The Road to the Top
The Road to the Top
Shirin Tang, Morrison & Foerster’s managing partner in Singapore, recently spoke to Asian Legal Business for an article on female lawyers in leadership positions.
The article covers Shirin’s rise to a management position at the firm, which ended up being a natural next step, and for which she was encouraged by “the support and sponsorship of [the] firm’s senior management.” She also credits professional sponsorship throughout her career as playing a significant role in her success.
“The sponsorship I have received throughout my career has helped me get where I am today,” she said. “While I have been fortunate to have had both great mentors and sponsors, sponsorship is different from mentorship. In our industry, a sponsor is frequently a partner who actively advances the career of an associate or junior partner within the firm. It is about someone of seniority believing in you and being willing to take a bet on you, offer you stretch assignments and advocate for you when you are not in the room.”
Shirin also spoke about the MoFo policies “designed to help retention and the development and promotion of women lawyers.” “Supporting talented women to fulfill their potential matters because diverse teams are stronger teams,” Shirin said, adding to enable more female leadership across the board, mechanisms such as “encouraging sponsorship of high potential females” can make a significant difference.