Dawn Smith:
We need more women making decisions at the top, more womenmaking decisions about where the referrals go.
Sonya Palmer:
A lot of female attorneys who start out fall into thattrap of thinking they need to do it all themselves.
Dawn Smith:
To serve our clients in the best way possible, we have tolearn and grow and really become as efficient as possible.
Sonya Palmer:
For the eighth consecutive year, women outnumber men inlaw schools across the nation. Yet this wave of change has not reached theshores of power. Women hold just 25% of seats at the table as board members andmanaging partners, but the tides are turning. Women in law are no longer meeklywaiting for an invitation. They are boldly striking out, creating a futurewhere success is defined on their own terms, and law firms fit into theirlives, not the other way around. As this new generation of trailblazers rises,we stand with them, ready to amplify their voices and fuel the transformation.This is LawHer. I am Sonya Palmer, your host and VP of operations at Rankings,the SEO agency supporting you in claiming your rightful place at the top. Weare thrilled to present the second miniseries of season two, Titans of Tech.From solo practitioners to managing partners, from courtroom warriors to techinnovators, we are sharing stories of women who are redefining what it means tosucceed in law.
Let's uncover their strategies, celebrate their triumphs,and learn from their journeys together. Dawn Smith is a testament to the beliefthat those who work hard and dream big can accomplish anything, no matter whatthe odds. From humble beginnings, Dawn has risen to one of the nation's topmesothelioma attorneys. Her trial team secured a record-breaking $322-millionverdict, the largest single plaintiff asbestos award in history. Dawn didn'tstop there, she pivoted to advocate for nursing home abuse victims building oneof the largest practices in this field nationwide. What sets Dawn apart isn'tjust her impressive multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements and thousandsof people helped, it's her innovative approach to running a law firm.
Today, we'll explore how Dawn leverages technology anddata to scale complex litigation, a strategy that's turning heads in the legalworld. Learn how to harness data-driven decision-making to optimize yourpractice, gaining insights that can transform your approach to case management.Dawn shares her strategies for effective delegation and team building, crucialskills for any growing firm, and you'll discover innovative ways to leveragetechnology and case management and client communication, potentiallyrevolutionizing how you interact with clients and handle cases. Perhaps mostimportantly, Dawn offers her hard-won insights on scaling a law practice whilemaintaining the quality of service that clients deserve. These are practical,actionable strategies that you can start implementing immediately, regardlessof the size of your practice. Let's dive in.
Dawn Smith:
My mom and dad got divorced when I was two, and mygrandparents really were her support network. They were there all the time. Mygrandfather worked for Chevrolet for 50 years. He started at the very bottom ofthe company. He was in service, just a regular mechanic and worked his way upto head of service department there. I think that came from very meagerbeginnings. Actually, they moved to Arizona after the Dust Bowl and started allover again. They always encouraged me that I could really do anything. I'vetried to instill that in my kids too. I just think it's a mindset that you haveto start from the very beginning.
Sonya Palmer:
I want to brag on you for a moment. You were one of thetop-grossing mesothelioma attorneys in the nation, then you pivoted to advocatefor nursing home abuse victims. You've secured over 350 million in verdicts andsettlements. Your trial team achieved the largest single plaintiff asbestosverdict in history with an award of $322 million, and you grew one of thelargest practices in the country. It can be easy to hold the misconception thatyour firm has always been as large and successful as it is, but like so many ofour listeners, you had to start at the beginning. Will you take me back to 2012when you first opened the firm and what the practice looked like then?
Dawn Smith:
I worked in Orange County for almost 10 years with a greatfirm where I learned all of my litigation skills, and Curtis Clinesmith, mypartner, I've known him for over 20 years. He was my mentor. He wrote me aletter of recommendation to get into law school. He offered me a job when I methim at a judge's function when he had no authority to offer me a job at a firmthat he'd just started at, so that's how we started. I took a job in asbestos,handling an asbestos docket from Texas out of Mississippi, and then Curtis andI and another partner that we had decided we were going to do asbestoslitigation and we really focused not necessarily on mesothelioma. We hadmesothelioma cases, but very few. Most of our cases were either non-malignantcases or lung cancer cases. We really decided we were going to focus in thatarea because we thought that, that was an underserved area.
