Fish's Michael Florey Wins Second Place at Women in Law Hackathon

The inaugural Women in Law Hackathon, an event designed to advance women in the legal profession, wrapped up on June 24 at Stanford Law School. Principal Michael Florey and his team, Team 4, won second place with their pitch that took on the challenge of helping women attain the critical "client relationship manager" role that drives power and success within law firms. They recognized the lack of economic power and influence currently held by women, examined the service partner role and feeling of futility it engenders, and concluded there is a clear need for women to gain more billing and relationship credit within their firms. Team 4's pitch for more strategic client relationship-building and succession-planning for women at law firms earned them a second place win. Team 4 chose to donate its $7,500 winnings to the UT Center for Women in Law.

Created by the Diversity Lab in partnership with Stanford Law School and Bloomberg Law, the "Shark Tank style" pitch competition brought together nine teams of six partners from AmLaw 200 firms. These teams worked together for six months to propose a plan on nurturing the advancement and retention of women lawyers in law firms. On June 24, the teams presented their ideas to a panel of judges, including top in-house counsel of major companies, at Stanford Law School, competing for prize money to donate to a charity of their choice.