Law360 Interviews “Female Powerbrokers” Susan Serota and Elizabeth Moeller

The New York-based Serota leads Pillsbury's executive compensation and benefits practice. She is also past chair of the American Bar Association Section of Taxation.

Explaining how she broke into what many consider to be an old boys’ network, Serota said, “I first worked at a tax boutique firm in Washington, D.C., and became a specialist in pension law when the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 was enacted. There really wasn’t an ‘old boys’ network’ as this was a very new law and most of the tax partners in the large Washington and New York law firms did not want to do pension work…. Since I had pension experience, it turned out that I was very much in demand.”

For Serota, the biggest challenge of being a woman at a senior level within a law firm is to find the time to mentor young women associates and to instill in them not only the desire to be a top lawyer at the firm but also encourage them to balance their personal lives at the same time.

Moeller is the Washington, D.C.-based head of Pillsbury’s Government Law & Strategies practice.

When asked what advice should would give to an aspiring female attorney, Moeller said, “The hardest part can be knowing what you want. I encourage more junior attorneys, male and female, to be themselves. Trust their instincts. Make a decision. Get in the room. And go for it!”

“I view challenges for all at the senior level to be similar. Successful practice comes down to becoming your clients’ trusted adviser, ideally identifying what keeps them up at night — or what should — and solving their problems,” she added. “Many of our clients are based outside of the U.S. in disparate time zones. As the mother of two young children, the balancing act can be difficult. I think all parents, especially the growing ‘sandwich generation,’ share this challenge. For now, we are 24/7.”