A lot of asbestos companies had declared bankruptcy andthere were a lot of lawyers handling cancer cases and mesothelioma cases, butnot so much the folks that had a lot of breathing difficulties because ofasbestos in their lungs but didn't have cancer yet, so that was really ourbusiness model. Curtis kept his firm. Colby, my other partner, kept his firm,and then we had this kind of joint venture, this asbestos firm, and then wereally did a little bit. I helped Curtis with his practice as well. I helpedKobe with his and they had both general PI practices. Curtis really specializedin nursing home abuse and neglect. As we started in 2012, I was focused on masstowards toxic, towards handled some exposure, toxic exposure cases involving aninsulation material that was making families sick and I still have a few ofthose cases left.
What we were doing was not how we felt was making theimpact that we wanted to. Curtis and I broke off and we were still doingasbestos, and then we were just really sitting having lunch one day and we hadclients all over the country, so we had litigated cases around the country. Ijust looked at him and I said, "Why don't we do nursing home abusenationally? Is there any reason why we wouldn't do that?" We both justkind of paused and looked at each other and thought that we might be able tomake a big impact there. That's what we started diverting our practice andfocusing in that area that really went all in on that at the beginning of 2022.
Sonya Palmer:
I love that you got to work with your mentor because starsdon't always align that way. There's these people that you come across in lifethat has an influence, but you may never get to actually work with them orcreate something with them, so I love that you were able to. When you startedthis, did you have the goal of being as big as you are or you used the wordimpact, were you just looking to make that impact?
Dawn Smith:
I became a lawyer to make a difference. I think that it'san absolute honor and privilege to be able to go into court, stand next tosomeone that has a very small voice but has been deeply harmed and injured.They can stand there next to a large corporation and most of the time get apretty fair shake. Now, the defense a lot of time has more resources than wedo, but you can actually go into a court of law and stand next to a corporationand get a fair shake and hold them accountable for what they've done, so that'swhy I'm a lawyer. When it comes to focusing in this area, we just felt thatthere were so many cases that were not being litigated. Most firms that handlecases in this area really handle it at a smaller volume, have two or threeassociates and don't handle a lot of cases.
There are so many cases that are great cases that arebeing turned down by other firms. We have a wide range of cases that we feelare, I guess just because a case has an injury, maybe because there's two fallsinstead of five or a stage three pressure ulcer instead of a stage four, thoseare still horrific injuries. We've really tried to focus our business so thatwe can help more people, more people get justice for those injuries. Because Imean, when you're living in a nursing home, the family cannot take care of thisperson anymore, they need help. That's the reason that they're there most ofthe time. For people not to be treated with dignity and respect, it's horrific.We just felt like this was an area where we can make a difference.
Sonya Palmer:
Did you have any fears when you were first starting out?
Dawn Smith:
Oh, my gosh, I have fears every day. I have fears today.That never goes away. I mean, it's hard. It's certainly hard. We've gonethrough all kinds of restructuring. We tried one area of the law and Curtis andI were pulling against each other because I was really focused more on thetoxic exposure cases and he was focused more on the elder abuse and the PIcases and we were not rowing together. Really diving into one area of practicehas been the best way, but oh my gosh, tons of growing pains. Bringing on adifferent CRM, trying that, to working with referral partners, building outeach state to make sure that we know exactly what the laws are, buildingrelationships with people. I mean, it's not for the faint of heart, that is forsure. It's a fight every day. It doesn't get easier, I don't think.
