Linda Bray Chanow

Biography

Linda Chanow is the Executive Director of the Center for Women in Law (CWIL) at TexasLaw, the only academic center dedicated solely to the advancement of women in the legal profession. 

Linda is a nationally recognized authority on women’s leadership and diversity. She has authored or co-authored numerous reports, including Power Plays that Matter, Power for Change; Power in Law; Reduced Hours, Full Success: Part-Time Partners in U.S. Law Firms, 21 Hastings Women’s L.J. 223 (2010); Actions for Advancing Women Into Law Firm Leadership: Report of the National Association of Women Lawyers National Leadership Summit (2008); and Creating Pathways to Success: Advancing and Retaining Women in Today’s Law Firms (2006)(chaired Reporters’ Committee). Linda currently serves as a member of the Research Advisory Council for the American Bar Association (ABA) Presidential Initiative on Achieving Long-Term Careers for Women in Law. She previously co-chaired the ABA Toolkit for Gender Equity in Partner Compensation, an initiative of the ABA Presidential Task Force on Gender Equity, and is a liaison to the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. Linda served as a Team Advisor for the first Women in Law Hackathon and as a member of the advisory board for the Bexar County Women’s Bar Foundation LEAD Academy.

At CWIL, Linda convenes leaders and top academics for CWIL’s biennial Women’s Power Summit on Law and LeadershipTM, one of the most significant gatherings of women attorneys in the country. She facilitates the Consortium for Advancing Women Lawyers, a community of national thought-leaders that encourages members to work together to accelerate the advancement of women lawyers. Linda also designs and directs extensive educational programming for practitioners and students and teaches a course at Texas Law that explores the gap between the number of women law school graduates and the number of women who occupy leadership positions in the legal profession. While under her leadership, CWIL has been quoted or featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, U.S. News & World Report, The Austin-American Statesman, Dallas Morning News, The American Lawyer, The Texas Lawyer, ABA Journal, The Texas Lawbook, Bloomberg, HBR Blog Network, Forbes, ForbesWoman, Postcards (Fortune). 

Prior to joining CWIL, Linda was an Assistant Director of the Project for Attorney Retention, an initiative of the Center for WorkLife Law of the University of California Hastings College of the Law. While at PAR, Linda conducted research regarding flexible work schedules, assessed law firm and law department policies on flexible work schedules, and provided implementation guidance to legal institutions. Linda has also designed and conducted training workshops for law firm leaders, supervisors, and lawyers on a variety of topics, including identifying and correcting gender bias, sustaining work-life integration, working a flexible work schedule, and managing attorneys on flexible work schedules.

The Texas Minority Counsel Program recently honored Linda with the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award and Lawdragon named her one of the 100 Leading Legal Consultants and Strategists for 2018, 2017, and 2016. In 2013, the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association presented her with the 2013 Advancement of Women Award and she was selected to be one of two University of Texas professors to participate in Leadership Women that year. Linda is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the Dell Medical School Society for Health & Women. She served on the Board of Directors of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia (Term 2007-10) and co-chaired its Initiative on Advancement and Retention of Women.  Linda began her legal career as a commercial litigator at WilmerHale in Washington, D.C. after graduating magna cum laude from American University’s Washington College of Law in 1999.  While in law school, Linda focused on employment law and worked with Distinguished Professor of Law Joan C. Williams on the development of her book, UnBending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It.