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March 14, 2024

ABA new edition guides women lawyers with essential mentoring to rise in the legal profession

CHICAGO, March 14, 2024 — The Litigation Section of the American Bar Association has published “Her Story: The Resilient Woman Lawyer's Guide to Conquering Obstacles, Book 2,” edited by Teresa M. Beck, Alicia M. Menendez and Shayna M. Steinfeld. Like the first book, “Her Story: Lessons in Success from Lawyers Who Live It,” this new collection of insightful personal narratives is designed to provide women lawyers with powerful guidance in overcoming the obstacles they face in the legal profession. Her Story 2 is designed to not only support women lawyers in finding greater equity and fairness in their professional journey but to enable them to thrive.

The stories in Her Story 2 form a roadmap created by remarkable women lawyers who are generous and discerning in sharing the challenges they have faced and the successes that came over time in building meaningful and rewarding careers that are also fulfilling. They are also candid about their mistakes and difficult moments and how they learned from and recovered from them, and then used them to grow. There are questions at the end of each chapter to help you dive deeper, which can be shared with your book club or used as part of a networking event or personal growth circle.  

The book is designed so that you can immerse yourself in a chapter or dive into an individual story. There is a richness of experience here. Her Story 2 will help you to:

  • More effectively identify and overcome the hidden hazards to watch for in all law practice settings.
  • Find clarity in identifying your true professional and personal priorities.
  • Identify the gender bias obstacles that threaten to derail and exhaust career progress and how to navigate them. 
  • Recognize and overcome impostor syndrome.
  • Build relationships of trust, collaboration and resilience to heal fear and anxiety.
  • Find support, affirm connections and mentoring to better learn the business of law and use setbacks as opportunities for learning and new growth, and much more.

About the Editors:

Teresa M. Beck is the managing shareholder of Arizona and Nevada for Klinedinst PC and co-chair of the firm’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Committee. She handles litigation in California, Arizona and Nevada. She is immediate past president of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Association and a board member of California ChangeLawyers.

Alicia M. Menendez is a senior counsel at Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, a law firm with 18 offices in the United States and in London. She focuses her practice on complex product liability and commercial litigation, as well as international disputes and managing aspects of cases in mass litigation across multiple jurisdictions. Menendez actively participates in bar associations, having earned awards for her service.

Shayna M. Steinfeld is board certified by the American Board of Certification in both consumer and business bankruptcy law and is a shareholder of Steinfeld & Steinfeld, PC. She is a past president of the Atlanta Bar Association, the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, a co-founder and past president of the Georgia International Women’s Insolvency and Restructuring Confederation Network, a past chair of the Sole Practitioner/Small Firm Section of the Atlanta Bar and the Bankruptcy Sections of both the Atlanta Bar and the State Bar of Georgia.

Title:                       Her Story: The Resilient Woman Lawyer's Guide to Conquering Obstacles, Book 2
Publisher:              ABA Section of Litigation
Pages:                    458
Product Code:       15310492
ISBN:                      9781639054008
Size:                       6 x 9 inches, softcover
Binding:                 Softcover
Price:                      $35
Orders:                   800-285-2221 or shopaba.org

Editor’s note If you would like a review copy or to schedule an interview with the author, please contact Michelle Oberts at [email protected]. If you publish a review of this book, please send tear sheets or a copy for our files to Kathryn Haynes, ABA Publishing, 321 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL 60654.

The ABA is the largest voluntary association of lawyers in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.