Linda Bray Chanow

Biography

Linda Chanow is a lawyer, non-profit executive, professor, and nationally-recognized authority on women lawyers with more than 20 years of experience researching and writing on women’s leadership, diversity, and flexibility programs.  Linda is well-known for uniting stakeholders and inspiring action.  Her renowned educational programs have empowered hundreds of women nationally to achieve fulfilling careers and significant leadership posts in their respective firms, corporations, and associations. For nearly a decade, Linda led the Center for Women in Law at Texas Law, where she grew its influence nationally and increased revenues by more than 300%. 

Linda has substantial experience working with a wide array of stakeholders, including CEOs, general counsel, chairs of global law firms, judges, deans and government officials.  Linda led all aspects of the Women’s Power Summit on Law and LeadershipTM, a national conference that convenes chairs of global law firms, CEOs, general counsel, judges, law school deans, and government officials with the goal of moving women into positions of power and influence. Under her leadership, the Women’s Power Summit™ grew to be one of the most sought-after invitations in the national legal community. Linda also built and directed the Consortium for Advancing Women Lawyers, the leading convocation of advocates of women lawyers in the profession that gathers every year in New York City to exchange ideas and share resources.

Linda is a sought-after speaker who has presented to hundreds of audiences on a variety of topics, including leadership, grit and growth mindset, unconscious bias, pay equity, and workplace flexibility. Since 2014, Linda has taught a leadership theory course at Texas Law that explored the gap between the number of women law school graduates and the number of women who occupy leadership positions in the legal profession. The class has been oversubscribed each year. 

Linda was selected to serve on two Presidential Initiatives for the American Bar Association (Achieving Long-Term Careers for Women in Law and ABA Toolkit for Gender Equity in Partner Compensation) and as a liaison to the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession for the past nine years.  She served as a Team Advisor for the first Women in Law Hackathon and is a member of the advisory board for the Bexar County Women’s Bar Foundation LEAD Academy.

Linda has authored or co-authored six publications as well as two op-ed pieces for The Texas Lawyer.  Her writings include Power Plays that Matter, Power for Change; Power in Law; Reduced Hours, Full Success: Part-Time Partners in U.S. Law Firms; 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).  She has been quoted or her organization featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, The Austin-American Statesman, Dallas Morning News, The American Lawyer, The Texas Lawyer, ABA Journal, Bloomberg Law, Law360, The Texas Lawbook, HBR Blog Network, Forbes, ForbesWoman, and 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.