In this episode, hosts April Abele Isaacson and Kate Geyer welcome a special cohost—fellow Kilpatrick Townsend patent litigator Taylor Pfingst—to discuss recent data on how law firms are doing on diversity, equity and inclusion, with particular emphasis on gender equality.

Taylor, a native Californian, is an Associate in Kilpatrick Townsend’s Los Angeles office. Her practice focuses on patent and trade secret litigation as well as other intellectual property disputes. She represents both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of industries, including technology, entertainment, and medical devices. Taylor was a key member of trial teams in high-stakes cases that resulted in more than $100 million in jury verdicts for the client. Every year since 2019, Super Lawyers magazine has recognized Taylor as a Northern California “Rising Star” for Intellectual Property Litigation.

Prior to joining the firm, Taylor served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Charles R. Breyer in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and as a law clerk in the Public Rights Division in the California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General. She received her BA in political science from UC Santa Barbara and her JD from UC Hastings College of Law. While attending law school, she was the Executive Notes Editor of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.

In a candid conversation, April, Kate, and Taylor identify the seismic shifts that have taken place in the legal profession since the days when Taylor’s mom became a trial attorney, and the hurdles that still remain today. They discuss the recently published Law360 2022 Glass Ceiling Report: Women In Law, which provides statistical proof of how the profession has changed and how much still needs to be done.

Through personal anecdotes and insights, April, Kate, and Taylor weave the experience of three generations—Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials—into a cohesive timeline that speaks of the progress and setbacks on the road to greater diversity and inclusion.

Highlights include:

• Destined for life in the law (1:24)
• Seeing how an earlier generation of women balanced work and family obligations, and were taken seriously as a lawyer (4:25)
• How not to be a mentor (11:18)
• Working mothers as role models for both men and women (18:07)
• Working while female; there is no excuse not to mentor (19:49)
• Good news in the pipeline (25:56)
• The value of not being the only woman in the room (28:04)
• Sobering statistics about women in leadership in the legal profession (37:46)
• A silver lining to the COVID pandemic (40:07)
• An invisible burden of proving everyone wrong (41:48)
• The inclusion tax (43:32)
• The surprising origins of wanting to do everything for everyone (49:33)
• The luxury of being disorganized (53:09)
• Capitalizing on the momentum generated by greater numbers of women partners (59:51)
• Demystifying the path to partnership (1:07:04)