<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Monotype Corsiva";
panose-1:3 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1;}
@font-face
{font-family:Georgia;
panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#0563C1;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:#954F72;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal">Congratulations to our very own Annamarie Bondi-Stoddard who is featured in this weeks issue of Long Island Business News in an article on female attorneys in law firms.
<a href="https://libn.com/2018/03/12/firm-believers/">https://libn.com/2018/03/12/firm-believers/</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:19.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">Firm believers</span><span style="font-size:19.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid #F2F2F2 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 4.0pt 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border:none;padding:0in"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#AAAAAA;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in">By:
<a href="https://libn.com/author/bernadettestarzee/"><span style="color:#AAAAAA">Bernadette Starzee
</span></a>March 12, 2018</span><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#AAAAAA">
</span><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#AAAAAA;border:none windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in"><a href="https://libn.com/2018/03/12/firm-believers/#respond"><span style="color:#AAAAAA">0</span></a></span><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#AAAAAA">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Law firms see a high attrition rate among women attorneys, with many leaving for legal positions in the corporate or government sectors
as they progress in their careers. While 46 percent of law firm associates are women, just 30 percent of non-equity partners and 19 percent of equity partners are women, according to a 2017 report by the National Association of Women Lawyers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">While some women attorneys who are juggling family and career responsibilities take an alternate route in search of better work/life balance,
there are those who have chosen to stay with their law firms. LIBN spoke with seven women attorneys who have risen to the top of their professions on the law firm side about why they have stayed the course. While these leading lawyers may have considered other
options over the years, especially when their children were young, they stayed on the firm side for a variety of reasons, including loyalty to their firm and colleagues, good compensation, a shortage of good in-house opportunities on Long Island, a deep affinity
for their practice areas and a love of the work itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">When she discovered she was pregnant the day before law school graduation, Lesley Reardon at first opted for a position with West Publishing,
a legal publishing company, figuring it would afford good work/life balance. However, an attorney for whom she had clerked quickly came recruiting, and she wound up joining Garden City law firm Rosenberg Calica & Birney, where, 23 years later, she is a partner.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Reardon has stayed with the firm for the long haul for a number of reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“It’s part loyalty; the firm recruited me and has been good to me, and [senior partner] Ron Rosenberg has been an incredible mentor,” she
said. “When your kids are young, you think about leaving, but the money was good – it was like golden handcuffs. And the cases were very interesting.” A commercial litigator, she often litigates disputes between the principals of family-owned businesses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Judi Abbott Curry, a member in the Uniondale office of Harris Beach, also spoke of “golden handcuffs” keeping her in the firm, especially
in the early days.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“I was the primary breadwinner in my household; my husband is a teacher, and he stayed home with the kids until they were age 5, and then
he worked a half-mile from home, so I had that support,” she said. Over the years, the attorney, who co-leads the firm’s medical and life sciences industry team, considered going in-house to a client, but it would probably have meant leaving Long Island, which
she didn’t want to do. “Many of the drug companies are in Northern California or New Jersey,” she noted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Meanwhile Curry grew in stature in the firm, developing her expertise in certain pharmaceutical and medical device categories. “As a woman
in the department, I was given all the cases that had<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:13.5pt;background:#F1F1F1">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><img border="0" width="266" height="300" style="width:2.7708in;height:3.125in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D3B9F6.FEDE47F0" alt="ANNAMARIE BONDI-STODDARD: Defending plaintiffs in medical negligence cases is ‘very rewarding.’ || Photo by Bob Giglione"></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="mso-margin-top-alt:3.75pt;margin-right:3.75pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:18.75pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:13.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#888888">ANNAMARIE BONDI-STODDARD: Defending plaintiffs in medical negligence cases is ‘very rewarding.’ || Photo by Bob Giglione<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">to do with women’s products or product affecting women, such as contraceptives or pharmaceuticals alleged to have caused birth defects
in pregnant women,” she said. Curry went on to become the first woman named to the firm-wide management committee.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Loyalty was a big factor for Jennifer Hurley McGay, an attorney who started her career in Manhattan with a “group of attorneys that I really
liked.” She was part of a close-knit business litigation group that moved around to a couple of firms and stayed together through mergers and acquisitions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“I thought about in-house positions when my kids were little, but I liked the people I worked with, and I never had time to go on interviews
anyway,” McGay said. “It never seemed like a good time to leave, and then I became an equity partner.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">The group started to disband in recent years and McGay decided to make a move – but to another law firm, this one on Long Island. She joined