Sonya Palmer:
I think you're right. I think the fears and the issues,the challenges are just different or bigger. A lot of female attorneys whostart out fall into that trap of thinking they need to do it all themselves,either because they feel like they can't spend money or because sometimes womenare just trained to we have to do everything, run a successful business and bea great advocate for their clients. A lot of what you just said, like that. Youran into that, how did you get past it?
Dawn Smith:
My partner, he said, "Dawn, you've got to stop it.You're being ridiculous." I'm doing just all of these tasks that can bedelegated, and I think if someone can do it 80% as good as you, and you canactually have an open mind and say, "You know what? I'm going to trustthese other folks because it's a team effort." You have to learn how tohire great people, surround yourself with great people, and then trust thosepeople to carry out your vision. If you don't do that, you can't grow. You mustlet go of those smaller tasks that maybe you even enjoy doing. Really your goalshould be to sit down, it's kind of a quadrant. Some things you you're greatat, but you hate. Some things you're bad at, but you love. You want to be inthat sweet spot to where you're working on things that you're great at andthings that you love and then you got to delegate the rest. I know it's easy tosay, but that has to happen 100%. That's what we're working on.
Sonya Palmer:
Growing a law firm requires letting go of certain tasksand delegating effectively, but as Dawn points out, you can only delegate ifyou have the right people to delegate to. Building a strong team is crucialgrowth. In this next segment, Dawn breaks down her firm's hiring process andshares insights on what worked as they expanded their practice. She explainshow they've structured their team, some of the key roles they've filled and howthey've adapted their hiring approach over time.
Dawn Smith:
We've had a lot of transformation in a lot of differentways that we've handled cases. At first, we had one attorney basically handlingpre-lit and litigation, handling the docket of cases all the way throughout.Then we switched it and had a pre-litigation department, and then we've triedthat a couple of different ways. Charlie Kirby is our COO and she's been withCurtis for over 20 years, so she's really seen every part of the firm and she'sbeen with us every step of the way in every practice area that we've everengaged in. She is an integral part. The structure is so important to make surethat the structure is working. Right now, we have our firm segregated intodepartments. We have an administration department, we have our pre-litigationdepartment, we have a probate department, and then we have our intake andlitigation departments.
Those are really the flow that we have. Clients, actually,we're getting a little bit confused because different people would be callingthem. Now at the very beginning of the case, we have a webinar to where wepresent on all of the aspects of our firm, it's called Life, Cycle of the Case.We go on once a month and every new client that we've signed up, they send aninvitation to explain we're going to be on our senior leadership team gets onand explains what each one of the departments do and how they're specialists ineach area. I think that has really helped a lot. Structure is important beforeposition, if that makes sense.
Sonya Palmer:
This is interesting to me. The way you can use tech, likeyou could record videos or you can have live meetings, but a webinar allows fora live version of your team, but then the new clients are just absorbing theinformation
Dawn Smith:
They can ask questions. They can ask questions too. Yeah,exactly.
Sonya Palmer:
It's like there's an agenda, it's prepared, but it canalso be ad hoc. You can adjust it for whatever's happening. That's reallysmart.
Dawn Smith:
You should. In fact, I think that it's just the moreinformation that you can provide that sets expectations, and so somebody cansee down the road what is going to happen, it helps so much. Clients were justconfused. We have a rule, every client has to be contacted at least once amonth, and then we have touch points throughout the litigation to where weprovide information about what's coming up. Like, okay, your case has movedfrom pre-litigation to litigation, that's what this means. We've entereddiscovery, that's what this means. Your deposition is being said, that's whatthis means. We use case status so that we can our clients and we use Litify forour CRM that we're still building out so that we have that automation. That's awork in progress. It's not perfect by any means, but having that data to wherewe know exactly what's happening with the cases on any given day, I thinkthat's been helpful too. You have to be able to see what's happening acrossyour firm in a snapshot to be able to manage and grow as well.
Sonya Palmer:
Absolutely. Scaling, and then that will indicate who yournext hires are. Your firm has disrupted the traditional models of eitherfocusing on high-value cases or high-volume low-value cases. Instead, youleverage tech to tackle complex litigation at scale. Can you elaborate on howyou've designed those systems and processes to make this possible?
