Pittsburgh – Global law firm K&L Gates LLP and national non-profit Ms. JD are launching the inaugural K&L Gates Pathway to Success business training program to aid the firm’s women associates in building their careers. The 12-week program will include a cohort of more than 30 high-achieving K&L Gates women associates, including women of color, identified by the managing partners of their respective offices across the firm’s United States offices. This is an entirely bespoke and unique program developed between K&L Gates and Ms. JD specifically to focus on business and career development and client engagement.
 
Pallavi Mehta Wahi, K&L Gates’ co-managing partner, United States, and chair of the firm’s global Diversity Committee, commented: “We’re incredibly excited to partner with Ms. JD on this offering. The K&L Gates Pathway to Success program is the latest step the firm has taken in our commitment to boosting the careers of women and women of color lawyers within our firm and across the legal industry.”
 
“This business training program will greatly benefit women and women of color lawyers working to take their careers to the next level,” said Cindy Ohlenforst, a Dallas tax partner and chair of K&L Gates’ global Women in the Profession committee. “The K&L Gates Pathway to Success program will benefit not only the lawyers in this inaugural class which starts this week but also other lawyers in our firm as well as our clients.”
 
The Pathway to Success program offers women associates, including women of color, tools to further refine their skills in business development, personal branding, and cultivating and managing client relationships. The program will also feature opportunities for firm associates to engage in live discussions with panels of diverse general counsel from multiple Fortune 500 companies invested in the growth and success of women lawyers. 

“Our goal is to provide diverse women associates access to critical resources, development opportunities, and insights to magnify their business development capacity on their path to partnership,” said Danielle Allison, Chief Executive Officer at Ms. JD. “We are excited to partner with K&L Gates and support their commitment to elevating women to the partnership ranks within their firm.”
 
K&L Gates is committed to creating a global culture in which all firm personnel have ongoing opportunities for growth and development, resulting in a motivated, engaged, and innovative workforce. The firm offers a range of interesting formal and informal development opportunities throughout K&L Gates’ worldwide offices for both lawyers and allied professionals, including having recently launched a pilot program of “stay interviews” with associates and an immersive mini-MBA program designed to assist its junior lawyers in better understanding key business and financial concepts.
 
Ms. JD is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization dedicated to the success of aspiring and early career women lawyers. It was founded at Stanford Law School in 2006 by a group of female law students from Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley), Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU, Stanford, UCLA, UT Austin, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and Yale. Today, Ms. JD is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of law students and recent graduates and supported by a small group of independent contractors.