Developing business relationships with new corporate clients: focus on women lawyers

A webinar presented by the IBA Women Lawyers Interest Group and supported by IBA Law Firm Management Committee

When lawyers are developing business relationships with their potential corporate clients, not only do their skills and experiences as a lawyer matter, but many other factors can also be important, such as personality, their title at their firm, and whether she/he has had good networking opportunities. Is gender one such consideration? 

When the majority of corporate executives are men, sometimes it’s said that women working in any industry will face challenges when developing business relationships with their potential clients or customers – is this still true in an era of gender diversity? Also, aren’t professional career women such as female lawyers an exception? 

Either way, the important thing is not determining whether or not women are facing more challenges than men, but rather sharing experiences and encouraging each other where such concerns are held by either men or women, when it comes to client/customer development.

In this webinar, a diverse panel will discuss challenges in client development that may or may not be specific to women, and will share thoughts on how to overcome these challenges. The webinar will cover both of the following:

• personal advice for younger female lawyers who will be embarking on client development on their own; and
• suggestions to the local business community or local society to increase the number of women business leaders.