Dawn Smith:
I think it's a work in progress, always. What we did is wereally, I mean we learned through error. We hired a bunch of brand-new lawyersout of law school. They were all first-year associates. We hired a class thatcame in and we really didn't have enough written procedures, how you draft acomplaint, how you set a deposition, how you file a motion to compel, all ofthose procedures. How you set up a lien, all of that. We really took, I thinktook for granted that it could be scaled just by one person teaching anotherperson, teaching another person. It just doesn't work that way. You cannotscale and have quality work product the way you want it done unless you tellpeople exactly the way you want it done. We had a meeting with these associatesand they're like, "We just feel like we need a little bit moreinformation. We need a little bit more structure."
Curtis and I really took that to heart and we stepped backand got our leadership team together and we started writing processes acrossall of our teams, and that was grueling and resisted by a lot of folks. Now, wehave our feet under us to where we have these written processes to where peoplecan go look. I actually met John Fisher at a conference and I can't rememberwhich is, the Business of law conference, and he was so kind. He actually wastalking about processes and he has a website and he calls it Fisher PDF, and hecreated it with a web designer and he said, "Hey, Dawn, do you want tolook at it? You can use any of our processes. Here's the log in, log in anytime you want." I did, I got in there and I started looking. It works justlike Google.
You load your documents in, you load the information in.Somebody just types in a search word and everything related to that comes up towhere you can click on it, search it, go to your forms. We contacted his webdesigner, and he created one for us, so we have something called Smithology. Wehave our processes loaded in that, and that's still a work in progress. I don'tthink everybody uses it as much as I would like them to, but it's certainly afirst source reference to where at least you can get your feet under and youknow exactly where to go. We have an orientation process now, so every singleteam member that comes in, they go through an orientation process. They meetwith our senior folks in each department to where they know exactly what each departmentdoes, how they do that, how the departments work together. I think that, that'sreally helped as well.
Sonya Palmer:
A few things, your leadership team is actually who createdthe processes initially?
Dawn Smith:
Yes.
Sonya Palmer:
That was probably smart. I like also that you have thisresource, because so often, I think people try to start from scratch. Whenyou're doing something like litigation, that's not a new thing. There'sresources out there. You can take that and make it your own, tweak it so thatit then fits your firm, your company.
Dawn Smith:
I use ChatGPT to help make processes, and it's growingevery second of every day. There are so many resources out there, and you'reright, don't reinvent the wheel, ask. I'm happy to provide anybody thatcontacts me this information. I mean, somebody gave it to us. You have toleverage your resources.
Sonya Palmer:
I think ChatGPT, you can be really creative with it. Ihave started asking it what I missed. If I create a doc or I have a doc that Iuse, I will give it to ChatGPT and be like, "What didn't I cover? Whathave I not thought about?" Just little tweaks like that versus give me 10things that I need to do before trial, but just test my own brain against thatstuff. I found that has worked really, really well.
Dawn Smith:
Yeah, that's a great idea. That's a great idea.
Sonya Palmer:
What have I missed or give me the top 10 ideas. What havebeen the benefits, the significant benefits you've seen from taking aninnovative approach?
Dawn Smith:
I think that's the only thing you can do if you want toscale. You have to innovate and we're continuing to innovate. Right now, we'retrying to figure out exactly the steps that need to happen in every single caseto make sure we're working it up to the highest level possible, but we're alsolitigating in states that have caps. When you're litigating in a state that hascaps and you're handling this kind of case, you can't spend $100,000 on a casethat is maximum worth 250. You have to figure out a way to be efficient ineverything you do. If you're not efficient and if you're not replicating thesethings to where it takes you two minutes now, where it to take you two hoursand you're doing that across all of the teams, then now you're getting some traction.
