KIRSTEN SCHUBERT ATTORNEY OF THE MONTH WOMEN 2019 Special Issue Law INTABLE OF Contents 10 5 I Want to be Counted: MWL’s Gender Data Project By Amy Taber 9 Anne Quincy The Long View on Government Benefits 10 Kirsten Schubert Attorney of the Month 15 Melissa Nilsson Delivering Clear Solutions to Complex Problems 16 Adine S. Momoh Moving Ahead With Purpose 18 Allison Maxim A Global Approach to Family Law By H. K. Wilson 20 Cozen O’Connor Women in Leadership 24 Manage by Leading: A Marketing Guide for Future Leaders By Terrie S. Wheeler, MBC 26 U.S. Patent Applications – Our Need for Speed By Z. Peter Sawicki and James L. Young SPECIAL SECTIONS 28 Talk of the Town 31 Upcoming Events AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 3Hello Legal community of Minnesota, I have some very exciting news to share, after 8 years of publishing Attorney at Law Magazine Minnesota, we have brought on a new editor and publisher to lead us into the next phase of growth. I am proud of what we have built and look forward to taking Attorney At Law maga- zine to the next level. After searching for the right person, I would like to introduce you to David Sea- well, the new publisher of Attorney At Law! David brings extensive knowledge of the legal industry and our le- gal community in Minnesota. Don’t hesitate to reach out to Dave to learn more about the vision, opportunities and exciting changes that will be coming! Troy Anderson I am thrilled to join forces with Troy Anderson in publishing Attorney at Law Magazine. As we present to you this annual Women in Law special issue, I reflect on the good fortune I’ve had being surround- ed by strong women throughout my life – my wife and our two young adult daughters who are advancing through their educa- tions; my mother and paternal grandmoth- er who both supported their young families when widowed far too early; and my ma- ternal grandmother who worked along side my grandfather in building a successful business during the Great Depression. The Women in Law special issue shares the stories of local re- spected women attorneys and law firms that are providing qual- ity legal services to the market. Those featured in this issue have remarkable backgrounds, bringing much more than legal expertise to their practices. It is also clear that the individuals are well sup- ported by their firms, provided with opportunities, mentoring and support. I wish to thank those who participated, and I hope their stories energize all who practice law. I’ve been engaged with the Minnesota legal community for the past 16 years and have called Minnesota home for my entire life. As I take the lead in publishing Attorney at Law Magazine, with Troy’s assistance, I’m eager to hear from you any thoughts on how Attorney at Law Magazine continue to serve the market, delivering quality content in a visually appealing format. Our next special issue, Next Generation, will publish in the spring. This represents a great opportunity to reveal the accom- plishments and stories of those emerging young attorneys who are realizing great potential. If you would like more information about participating in this special issue, or how to be involved in next year’s Women in Law issue, please give me a call. Thanks for reading! Dave Seawell 763-742-2805 DSEAWELL@ATTORNEYATLAWMAGAZINE.COM FROM THE Publisher Attorney at Law Magazine is published by: Target Market Media Publications Inc. Troy Anderson PRESIDENT & CEO OF ANDERSON MEDIA INC. EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER/ EDITOR IN CHIEF, ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE Howard LaGraffe VICE PRESIDENT Caitlin Keniston EDITOR Jaqueline Dávila GRAPHIC DESIGN Z. Peter Sawicki James L. Young CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Amy Taber Terrie Wheeler Hailey K. Wilson CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Eclipse Productions PHOTOGRAPHY Copyright ©2019, Target Market Media all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited. Advertising rates on request. Bulk third class (standard) mail. Although every precaution is taken to ensure accuracy of published materials, Attorney at Law Magazine & Target Market Media cannot be held responsible for opinions expressed or facts supplied by authors. Corporate Office : 5828 North 7th Street, Suite 200 Phoenix, AZ 85014 Phone (480) 219-9716 www.tmmpublications.com • info@tmmpublications.com TARGET MARKET MEDIA TARGETMARKETMEDIA Northern Alabama | Atlanta | Chicago | Dallas | Ft. Lauderdale Jacksonville | Los Angeles | Miami | Minnesota North Carolina Triangle | Ohio | Philadelphia | Phoenix | San Antonio Salt Lake City | Middle Tennessee | Washington D.C. ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · MINNESOTA · V OL. 8 NO. 9 4The MWL Gender Data Project has been a key area of focus for Minnesota Women Lawyers (MWL) for nearly a decade. As a member organization dedicated to advanc- ing the success of women attorneys, MWL works to identify and address gender in- equities across the community. In doing so, however, MWL’s work was substantially limited by the lack of demographic data specific to the Minnesota legal profession. This obstacle first moved to the forefront in 2010 when then-MWL President Judge Elizabeth Cutter established the MWL Parity Taskforce to determine the status of women lawyers in Minnesota, including the barriers to parity and the most effective methods to overcome those barriers. In an effort to establish a baseline of women lawyers in Minnesota, MWL quickly learned that the number of women practicing law in Minnesota was unknown. Demographic data, including gender, was not collected for lawyers registered in the state. Early in its work, in an effort to better gauge the scope of attorney demographic data collec- tion practices across the country and identify possible best practices models, MWL engaged in an extensive review of such practices in all 50 states. MWL’s 50-State Report, finalized in the summer of 2012, identified a wide range of data collection practices across the country and provided valuable direction for the organization’s future efforts. I Want to be Counted: MWL’s Gender Data Project BY AMY TABER AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 5In spring 2011, MWL President Cutter pre- sented remarks about the ongoing work of the Parity Taskforce at MWL’s Annual Judges’ Dinner. Given the lack of demographic data, she mentioned that no one knew how many women attorneys were practicing in Minne- sota. Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, who was in attendance at the Judges Dinner that evening, took note and took action. Within two weeks of the event, Chief Justice Gildea, with the support of other Minnesota Supreme Court members, autho- rized a change to the Minnesota’s attorney registration form, which allowed the initial collection of demographic data. Subsequently, the State of Minnesota began formally collecting demographic data in the fall of 2011, allowing attorneys to in- dicate gender on their annual attorney regis- tration form voluntarily. A complete year of data first became available in the fall of 2012. At that time, out of a total of 21,007 attorneys authorized to practice in Minnesota (and listing “Minnesota” as their registration ad- dress), 10,087 indicated either male (5,921) or female (4,166) on their registration form. Likely due to the newness of the question, as well as the question positioning on the actual form, more than half of these attorneys either left the question blank or checked that they “preferred not to answer.” Clearly, this initial data was not statistically significant. However, it was a tremendously important first step in Minnesota’s data collection efforts. In the spring of 2013, MWL launched its “I Want To Be Counted” campaign to encourage attorneys to complete the gender demograph- ic question on their attorney registration form. In creating this initiative, MWL reached out across the legal community, not only ask- ing attorneys to complete the demographic question, but also providing information as to why comprehensive demographic data was so important. During the following years of the State’s data collection, the number of people “check- ing the box” continued to increase, but the an- nual results still did not provide enough of a response to conduct a statistically significant analysis. As a result, MWL contracted with the University of Minnesota (UMN) in the fall of 2014 to conduct a gender classification project, with the intent of securing the desired demographic data. Utilizing U.S. Census data as its basis, and comparing it to a list of attorneys registered in Minnesota, the UMN analysis tallied whether each first name was gendered male or female (The study’s findings and analyses are limited to these database name-assignment gener- alizations. MWL recognized that this meth- odology did not provide for an individual to specify one’s own gender classification, and subsequently could not take into account an individual’s self-selected gender identity). In May 2015, MWL was pleased to publish its first Gender Data Report. Given the UMN analysis, of the 29,091 attorneys licensed to practice in the State of Minnesota at that time, 99.7% were able to be classified for purposes of this research. The analysis found that of that 99.7%, 63% of the lawyers registered in Min- nesota were male and 37% were female. For the first time in the state’s history, this study provided a baseline number of women attor- neys registered in the State of Minnesota. Al- though further data points available for analy- sis were limited, the 2015 MWL Gender Data Report was a monumental step in providing baseline data on the demographic makeup of the Minnesota legal community and further highlighted the need for, and value of, con- tinuing data collection. With building support for additional data collection, advocated by MWL, other affinity bar associations and across the bar commu- nity, the Minnesota Lawyer Registration Office began collecting race/ethnicity demographic information in addition to