The Daily Report recognized DEF’s four newly elected partners, who all happen to be women. Already partner, Jennifer Parrott, has been promoted to equity partner, while Vivian Fisher, Whitney Lay Greene and Melody Kiella have been announced as partners.
The Daily Report article highlights our firm’s first ever partnership class composed of all women. “Drew Eckl’s partnership did not overtly aim to elect an all-female class, said the Atlanta firm’s managing partner, Joe Chancey, but it does point to an increased focus, as at many firms, on supporting women lawyers. ‘We do a good job hiring really talented lawyers, but, like most in the industry, we’ve seen more attrition than we’d like—and especially with our senior female associates,’ he said. ‘We definitely identified that we wanted to do a better job of providing support for our women lawyers,’ he said.”
The article goes on to highlight Jennifer Parrott’s non-traditional path to partnership. Parrott took a 7-year hiatus early in her career to raise her daughter Hannah, now 13. “When Parrott was ready to return to law in 2013, she didn’t think a partnership-track job was an option after her long hiatus. She called the Drew Eckl partner she’d worked under, Bruce Taylor, for a job reference. He encouraged her to come back instead. ‘Drew Eckl let me on-ramp before on-ramping was a thing, to ease my way back into practicing,’ Parrott said.”