That's the book Traction, by Gino Wickman I mean, that'sreally where we started. Curtis said, "You've got to read this book."Curtis is the business guy. He's brilliant. He's focused on business since hebecame a lawyer, and that's really his passion. He said, "Look, we got tomake some changes if we're going to grow, if we're going to do this right. Readthis book." I mean, that really got us started on the path, and now I getexcited about business too. I'm really the litigator. I handle trials andthat's my passion, but that's where we come together and overlap.
Sonya Palmer:
I was going to ask you about traction because you've saida few things that have fed into that. We're a traction company. We've been onEOS for seven, eight years now. Are you a visionary or integrator, implementer?
Dawn Smith:
Yes. Curtis and I are both visionaries.
Sonya Palmer:
Aren't there usually two, despite what traction might say?
Dawn Smith:
No, not really. We've asked so many people and westruggled with that for a long time. We were just trying to figure out, well,how are we going to make this model fit us? Because absolutely, we are. I thinkwhen we took our test, so the personality testing is such a window into realityof who you are and how you react. When we took print is one of the tests andColby is the other. When you read those, it's just you've got your shadow selfand your best self. What happens when you're in either mode? When you readthose, they're incredibly accurate. I think that was really helpful too. Yougot to know what your strengths are. You got to know how you react to things.Then for your people, you really want to know how they react in their best selfand how you get them to react in their best self. That's what being a leader isall about, is trying to make sure that the person that has trusted you tobecome part of your firm is learning and growing and just getting better everyday at what they do.
Sonya Palmer:
Data isn't just for tech companies anymore, it's becomingan essential tool for law firms looking to optimize their operations and makeinformed decisions. Dawn's firm has embraced this data-driven approach,integrating it into their daily practices. In this next segment, we'll explorehow Dawn leverages data to monitor and improve her law firm's performance. Dawnshares insights in how data informs their decision-making process from weeklydata meetings to keep performance indicators.
Dawn Smith:
It's really monthly that we do our data meetings, butwe're always looking at them. Solidify is great in that you have thesedashboards so you can actually basically see what the lawyer is doing or whatthe paralegal is doing or the legal assistant, what they're doing on a dailybasis without even talking to them or walking into their office and hoveringover them and meeting with them individually. We have KPIs, key performanceindicators, to where we know if these certain things get done on a case, it'sgoing to move the case forward as quickly as possible. I think for younglawyers especially, and maybe even some experienced lawyers, they don't knowthe tasks that have to be done to move that case forward.
We're plaintiffs lawyers, so if we're not moving the caseforward to resolution or trial, then first of all, we're doing a disservice toour clients and we're certainly not doing a good job for our business. The cashflow is so important. We have these snapshots in the dashboard of everythingthat's happening in the firm and data is only as good as the people that areimplementing it or inputting it. We still struggle with that and we're stilltrying to get that down. We have some amazing folks working with us that havelearned how to use Solidify or continuing to use Solidify for that data, butCurtis is looking at the data every single day constantly to see where we are,what we can do to change, how we can improve things. It's actually just aconstant working process.
Sonya Palmer:
How do you evaluate the ROI on a new tool like Solidify?How do you know if it's working, if it was worth it?
Dawn Smith:
Well, I would say it has not been worth it for a long timebecause when we first got it, we didn't hire somebody internally to reallybuild it out for us and Solidify had resources, but those resources were prettyexpensive. Hiring somebody internally that has learned, Solidify and reallythat's their main job, that has been a game changer for us. I think that we'vespent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars on that CRM, and there arecertainly other CRMs that are not as expensive as Solidify, but we reallyneeded something that was customizable and that seems like the right thing.
When it comes to figuring out is it worth it, I think thatis still something that we are trying to learn and improve on and grow on. Oncewe get it to where it's doing what it's exactly supposed to do, I know it's agame changer now, and probably within the year, it's going to really, reallymake a huge impact, I think. Because you can't scale if you can't see the data.You got to really know who's performing and who's not and it can't be anemotional decision just because we think somebody is working or they're notworking. It's got to be based on actually their performance and that istangible, real information that you can use to make the best decisions.