Lewis Johs Avallone Aviles in Islandia as a partner last year.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“I knew this firm for 20 years and it was the first one I looked at when I thought about coming out to Long Island,” McGay said. “It was
a big change, but going the firm route was what I knew, as opposed to the in-house or government routes. I find the work exciting. I enjoy writing my own briefs and arguing my own cases, and the collegial nature of a law firm.” She also doubted in-house positions
in her practice area would be overly flexible in terms of work/life balance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Katy Cole, a partner at Farrell Fritz in Uniondale, describes herself as a Type A personality.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:13.5pt;background:#F1F1F1">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><img border="0" width="225" height="300" style="width:2.3437in;height:3.125in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D3B9F6.FEDE47F0" alt="KATY COLE: ‘I like being busy and I like being challenged.’ || Photo by Jim Lennon"></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="mso-margin-top-alt:3.75pt;margin-right:18.75pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:3.75pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:13.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#888888">KATY COLE: ‘I like being busy and I like being challenged.’ || Photo by Jim Lennon<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“I like being busy and I like being challenged,” she said. She enjoys the “contentment and security” of her position at Farrell Fritz,
where she has worked for nine years and has developed deep expertise in commercial litigation and e-discovery.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">While she was on maternity leave from Lake Success-based Pegalis & Erickson in the mid-1980s, Annamarie Bondi-Stoddard was asked to move
up to the role of managing attorney. It wasn’t easy in the early days – her husband worked in the restaurant business and he had long hours – but she made it work. The money was good, and “the work is very rewarding,” said Bondi-Stoddard, who is managing partner
of the firm today and continues to represents plaintiffs in medical negligence cases. Her firm does not get paid until the case is successfully settled, and that can take several years. “The people we represent are hurting and we provide a lot of handholding,”
she said. “And when we are able to help them and make their lives better, it’s very rewarding.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Loyalty to the firm was a big reason that Jennifer Hillman has stayed the course at Ruskin Moscou Faltischek in Uniondale, where she is
a partner who concentrates her practice in trusts and estates litigation. “I feel the firm and practice group have allowed me good work/life balance,” she said, adding that she finds her practice area highly interesting and collegial.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“It’s a small group; I know all my adversaries,” she said. “We might fight it out in court, but then we’ll say, ‘I’ll give you a ride home.’”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Attorney Ana Shields also has a deep interest in her practice area – employment law – which she practices as a principal in the Melville
office of national law firm Jackson Lewis.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:13.5pt;background:#F1F1F1">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><img border="0" width="224" height="300" style="width:2.3333in;height:3.125in" id="Picture_x0020_3" src="cid:image003.jpg@01D3B9F6.FEDE47F0" alt="JENNIFER HILLMAN: She finds the trusts and estates practice area to be highly interesting and collegial."></span><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="mso-margin-top-alt:3.75pt;margin-right:3.75pt;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:18.75pt;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:13.5pt">
<span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#888888">JENNIFER HILLMAN: She finds the trusts and estates practice area to be highly interesting and collegial.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“I was lucky enough to pick a firm where I feel supported, and I work with great people – we have all come up together,” she said. “I have
the resources and backing from the firm to excel in my practice. I like my clients and I like litigation.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">As an attorney in a law firm, “you are value-added – a profit center,” she added. “Attorneys who work in-house at a company are a cost
center, and in recent years there has been increasing pressure on budgets and the need to demonstrate their value.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">At the end of the day, these law firm veterans are happy in their work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:15.75pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">“I enjoy what I do,” Hillman said. “I don’t know if I would have the opportunity to practice law the same way elsewhere.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Georgia",serif;color:#333333">Tagged with:
<a href="https://libn.com/tag/law/"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;color:#555555;text-transform:uppercase;border:solid #DEDEDE 1.0pt;padding:2.0pt">Law</span></a>
<a href="https://libn.com/tag/law-firms/"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;color:#555555;text-transform:uppercase;border:solid #DEDEDE 1.0pt;padding:2.0pt">law firms</span></a>
<a href="https://libn.com/tag/women-in-law/"><span style="font-size:7.5pt;color:#555555;text-transform:uppercase;border:solid #DEDEDE 1.0pt;padding:2.0pt">women in law</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Monotype Corsiva";color:#1F4E79">Lisa B. Waterman</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Garibaldi Group<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Certified Public Accountants * Financial & Management Consultants</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">990 Stewart Avenue-Fifth Floor</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Garden City, NY 11530</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">516-288-7400 x102</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Cell: 516-532-2299</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><a href="mailto:lisa@garibaldicpas.com"><span style="color:#0563C1">lisa@garibaldicpas.com</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">twitter: @ilawinc</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>