Marcy Resnik Leads Women Mentorship In Law Programs: Young Female Attorney Talks To Great Day Live in Florida
By Space Coast Daily // January 2, 2023
Why are female attorneys a small minority in the legal field across the United States? What are the obstacles facing them?
Is there a way to correct the situation? Can women mentorship in law programs help change the scenario for better, and if yes, how?
Great Day Live (GDL) recently spoke with Rachel Lederman, a young female attorney working for the Fort Lauderdale law firm Kahn & Resnik, P.L., about the importance of female mentorship in the field of law.
In the video interview, Lederman discussed the challenges facing the young female working lawyers and how mentorship programs can help both working and aspiring female lawyers better cope with those challenges.
Having briefed on the firm’s major area of operations (commercial litigation, real estate and family law), Lederman went on to stress the fact that Kahn & Resnik is also passionately involved in providing female law graduates with mentorship chiefly through the mentorship programs developed by Marcy Resnik, one of the founding members of the firm.
Asked how it is that the firm has made it a mission to help and empower female attorneys, Lederman remarked that the idea came from none other than Marcy Resnik herself. She went to add that Marcy Resnik, a reputed attorney from Florida, benefitted a lot in the early years of her career from the mentorship and advice she received from senior female legal practitioners at the firm where she started. And the mentorship programs came into being from Mrs. Resnik’s belief in giving back as well as from her urge to contribute in the uplifting of women in general.
In answer to how she herself benefitted from joining the program, Lederman replied that that Marcy Resnik and her program helped her in being confident about herself, be bold, have her own voice, and ultimately to stand up for both herself and her clients.
As for the various challenges that women attorneys need to put up with at current, Lederman commented that there are many, most prominent among them being demeaning and often humiliating comments and insinuations from prisoners, colleagues, and judges even. This sort of things, Lederman says, is a major reason why women attorneys remain a minority across courtrooms in the U.S.
Apart from that, the underrepresentation is also owing to a number of typical challenges that working women face irrespective of their chosen career. These include sexual harassment of various types; having to deal with women’s biological clock; as well as coping with the challenges of motherhood and parenthood where, Lederman remarks, women by default need to put up with an unequal burden.
However, Lederman put voice to her belief that women mentorship can go a long way in helping aspiring female lawyers realize that they can be equal to their male counterparts in the workspace. She also refers to Sheryl Sandberg’s famous ‘Lean In’ message and remarks that female mentorship programs, in legal field and elsewhere, can help women thrive in their workplace and also find a proper and healthy work/life balance.
Finally, Lederman gave the names of a few organizations that help young female students with scholarship opportunities and mentorship programs in South Florida. These are:
■ Million Women Mentors — An extension of the STEM program for women and girls, this movement cum organization offers valuable mentoring opportunities for women working in the legal profession.
■ Together — A program dedicated to providing platforms for companies to run their own individual and customized mentorship programs for their female workforce.
■ 100 Women in Finance — A global network focused on empowering women and helping them deal with a variety of challenges at each stage of their professional careers.