Sonya Palmer:
Absolutely. Beyond case management and clientcommunication, you've mentioned tools like Traction, are there other tools orare there other areas where you've seen technology make an impact in yourpractice?
Dawn Smith:
Definitely. Case Status with the texting option forclients, that's been a game changer. Clients can text directly into their file.We can send out mass texts to all of our clients. They get texts when the casemoves from one phase to another. There's, I think that the communication usingtechnology to improve communication with clients. That's huge. You knowSmithology that I was telling you about, that's technology that we've used tohouse all of our training in a way that makes sense to us. There's all kinds ofthings that you can buy out there, like Trainual, different platforms that youcan use to house your resources like that.
The way this web page is laid out, I'm telling you, it'sjust like Google, it's so cool. I love it. Using video conferences has reallychanged the way we do things as well, because when Curtis and I first startedpracticing, our clients came to our office if we wanted to meet with them. Now,we're practicing nationwide, so that is impossible. Being able to actually seesomeone and talk to them like we do all of our intakes by video and recordthose so that they can see us and we can see them. It's not perfect, but it isdefinitely just being able to see that other person makes such a bigdifference.
Sonya Palmer:
I think that's really key. I think that's something thatCOVID, the pandemic introduced. It forced people to break this traditional lawfirm, I'm going to go into the office and I'm going to meet with my lawyer.Attorneys had to think of creative ways to talk to their clients, and it endedup being easier for the client.
Dawn Smith:
100%.
Sonya Palmer:
They want to be able to work with a lawyer the way thatthey order a pizza. Right here. I think firms who have adapted that technologyand have stayed with it to go to where the user or the client wants to be arethe ones that are going to continue to succeed. I really admire that.
Dawn Smith:
Well, COVID really did, I mean you said it, it changedeverything about how we practice. It actually made what we do possible becauseI was traveling East Coast, west Coast. If I had a hearing on the East Coast,I'd be gone basically for a day and a half, but now I can have a deposition inthe morning on the East Coast, hearing in the afternoon in Texas, and then doanother deposition on the West Coast and not even leave my office. When itcomes to leveraging time, it's changed everything. Lawyers would never havemoved forward like that if we didn't have to, never. Judges would never. Iwould never have done it. If you would've told me five, six years ago that Iwould be comfortable taking a key deposition remotely, I would've said, no way.I'll never do that. Just got to keep your mind open to technology, for sure. AIis a game changer as well. I know that, that's going to be the next frontierreally, that hits us head on that we got to deal with.
Sonya Palmer:
I think the adoption of it and then just harnessing it forgood, I think it has to be embraced. There's no way to avoid it, and I think itcan be embraced for good. Do you think it's especially crucial for women in thelegal industry to be early adopters of technology?
Dawn Smith:
Well, it's a good way to create an edge, for sure. We haveto use our resources to get better regardless of whether or not we're women ormen to serve our clients in the best way possible. We have to learn and growand really become as efficient as possible. If AI is going to allow us to dothat, if I'm writing for example, just a job description or a workbook, somesort of a workbook or training manual or something like that, there's so muchthat you can get that is a baseline that you would never have been able to getbefore that you would've had to start from scratch. We've got to be able to usetechnology to leverage our time. The more time we have to really focus onthings that we love and that we're great at, like I was saying, the betterwe're going to be.
Sonya Palmer:
You could start somewhere, it goes back to that B plus. Ifyou can get a B plus with ChatGPT on a job description, you can make that an Aplus later.
Dawn Smith:
Exactly.
Sonya Palmer:
You can always refine it. You got to start somewhere. I dothink that about ChatGPT and AI in general. It makes getting started so mucheasier.
Dawn Smith:
Much easier, yes. For me, that's the hardest part for me,100%.
Sonya Palmer:
Exactly.
