The Search for Tax Justice is a Tax Notes State series examining the inequities inherent in state and federal taxes.
In this installment, Larissa Neumann, partner in the Mountain View, California, office of Fenwick & West LLP and lecturer of international tax at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, explores how the virtuous cycle of trust and gratitude founded upon the ability of those in power to appreciate and accommodate the differences that matter — while still allowing individuals to flourish on the merits of their own work — can unlock the potential of every individual and set the standard for diversity and inclusion in the legal community.
The call for more equal representation of women in positions of power in the tax law profession has never been louder than it is today. Companies, professional organizations, law schools, and society at large are initiating a concerted push for greater gender diversity within law firms. According to the American Bar Association’s “ABA Profile of the Profession 2020 Report,” the percentage of female lawyers has increased very slowly in the last 10 years; it stood at 31 percent in 2010 and is now at 37 percent. Male attorneys still greatly outnumber female attorneys, especially in management and equity partner positions. Although women generally have made up half of graduating law school classes for the last 20 years, there continues to be a disparity in the legal profession.
While most law firms have explicitly professed a desire for more women in leadership, implicit biases and structural impediments within the profession have kept women significantly underrepresented within the upper reaches of the tax law hierarchy. To display commitment to the firm, women who are parents have felt the pressure to submit to a work environment and time schedule at tension with their obligations as mothers and domestic partners. The recent ABA report “Walking Out the Door,” which includes results from a survey of more than 1,200 senior lawyers at the nation’s biggest private law firms, reported that 58 percent of women viewed caretaking commitments as the most important reason that female lawyers leave their jobs. To fit the mold of a dedicated professional, women have felt pressure to delay or alter the timing of significant life events such as marriage and pregnancy. Over time, the frictions of these structural impediments wear against female attorneys’ psyches, often causing them to compromise their careers for the sake of family and personal commitments.
Throughout my career I have worked in tandem with my firm, Fenwick & West LLP, to dismantle these subtle and not-so-subtle structures of male power that have stood in the way of female professional empowerment. By advocating for my own interests and having a progressive law firm that took those interests to heart, I have been able to advance in my career without disregarding my unique experiences and challenges as a wife and a mother. By seeing me and hearing me as a woman, Fenwick has demonstrated a commitment to diversity in its highest levels of power and laid the institutional foundations for many more female attorneys to follow in my footsteps.
I remember staring at the little pink lines indicating that I was pregnant with mixed emotions. I was filled with guarded joy that was also clouded with a faint concern when I thought of my career. In 2006 pregnancy announcements were not expected from first-year associates at a law firm — at least not from associates who were at all serious about becoming partners. “Wait until you are a partner until you have kids” was standard advice, and doing otherwise would sabotage your ability as a woman to prove your dedication to the firm and credibility in the profession. But my life path had taken a drastic detour from the career trajectory mapped out by conventional wisdom.
After having my first child, I returned to work eager to add value to every project I was assigned and grow in my practice as a tax attorney. Thankfully, at Fenwick, I was not spared difficult assignments and challenging projects in my days after returning from maternity. One of my mentors, Jim Fuller, recounted how when he started tax law there was “Girl Tax,” which was estates and trusts, and “Boy Tax,” which was international tax. He expressed how he thought that was inappropriate and supported my taking on challenging international tax projects, including inversion transaction, transfer pricing, and controversy.
Importantly, my professional growth was not predicated on Fenwick treating me just like everyone else. The firm recognized that the work life of a new mother would not mirror that of a single attorney. I often went home early for dinner, but then picked back up after the kids were asleep. And there were breast pumping schedules, birthday parties, and preschool recitals that had to be accommodated. And all the while, I received the support and understanding of my firm, as Fenwick trusted my ability to add more value each year that I walked the tightrope of work-life balance. Fenwick understood that although my family obligations differed from those of most attorneys at my level, if those obligations were respected and accommodated — I would be all the more dedicated to my practice and add more value to the firm in the long haul.
Fenwick understood that the call for diversity is founded upon the ability of those in power to appreciate and accommodate the differences that matter, while still allowing individuals to flourish on the merits of their work. One of the keys to promoting gender diversity is recognizing that the path to success leads in many different ways.
As my career progressed, one of the greatest challenges I faced in building my practice was navigating professional social spaces built for and dominated by men. To grow their practices, women have had to navigate male-dominated networking systems that often put them in compromising or inauthentic social situations. The ABA report cited an emphasis on marketing as a top reason female lawyers leave their jobs. Even as a law school student, the idea of marketing never sat well with me, but the challenge seemed even more insurmountable in the midst of relationships that had been built in cigar bars, steakhouses, and pro sports club suites. I could feign interest in NFL discussions, but even as I began to find myself more adept at holding my own during sports banter, a part of me wondered whether my authentic self was an inadvertent victim of my attempt to fit into a male-dominated networking model. This sense of awkwardness and uncertainty would only be magnified as I watched male colleagues effortlessly ask potential male clients out for a drink, knowing that if I employed a similar networking strategy that my gestures to those same male potential clients would be complicated by unintentional innuendo and misunderstood intentions.
As my self-doubts about building a network grew, I was also making meaningful and fulfilling relationships with other women in the tax law community and within the firm. Some of my favorite clients were female. Building upon this foundation of friendship, I have worked to create a professional community where women in tax can connect with each other while being their true authentic selves. As president of the Women in IFA Network, I developed a mission to connect professional women in international tax to develop their networks, visibility, and participation. In time I came to realize that my friendships were the true network I had always hoped to find.
I also sought out mentoring advice and role models from a wide variety of people. For example, my assistant Ronnah Robinson would prove to be one of the best mentors. Robinson had years of experience navigating the male-dominated field with dignity and power. She showed me how to be a leader, how to be seen and have a voice, and how not to get discouraged.
Law firms taking the initiative to dismantle institutional structures of a male-dominated workplace do more than just ease the work-life tensions of female employees. For example, the Fenwick Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee promotes a diverse workforce that helps us serve clients better and fosters an environment of cooperation, respect, creativity, and mutual understanding in which everyone thrives. More than anything, these diversity initiatives create a virtuous cycle of trust and gratitude between the firm and those from groups historically underrepresented in the legal industry.
While symbolic gestures promoting diversity and inclusion are critical for all organizations, nothing tells employees from historically underrepresented communities that they are seen, heard, and valued more than the firm enacting structural changes that reconfigure the way work is valued and how status within the organization is apportioned. Seeing their interests advanced by the firm in structural and not just symbolic ways bonds diverse attorneys to the firm and makes the firm itself more institutionally equipped to foster the recruitment, retention, and advancement of diverse candidates in the years to come. Ultimately, diversity and inclusion efforts must be judged on their ability to foster trust and gratitude, forging the bonds needed to unlock the potential of every individual within the firm and unleash the full potential of the firm itself.
On a personal level, my devotion and commitment to Fenwick mirrored the firm’s devotion and commitment to fostering the advancement of women within the firm. I trust that Fenwick has my best interests at heart and, out of gratitude for this relationship, I strive to advance the firm’s reputation as a leader in the industry, not just in the quality of legal counsel it gives to clients but also its status as a leader in advancing diversity and inclusion in the legal community writ large. As a beneficiary of Fenwick’s efforts to reconfigure its institutional structures to better accommodate the interests of women, I bring insights into how similar strategies could help the firm do better and go further so that all gender identities, races, and differently abled persons are valued and respected, and treated with dignity and inclusivity.
I am excited to lead the next turning in this virtuous cycle of trust and gratitude, assuring that Fenwick sets the standard for diversity and inclusion in the legal community.