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Listen "Sponsors, Mentors, and Coaches"
Episode Synopsis
In this episode, Elizabeth Jolliffe talks with Nicole Smithson about mentors, sponsors, and coaches, how to develop these relationships, and what they can do for your career.
Elizabeth Jolliffe is a career coach for lawyers. She helps lawyers nationwide get more of what they want in their practice and career. Elizabeth loves coaching, using her experience as a large firm partner, litigator, and bar leader to help motivated lawyers of all types reach their definition of success. In addition to her coaching practice, she has informally mentored and sponsored hundreds of women lawyers and seen many go on to become mentors and sponsors in their careers. She started her coaching practice in May 2008 after being a partner and a commercial litigator for 19 years at Clark Hill in Detroit. She is a past president of the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the Detroit Bar Association. She is also a past president of the Wayne Region of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan and the Detroit Association of University of Michigan Women. A double Wolverine, Elizabeth earned her BA and JD from the University of Michigan and her coaching certification from the Coaches Training Institute. She lives in Ann Arbor within walking distance to campus, Main Street, and Michigan Stadium. From a family of teachers and lawyers, she enjoys being an aunt to 11 nieces and nephews.
www.yourbenchmarkcoach.com
www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethjolliffe
[email protected]
Nicole Smithson became the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission’s regional manager for the Lapeer, Macomb, Oakland, and St. Clair Region in January 2019. Before joining the MIDC, Nicole was an attorney with a law firm specializing in representing credit unions, working in its bankruptcy, creditor’s rights, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate departments. She has experience as a sole practitioner representing individuals in criminal, juvenile, domestic relations, and probate matters. She previously consulted for the JUSTICIA Foundation for Development and Human Rights in Lebanon on projects for the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program. She also served as a staff attorney/magistrate at the Butler County Common Pleas Court in Ohio and a judicial law clerk at the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two. Nicole is currently president-elect of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, creative director of Working Towards Nine, editor-in-chief of the WLAM Journal, and on the editorial board of the Women Lawyers Journal, the journal for the National Association of Women Lawyers. She was selected as one of Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s “Influential Women of Law” for 2022. Nicole graduated from Wayne State University Law School and the University of Detroit Mercy.
Learn more about WLAM on our website and our social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter.
WLAM allows its supporters to sponsor the Working Towards Nine Podcast. Sponsorship includes a 30-second promo, either audio created by the sponsor or ad copy read by the producer and the sponsor’s name cited in the show notes. Check out our website here to learn more and purchase a sponsorship.
WLAM wants the WTN Podcast to be accessible to all who listen. If you would like a free transcript of an episode, please email [email protected].
Elizabeth Jolliffe is a career coach for lawyers. She helps lawyers nationwide get more of what they want in their practice and career. Elizabeth loves coaching, using her experience as a large firm partner, litigator, and bar leader to help motivated lawyers of all types reach their definition of success. In addition to her coaching practice, she has informally mentored and sponsored hundreds of women lawyers and seen many go on to become mentors and sponsors in their careers. She started her coaching practice in May 2008 after being a partner and a commercial litigator for 19 years at Clark Hill in Detroit. She is a past president of the Washtenaw County Bar Association and the Detroit Bar Association. She is also a past president of the Wayne Region of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan and the Detroit Association of University of Michigan Women. A double Wolverine, Elizabeth earned her BA and JD from the University of Michigan and her coaching certification from the Coaches Training Institute. She lives in Ann Arbor within walking distance to campus, Main Street, and Michigan Stadium. From a family of teachers and lawyers, she enjoys being an aunt to 11 nieces and nephews.
www.yourbenchmarkcoach.com
www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethjolliffe
[email protected]
Nicole Smithson became the Michigan Indigent Defense Commission’s regional manager for the Lapeer, Macomb, Oakland, and St. Clair Region in January 2019. Before joining the MIDC, Nicole was an attorney with a law firm specializing in representing credit unions, working in its bankruptcy, creditor’s rights, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, and real estate departments. She has experience as a sole practitioner representing individuals in criminal, juvenile, domestic relations, and probate matters. She previously consulted for the JUSTICIA Foundation for Development and Human Rights in Lebanon on projects for the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program. She also served as a staff attorney/magistrate at the Butler County Common Pleas Court in Ohio and a judicial law clerk at the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two. Nicole is currently president-elect of the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan, creative director of Working Towards Nine, editor-in-chief of the WLAM Journal, and on the editorial board of the Women Lawyers Journal, the journal for the National Association of Women Lawyers. She was selected as one of Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s “Influential Women of Law” for 2022. Nicole graduated from Wayne State University Law School and the University of Detroit Mercy.
Learn more about WLAM on our website and our social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter.
WLAM allows its supporters to sponsor the Working Towards Nine Podcast. Sponsorship includes a 30-second promo, either audio created by the sponsor or ad copy read by the producer and the sponsor’s name cited in the show notes. Check out our website here to learn more and purchase a sponsorship.
WLAM wants the WTN Podcast to be accessible to all who listen. If you would like a free transcript of an episode, please email [email protected].
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