Meet Julia Morris, Sole Female Associate at Conn. Firm Who Became Its Managing Partner
When Julia Morris started work at O’Connell, Flaherty & Attmore in 1994, there were 16 lawyers at the Hartford, Conn., firm. But she was the only woman among them.
Six years later, she became the firm’s first female partner. And in 2008 she became its managing partner, recounts the Connecticut Law Tribune.
Along the way, Morris, now 40 and married to another lawyer, also had four children, who are currently 5 to 11 years old. Among other factors, she credits the mentoring of the firm’s original partner, Michael O’Connell, and a family friend who takes care of the kids daily for her ability to succeed in practice.
Meanwhile, many female friends who graduated at the same time from Boston College Law School have left the profession in order to balance work and family life, she notes.
As a rainmaker whose practice now focuses on appellate work and corporate representations, Morris has more flexibility with her schedule than she would if she had to be available for court appearances as a litigator, she notes. However, she also tries to offer as much scheduling leeway as possible to others at the firm, which now has 19 attorneys—eight of them female.
“If you have a way to develop a client base, you will be able to get the flexibility that you need to have a family, as well,” she tells the Law Tribune.
For more details about how Morris made it all work, read the full article.
