The Network Effect of The Top Women Lawyers’ List

The Top Women Lawyers’ list (and before that, the Top Women Litigators’ list), annually recognizes California women lawyers doing path breaking work on the highest stakes cases and deals. It is a welcome spotlight on women lawyers and their accomplishments.

But the List is more than a one-off annual event. It has given rise to a powerful network and nurtured friendships.

When I first joined the List over 20 years ago (an exciting development), I combed through it, looking for others I knew on the list so I could congratulate them. It turned out I knew a handful of them, mostly through board membership on the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles. I asked those I knew if they knew others on the list. They did.

That small group had lunch together to celebrate. Each year after that (before COVID interrupted it), the Top Women Lawyers group held an annual luncheon at various restaurants around Los Angeles. Once I moved to Orange County and more women lawyers in OC joined the list, Orange County lunches began as well.

The luncheons expanded on the receptions the Daily Journal has to celebrate each year’s honorees. Unlike the newspaper’s annual reception, luncheon invitees were not limited to each year’s list. The invite list in LA and Orange County was cumulative: once a woman was on the list, she remained on the luncheon guest list going forward. Beyond the lunches, I circulated a directory with contact information of all invitees, to allow everyone to remain in contact and refer matters to each other or support each other in other ways. The focus was on building relationships over time, not simply celebrating our most recent accomplishments.

What started with a handful of luncheon attendees became a group of over 50 – a number I look forward to seeing grow even more this year.

The Daily Journal’s List was the catalyst for these relationships. I hope the List continues to have a real world impact on women’s careers and continued progress in the profession.

M.C. Sungaila chairs the appellate practice at Buchalter. She has briefed and argued over 150 appeals before a variety of courts and has been named one of the Top 100 Women Lawyers in California by the Daily Journal over a dozen times.