King & Spalding. They discuss Jennifer's career highs and lows, and how she balances her professional life with other interests. Jennifer also speaks about what it was like to make partners during a pandemic, and how to make the best of your career during tumultuous times.

Episode Resources

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferschramm
• https://www.kslaw.com/people/jennifer-schramm Episode Highlights
• The reason why Jennifer decided to go to law school. - 0:45
• How she wound up to where she is now. - 1:50
• What does a typical day look like for Jennifer? - 4:27
• The impact of societal influences on how she views her career. - 6:09
• Perspective on firm life: From moving to being a counsel to a partner, did her perspective change? - 9:24
• The highs and lows of Jennifer's career. - 12:26
• Figuring out the work-life balance. - 16:14
• One of the biggest frustrations people can have first thing in their careers. - 17:26
• The lessons of management Jennifer learns from her career. - 19:11
• How working from home has allowed or makes it harder to balance all the work that she does. - 20:55 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with Michelle Quinn, partner at Gallet Dreyer & Berkey, about the twists and turns of her career that led her to her current role, and how she decided on her practice area. They also discuss how her practice has been impacted by COVID. Michelle talks about some career highs and lows and what she learned from them, and also shares her favorite war story from her practice.

Episode Resources

• https://www.gdblaw.com/michelle-quinn
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-quinn-23a5919 Episode Highlights
• Why did Michelle decide to go to law school? - 0:44
• Perspective in her law school experience. - 3:26
• How Michelle's career developed. - 4:58
• Things about the current firm that makes it a good fit for her. - 7:28
• The niche and practice that works: What is real estate litigation? - 9:07
• Issues that arise due to the pandemic. - 12:36
• Reality and impact of working with big multinational companies. - 18:25
• Advice to people who are interested in the same line of work or those who are starting their career in general. - 20:23 Subscribe, Share and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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Kathryn speaks with Mansi Shah, author of "The Taste of Ginger" and Senior Vice President of Legal at Warner Bros., about how she balances her writing and legal careers, and what the process of writing is like for her. Mansi discusses the biggest challenges she faces when writing a novel, and why she decided to root her book in the immigrant experience. She also talks about how she decided what to draw on to create the main character of her book.

Episode Resources

• https://mansikshah.com/
• The Taste of Ginger: A Novel Episode Highlights
• Why Mansi Shah decided to go to law school. - 0:51
• How did she wind up in the area of being an entertainment lawyer? - 2:20
• Things in the area of her specialty that spoke to Mansi. - 4:58
• Balancing other pursuits of interest while still managing a legal career. - 7:13
• The inflexibility of the big law. - 13:04
• Making decisions on what to include and what not to include while writing her book. - 18:07
• Advice to those who want to do something similar: Balancing their legal careers and writing at the same time. - 20:02 Subscribe, Share and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with Ting Ting Cheng, Director of the ERA Project, and Kati Hornung, Director of VoteEqualityUS, about the current status of the ERA and why the amendment is so vital in 2022. Ting Ting and Kati discuss their varying perspectives and skill sets when tackling the ERA, and what they say to people that think gender equality is a passé issue or something that's already been achieved. They also discuss the motivations behind the new and improved pocket constitutions, and what things they believe would be different in this country if the ERA was part of the constitution. Ting Ting and Kati also speak about the litigation strategy for the ERA and the best ways for others to get involved.

Episode Resources

• https://voteequality.us/
• https://gender-sexuality.law.columbia.edu/content/era-project Episode Highlights
• The ERA Project, their involvement, and how it all started. - 0:40
• The VoteEquality. - 3:08
• Litigation strategy for getting the ERA out there - 5:59
• The constitutional argumentor or the synopsis of the constitutional argument that talks about time limit. - 10:46
• Why is it so vital in 2022? - 14:06
• The ERA has been impacting our laws and accords for some time now. - 21:59
• Pocket constitution: The thought process behind this project. - 22:23
• The best ways for people to get involved? - 23:44 Subscribe, Share and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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In this episode, Kathryn speaks with Heather Weigler, Assistant Attorney General at the Oregon Department of Justice, about escaping big law and making the world a better place. Heather tried to eliminate the existential dread and unhappiness from work that affected her life and well-being. Gender imbalance in the legal realm further motivated her to volunteer to help women gain their place in the industry.

Tune in to know how Heather manages to be more than her last achievement, finding that unicorn of a legal job and using stand-up comedy and TikTok as a release from job stress.

Episode Resources

• https://www.tiktok.com/@moreofaveronica Episode Highlights
• Getting to know Heather Weigler: her reasons behind entering law school - 0:32
• Prioritizing well-being over paychecks - 2:03
• Leaving big law: looking for other opportunities - 4:50
• Heather's current day-to-day work - 6:24
• Figuring out what's best for the client - 10:48
• Gender inequity in the legal industry: developing passion and involvement - 12:20
• The split between workers and networkers in volunteering - 14:36
• Dealing with stressors in year three of the pandemic - 16:57
• Balancing being a lawyer with stand up comedy in TikTok - 22:36
• Leveraging the highs to avoid the lows in the legal industry - 24:08
• What other careers Heather wants to take on? - 26:18

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In this episode, Kathryn talks to Peter Lynch, Cozen O'Connor's Office Managing Partner, on why he went to law school and how he chose his practice area. Peter discusses why he values D&I programs at business and bar association levels. He shares why he founded DisabilityRightsNow along with the organization's objectives. The legal profession has fallen behind in the hiring of people with disabilities. Thus, Peter poses some solutions that the legal industry may implement to correct this historical error.

Episode Resources

• https://www.disabilityrightsnow.com
• https://www.paypal.com/donate/ Episode Highlights
• Who is Peter Lynch and why did he enter law school? - 0:28
• The shift from marines to law - 2:54
• Training and practices experienced by Peter - 4:56
• Importance of the initiatives on diversity and inclusion - 8:21
• Founding of DisabilityRightsNow: fair treatment to people with disability - 10:20
• Education and employment on people with disability - 15:23
• The diversity fellowship program - 16:59
• What is the real blockade?: the unconscious bias and blatant discrimination - 19:20
• The solution to the problem: employment, accommodations, and inclusivity - 23:43 Subscribe, Share, and Review To get the next episode subscribe with your favorite podcast player.
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