Experience

Unlike most consultants, Marianne knows the business of the practice of law from the inside out. Attorneys of all experience levels have benefited from her coaching and training.

While her coaching services are available to both genders, Marianne designates much of her time to training and coaching women attorneys to utilize the full range of their business development skills and strengths.  She also devotes a portion of her coaching to helping women lawyers navigate critical junctures in their careers.

Five years ago, Marianne put her own business development skills to the test and started her own consulting business.  Within a short period of time she created a widely recognized national niche providing business development and career management coaching to women lawyers.

Since starting her consulting practice, Marianne has assisted women lawyers in Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Ontario Canada, and British Columbia Canada with their business development and career management goals.

Marianne is keenly aware of the challenges that women lawyers must overcome to achieve rewarding legal careers.  She believes that many of the hurdles that women lawyers face can be conquered through the development of their own book of business.

One of Marianne’s first achievements in law firm business development was the establishment of one of the first business development networking training sessions in the country, which was offered by the Bar Association of San Francisco in the mid-1980s.

Some years later, worked with a team of lawyers and management to successfully transition a large national law firm from its least profitable year to its most profitable year within the span of two years.

More recently, Marianne implemented the development of a large Southwest law firm’s biotechnology and life science’s practice from inception to #1 regional ranking in Chambers U.S.A.

Early in her career, Marianne developed one of the nation's first in-house attorney training programs, which was ranked by the American Lawyer as #1 in the country based on associate feedback.  It was later used as a model by other firms.

Marianne continues to offer training programs to associates and partners on topics ranging from the fundamentals of business development to “How to develop a business development plan in one day.”

In addition to coaching and training, Marianne served for three years on the National Association of Women Lawyers Survey Committee on the Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms.  She was a co-Chair for two years and a co-author of the nationally distributed NAWL Survey Findings Report for two years.

Marianne has been a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) Law Practice Management Section for three years and a member of the ABA women rainmakers group for two years.

From 2008-2010 Marianne volunteered her time to serve on the Advisory Board and write a quarterly column for Women Legal Magazine on business development and legal career management topics. Her columns have been published in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States.

Marianne’s extensive law firm experience enables her to guide clients effectively through career management challenges.  To assist those who decide to switch firms or seek new positions, Marianne is able to draw on the three years of additional experience that she gained while serving as a trainer and instructor at Arizona Women's Education and Employment (AWEE) and Rio Salado College of job search skills.  The participants in Marianne's job readiness courses consistently gave her the highest performance evaluation rankings.