gender data in Janu- ary 2016. Furthermore, a response to the de- mographic questions was now mandatory, and a “choose not to answer” option was also added to both questions. As a result, for the first time in its 2016 Annual Report of the Minnesota Judicial Branch, the Court provided statisti- cally significant demographic data. This 2016 Annual Report marked another important milestone in the effort to better understand the make-up of the Minnesota legal community. Furthermore, the Court’s data closely reflected the data collected by MWL in its 2015 Gender Data Report released the year before, providing an even more accurate baseline snapshot. MWL further recognizes the many leaders and volunteers who made this decade-long effort possible, including Judge Elizabeth Cutter, Adine Momoh, Judge Kathleen Sanberg and Kate Westad. ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · MINNESOTA · V OL. 8 NO. 9 6It is MWL’s mission to advance the success of women attorneys and strive for a just society. In 2018, to further gauge trends within the Minnesota legal profession and to establish a long-term demographic baseline, MWL once again collaborated with the Univer- sity of Minnesota to repeat its gender classification study. In February 2019, MWL released its MWL Gender Data Project Follow-Up Report. The results of the project found that of the 33,580 attorneys licensed to practice in the State of Minnesota at that time, 99.1% were able to be clas- sified for purposes of this research. The analysis found that of the 99.1%, 61% of the lawyers registered in Minnesota were male and 39% were female. This 2018 result com- pared to MWL’s 2015 Report where 63% of the lawyers registered in Minnesota were male and 37% were female. Notably, in the summary of its 2019 Report, MWL rec- ognized that it was not likely to conduct its gender classifi- cation study again. Certainly, the 2015 Report was ground- breaking in providing the first-ever baseline number of female attorneys in the State of Minnesota, and the 2019 Follow-Up Report helped to reinforce and re-evaluate those original findings. However, MWL also recognized that the data available to MWL for its gender classifica- tion analysis presented serious limitations, given it did not include many variables that would assist in the further de- termination of parity across the profession. Furthermore, the baseline data was now duplicative of the data gratefully being released each year in the Annual Report of the Min- nesota Judicial Branch. Additionally, MWL acknowledged the important and evolving conversation about gender in our society, thereby making the binary male/female clas- sification reflected in its study quite limiting. As MWL concluded its 2019 Report, the organization encouraged further comprehensive data collection by the State of Minnesota, and particularly advocated for a cross- comparison of the gender and race/ethnicity data cur- rently being collected on the Minnesota attorney registra- tion form. This cross-comparison would provide, for the first time, a demographic understanding of the number of women of color attorneys in our legal community. In September 2019, with the release of the 2018 Annual Report of the Minnesota Judicial Branch, MWL was very pleased to learn that the Court’s report to the community did include a cross-comparison of gender and race/eth- nicity with its attorney demographic data. For the first time, statistics reflected the number of women lawyers by race and ethnicity in the State of Minnesota. This cross- comparison is another significant data milestone, particu- larly as the legal community collectively works to better understand the make-up, unique experience, and poten- tial barriers for women of color attorneys in Minnesota’s legal profession. However, more work is still necessary as nearly 3,000 attorneys chose not to answer the race/eth- nicity question in 2018. If those numbers are reassigned to any number of specific race/ethnicity categories, that could provide useful information for future analysis. MWL is grateful to the Minnesota Supreme Court for its collection and reporting of both gender and race/ethnic- ity demographic data as part of its Annual Report of the Minnesota Judicial Branch. MWL further recognizes the many leaders and volunteers who made this decade-long effort possible, including Judge Elizabeth Cutter, Adine Momoh, Judge Kathleen Sanberg and Kate Westad. MWL has also been honored to partner with affinity bars and the greater legal community in advocating for collection of this important demographic data. We recognize that comprehensive and long-term data collection and analy- sis is vital to the strength of the legal profession. MWL continues to advocate for additional data on practice type, employment titles or positions, employment status (full- or part-time) and compensation, as well as disability and LGBTQ status. It is only through the continued collection of comprehensive data that we can better answer impor- tant questions related to parity within the legal