Earlier this year, we proudly announced the rollout of Women of Wilson (WoW), an Affinity Group open to all individuals at the firm who identify as women—as well as their allies—that unifies existing women’s initiatives under one collaborative umbrella. WoW’s mission is to build a thriving community of individuals who identify as women through recruitment, retention, and promotion.

Among other activities, WoW pursues its mission through:

• Collaborating with others throughout the firm to facilitate, support, and promote women’s events and other relevant initiatives;
• Serving as a resource for women and facilitating the sharing of ideas through a resource repository;
• Supporting and enhancing women’s mentoring and sponsorship;
• Hosting events, including a Client Speaker Series; and
• Facilitating outreach to allies who support WoW’s mission.

The WoW Committee is led by co-chairs Stephanie Jensen (Of Counsel, Seattle) and Myra Sutanto Shen (Partner, Palo Alto), and its members include:

• Amy Caiazza (Partner, Washington, D.C.)
• Talin Gordnia (Associate, Los Angeles)
• Catherine Hartman (Associate, New York)
• Patrice Martin (Human Resources Manager, Washington, D.C.)
• Elizabeth Pond (Senior Manager, Firmwide Law School Recruiting, Austin)
• Jaqueline Tokuda (Partner, Palo Alto)

In June, WoW held a kickoff meeting at which the WoW Committee members and office representatives introduced themselves to the group and discussed their goals for the future.

Among WoW’s first projects was the creation of Circles, groups of approximately 10 WoW members who meet virtually on a regular basis to develop relationships, tackle topics of interest to their Circle, and support one another.

Client Speaker Series

The WoW Client Speaker Series, which is led by Los Angeles associate and WoW Committee member Talin Gordnia, launched in May, with a session featuring Karen Huoth, Senior Litigation Counsel at TikTok, and moderated by Talin. A graduate of Columbia Law, Karen started her legal career as a patent litigator at Latham & Watkins. She then joined Kirkland & Ellis, where she became a partner, and later moved over to Hulu, rising up the ranks to become VP of Litigation and Intellectual Property before joining TikTok in April 2021.

Among other topics, Karen spoke about her experience transitioning in-house after working in Big Law; the ways the shift altered her mindset, priorities, and legal practice; and what makes for a successful relationship with outside counsel. She also offered advice related to managing and building one’s network, encouraging attendees to volunteer and accept invitations to get to know others. “It’s about making yourself available and taking advantage of opportunities to just meet and talk to people,” Karen said. “It’s not stressful, it’s not onerous—especially now that everything is over Zoom—and you can have a nice conversation. I think that’s how I accidentally built a pretty good network.”

She added, “But you don’t want to do that at the expense of diversity and inclusion. Your network might look like you, and if you’re constantly pulling in people who look just like you, you’re going to lose the benefit of diverse voices. So, my advice there is to find opportunities to meet people who aren’t just like you. There are all kinds of organizations you can join and really build the diversity of your network.”

In July, WoW hosted Nair Flores, VP of Legal at Upside Foods, for the second session in its Client Speaker Series. Nair received a B.S. degree in engineering, computer science, and biomedical engineering from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and her J.D. from Pepperdine Law. She was a patent associate at Greenberg Traurig before becoming patent counsel at Yahoo! Inc. and the first patent attorney and head of patents at Facebook. Nair then transitioned into M&A corporate development at Dropbox and later became VP and Associate General Counsel - Intellectual Property at Lyft before joining Upside Foods in June 2020.

In a discussion moderated by trademark associate Chelsea Carbone, Nair talked about her career path, how she knew when it was time to transition into her next role (“I enjoy building a legal team from scratch, and once I feel like someone else can do it, I move on”), and characteristics she looks for when adding to her team (“a sense of humor, flexibility to roll with the punches, and a willingness to learn”) and hiring outside counsel (“the ability to communicate and give succinct, business-minded advice—it’s rarer than you think”), among other topics.

