MoFo Celebrates Women's History Month

March marks the celebration of Women’s History Month, and this year’s theme is Embrace Equity: Women Leading the Way. This month, the firm will highlight women leaders and the countless contributions made by women throughout history. Read more about Women’s History Month.

At MoFo, we are proud to say women play a vital role in the leadership of the firm:

• 51% of the Board of Directors are women

• 47% of the Points Committee are women
• 44% of the Executive Committee are women
• 36% of our total partner promotions have been women over the last five years
• 30% of our Office Managing Partners are women
• Numerous individual women lawyers earned top rankings in Best Lawyers, Chambers, IFLR1000, and The Legal 500 based on client feedback

In celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, The Women’s Strategy Committee is excited to present the following events:

In our U.S. offices, “Celebrating International Women’s Day: Featuring Shirin Neshat, award-winning Iranian American artist and filmmaker” webinar on March 8. A conversation with associate Narges Kahvazadeh and visual artist Shirin Neshat. Shirin’s critically acclaimed art aims to raise issues of power, religion, race, gender, and the relationship between the past and present, the Occident and Orient, and individuality and collectivity through the lens of her personal experiences as an Iranian woman living in exile.

Also in our U.S. offices, “Celebrating Women’s History Month: Featuring Reshma Saujani, bestselling author and founder of Girls Who Code” webinar on March 14. A conversation with of counsel Meghan Poon and Reshma Saujani, bestselling author, activist, and the founder of Girls Who Code and Moms First. Reshma has spent more than a decade building movements to fight for women and girls’ economic empowerment, working to close the gender gap in the tech sector, and most recently, advocating for policies to support mothers impacted by the pandemic.

In our European offices, International Women’s Day will be celebrated both locally and with a webinar on March 16, “#EmbraceEquity: How to Win Your Way in Work & Life”, featuring Dr. Pippa Grange. Dr. Grange is an applied psychologist, author, podcaster, motivational leadership speaker, and former head of Head of People and Team Development at The Football Association.  Leveraging insights gained from her international work as a culture coach, Dr. Grange will discuss the impact of fear on wellbeing and diversity, equity, and inclusion challenges, sharing how to fear less, win, and succeed every day through connections, elevating others, and motivational purpose.

In our Asia offices, “International Women’s Day 2023: #EmbraceEquity: Intersectionality in the Workplace” webinar on March 9. Partner Marcia Ellis will moderate a panel discussing intersectionality in the workplace and share perspectives on how businesses in Asia can broaden the application of their D&I policies and programs to cover a wider range of diversity, including race, ethnicity, socio-economic class, sexual orientation, and disability. We welcome guest speakers Puja Kapai Paryank, Associate Professor of law, and Convenor, Women’s Studies Research Center, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong; Preet Grewal, a leader in diversity, inclusion, and workplace cultural transformation in Asia; Zainab Patel, Head of Diversity and Inclusion, India, Pernod Ricard; and Aramide Fields, Associate General Counsel, Autoliv Asia, and Executive Member, Women in Law Japan.

In honor of International Women’s Day, The Morrison & Foerster Foundation and its charitable giving programs in Europe are donating more than $30,000 to several nonprofit organizations serving women, including Tahirih Justice Center, a pro bono partner of the Firm which provides and facilitates immigration assistance in the United States to survivors fleeing gender-based violence; Asian University for Women Support Foundation, which supports comprehensive education to promising young women from rural, poor, and marginalized populations in Asia and the Middle East; AllBright Siftung, which works to promote more women and diversity in executive business positions around the world; and Was Wir Tun, the German chapter of Women for Women International, which supports women survivors of war in rebuilding their lives.

This year, in  celebration of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day, we are highlighting  the women of our 2023 partner class on our MoFo+ blog and in our social media posts and encourage you to share this content on your own social media accounts.