profession. Why is pay equity an issue? Why are some women leaving the profession or leaving certain types of jobs in the legal profession at a much higher rate than men? What addi- tional challenges might exist for attorneys who are women of color, LGBTQ+ or persons with disabilities? Clearly, our work continues. It is MWL’s mission to advance the success of women attorneys and strive for a just society. To that end, we pro- vide leadership, professional development, networking and mentoring opportunities for women attorneys at all levels. Furthermore, MWL is excited by these efforts to “count” the number of women in Minnesota’s legal profes- sion and to better understand what it will take to achieve not only parity, but more importantly, equity for all wom- en attorneys. We look forward to continuing our efforts where change is needed and advocating for all women in Minnesota’s legal profession. AMY TABER, 2019-2020 MWL PRESIDENT, IS AN EMPLOYMENT & LITIGATION SENIOR LEGAL COUNSEL AT PRIME THERAPEUTICS. AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 7MMAADDEELL PPAA Trial Lawyers | Business Litigation | Government Investigations Criminal Defense | Internal Investigations MMAADDEELLLLAAWW..CCOOMM 612.605.0630 We got hustle though, ambition, flow, inside our DNA. ATTORNEY AT LAW MAGAZINE · MINNESOTA · V OL. 8 NO. 9 8Anne Quincy, Supervising Attorney of Legal Aid’s Government Benefits unit, was raised by public school teachers who told their children to pick a ca- reer path that would be useful and helpful to others. Quin- cy decided as an undergraduate to go into public service law and chose Loyola University School of Law because it had a low-income legal clinic. Quincy started her career with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid in 1994 and joined the Government Benefits unit in 1996. She has represented Social Security Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Disability Insurance (SSDI) claimants and welfare and Medical Assistance beneficia- ries in administrative appeals and individual and class ac- tions in state and federal courts. In 2013, she was recog- nized for excellence in service with the Hennepin County Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico award. AALM: Why did you choose a career in benefits law? Quincy: I first got interested in benefits because my brother was receiving SSI and I wanted to understand how that worked. Benefits law is not so much about winning or losing. It’s about helping people get the support they need. AALM: Davis v. Doth was your first class action. Can you tell us a bit about that? Quincy: Federal statues governing welfare changed drastically in 1996 when Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). Minnesota established durational residency requirements that bore some resemblance to today’s anti- immigration fervor, only this was directed at residents from different states. One of my roles on our litigation team was to work directly with those clients. I explained the paperwork to them, walked them through the deposi- tions, and made sure their interests and concerns were at the forefront of our efforts. AALM: You’ve been busy over the past 18 months with the federal government’s changes to immigration rules and public charge. How has that affected Legal Aid’s cli- ents? Quincy: News about change to the public charge rules have been really tough on the immigrant population. The actual proposed change to the law (currently under legal challenge by 18 states and others) applies to a very small group of people, but the corrosive fear generated by the rumors are threatening people’s dreams for themselves and their children. Even U.S. citizens are afraid they’ll get deported if their kids get healthcare or reduced rate school lunches. I’m fighting against that fear. It’s my mission to go out and tell people – our clients, their advocates, and other community partners – what the law actually says, and to help them understand their rights and protections under the law. AALM: What’s your long view on these changes to pub- lic benefits? Quincy: I’ve seen so many changes over the trajectory of my career, and I remind our partners and other com- munity advocates that we’ll get through it. We weathered PRWORA, and we fought back. We have laws, we have courts, and we have the Constitution. When a law is un- just, we challenge it, and eventually we win. Meanwhile, we do our best to mitigate the damage. AALM: What’s your favorite part of your job? Quincy: The difficult truth is, terrible things happen in people’s lives. They get sick, their loved ones die, they suffer all manner of tragedy. I can’t fix that. I can’t make everything right. But I can look at their situation, and I can look at the benefits available to them by law, and I can walk them through the process. I can tell them this one piece is going to be okay. Sometimes, a client says to me, “Thank you. Now I can sleep.” That’s what I’m working for. ANNE QUINCY The Long View on Government Benefits AttorneyAtLawMagazine.com 9Next >