When asked what advice she has for junior attorneys, Nair stressed the importance of taking the initiative to grow so that you’ll be ready for the next opportunity. “Make decisions every day that get you closer to where you want to go, even if you don’t know exactly where you want to end up,” she advised. “The job you have today won’t necessarily be the job you have tomorrow. If you don’t ask, if you don’t raise your hand, you’re not going to get it. Just keep moving. Imposter syndrome is real. And if there’s nothing good coming out of it, just go. Life’s too short.”

In September, WoW hosted StockX general counsel and former Wilson Sonsini associate Laura Lewis. A California native, Laura earned B.A. degrees in politics and comparative literature from New York University before graduating from NYU School of Law. She started her legal career as a corporate associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher before working at Wilson Sonsini and Lowenstein Sandler in their New York offices. She eventually transitioned into an in-house role as senior counsel at Rock Ventures LLC in Detroit, where she provided counsel to a number of different portfolio companies, including StockX, which she joined as GC in 2019.

In an interview conducted by trademark associate Christine Au-Yeung, Laura addressed a variety of topics, including the unique business model of StockX, a two-sided marketplace for items of current culture; her experience working in Big Law; the changes in her workflow and daily practice once she moved in-house; building out her legal team during a pandemic; and things that outside counsel should know when working with her—such as the fact that she currently has 4,800 unread emails in her inbox and there’s a good chance she won’t see an email the day you send it.

A new mom, Laura also spoke candidly about the challenges of balancing family and a demanding career. “I could conceptually understand that it’s hard to have a child and a career at the same time, but until it happens to you, I don’t know if you appreciate it…so shout out to all the working moms out there!” she said. Laura shared that having empathy for new parents and being very open about one’s availability has worked well for her team, many of whom have young children themselves. “We all rely on each other as professionals to just get the work done when you can,” she said.

Laura’s advice to more junior attorneys is to develop a broad-based practice, particularly in their first few years. “When you’re first starting out, you have a wealth of opportunities to try out different fields to see what works for you. You don’t know what you’re going to fall in love with or where you’ll do your best work. As you get more senior, you start to specialize and develop a deeper skill set. But if you can preserve a diversity of practice, it’s much easier to focus on something specific later.”

In November, WoW hosted a unique session in which Wilson Sonsini alumna and current DroneDeploy senior in-house counsel Mariya Pivtoraiko interviewed Alphy founder and CEO Julian Guthrie, a Wilson Sonsini client. Prior to joining DroneDeploy’s legal team in March 2021, Mariya spent seven years as a corporate associate in the firm’s Palo Alto office and was part of the team that advised Alphy on its Series Seed funding and launch. Julian is an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author of five books, including Alpha Girls, which sparked the creation of Alphy—a first-of-its-kind “EqualTech™” app where women and their allies can find “the resources they need to be fearless in pursuing their purpose, passionate in their causes, and unyielding in their individual and collective achievements.” Founded in 2020, Alphy aims to advance equality through technology, specifically through the distinct features of its 24/7, wraparound app, including a social network, jobs platform, online learning, and an AI-assisted patent-pending communication-strengthening tool.

Over the course of her conversation with Mariya, Julian discussed her career progression, from starting out as a newspaper journalist, becoming a successful book author, and transforming her novel idea for a company into reality; the challenges of being a first-time founder, including the process of landing introductions, pitching investors (“With the Series Seed, there’s such an unnerving power imbalance”), and finding and managing people, particularly as a woman; her experience working with Wilson Sonsini; and what she thinks legal counsel should keep in mind when advising entrepreneurs who are navigating start-up financing for the first time.

“It’s been an incredible journey to get to this point,” Julian said. “We’re thinking long term about what the life of Alphy is like, how many lives we can enhance and strengthen, and how much opportunity we can create. As a storyteller, I’m really proud of the content—it’s something you can’t get anywhere else.”

If you have any questions or would like additional information about WoW, please contact Stephanie Jensen, Myra Sutanto Shen, or Jullia Carretta.