Dawn Smith:
That's the hardest part. I always tell my daughter, mydaughter is in college right now, I'm like, "Just sit down, open yourcomputer." I'm like, "Just sit down, open. Write one sentence. Juststart on your paper. I mean, that's the hardest part."
Sonya Palmer:
That's good advice. I do it for myself, five minutes. Ifyou spend five minutes on this thing, and nine times out of 10, it takes lessthan five. Excellent. You recently started the Ladies N Law podcast with someof your colleagues. What inspired you to create this platform and what do youhope to achieve through these conversations?
Dawn Smith:
I love this platform so much and the ladies I'm doing thiswith. Lisa Goucher, I've known her for over 10 years. Kellye Raymond, coming upon 10 years. We just would meet from time to time and have happy hour, and wehad just such a great conversation about all kinds of things. I was justdriving home one day and I thought, "Oh, wow. What if we did a podcast andjust talked about things that impact business and law and women?" We allhave such a different perspective, trial lawyer versus jury consultant, KellyeRaymond, versus a business owner, Lisa Goucher.
She started in the asbestos industry and court reportingback in the 90s and has grown two successful court reporter companies andmarketing companies. She's just an inspiration to me and so is Kellye. Wereally have gotten to know each other even better. Lots of things that wethought we knew about each other, we really didn't. I think just being able toencourage women to take that leap to start themselves, I think just encouragingwomen to count on themselves, bet on themselves. We can do so much with theresources that we have and actually reaching out and bonding together to helpothers. I think that's really the premise.
Sonya Palmer:
As we wrap up, I like to look to the future. What givesyou the greatest hope and optimism for the future of women in the legalindustry?
Dawn Smith:
Well, we're making strides. I think they're slow, butwe're making strides. I think women have outnumbered men in law school since1991, but this year is the very first year that there have actually been morefirst-year associates women than men. It's a very small percentage point, butfinally. I think encouraging women to actually stay in law and grow in the firmthat they're in or make that leap to start their own firm is really important.Because while we are making strides in that middle realm, we need more womenmaking decisions at the top. More women making decisions about where thereferrals go. More making decisions about who is going to be appointed in thisposition or that position.
Really growing this lower level and then encouragingpeople to continue to move up in the ranks, either through their own law firm,starting their own law firm, or becoming a partner in a large firm. Women arestill so outnumbered by men when it comes to being partners at large firmsacross the country, and that has to change. There has to be diversity in voice.That's how we represent our clients the best because we all have differentperspectives, all different perspectives based on our own experiences. We needmore African-Americans, more Latinas, more Asians, women, men. We just needthose diverse perspectives to provide the best representation to our clients.
Sonya Palmer:
Dawn's firm is handling complex litigation at scale usingtechnology. She shows us that there's no need to be bound by traditionalpractice models, build a firm that resonates with you and leverage tech to helpyou get there. Her use of process documentation is a perfect example. Dawn'sSmithology system brilliantly demonstrates how we can codify our knowledge andprocesses. This isn't just about efficiency, it's about creating a sustainable,scalable practice. Imagine how much easier it would be to onboard new teammembers or scale your practice with something like that in place. Embracedata-driven decision making, those monthly data meetings and KPI dashboardsDawn mentioned, they're not just for big tech companies. By leveraging data,firms can make more objective decisions about their practices, teams, andgrowth strategies.
With these strategies, innovative thinking, solidprocesses and data-driven decisions, we can work smarter, not harder. We canbuild practices that not only succeed, but also, accommodate the full richlives we want to lead. If you found this content insightful, inspiring, or itjust made you smile, please share this episode with a trail-blaze in your life.For more about Dawn, check out our show notes. While you're there, please leaveus a review or a five-star rating. It really helps others discover the show.I'll see you next week on LawHer, where we'll shed light on how another of thebrightest and boldest women in the legal industry climbed to the top of herfield. Until next time, stay inspired, stay empowered, and keep making waves inthe legal industry. You've got this.
