Stats are stacked against women at big law firms, but Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP partner Allison Yacker has racked up achievements that fly in the face of that fact. She’s one of the youngest equity partners at the firm, a member of its Board of Directors, a member of the firm’s Women’s Leadership Forum, co-chair of the firm’s preeminent New York Financial Services Group—and as such has become a leader of the firm itself.

Now, Allison can add one more title to the list: 2018 Working Mother of the Year. As part of its annual recognition of companies that succeed at attracting and retaining women, Working Mother magazine bestowed that honor on Allison for her ongoing leadership as a mentor.

Allison Yacker, co-chair of Katten’s New York Financial Services group and member of the firm’s Board of Directors, was honored as a Working Mother of the Year for her continuing efforts to mentor other women

Allison’s experience at Katten grew from working as a summer associate in the Corporate practice to leading a large group of attorneys as co-chair of the New York Financial Services group. During her second year, Allison was assigned to work on-site at a large international financial institution where she cut her teeth working in international swaps and derivatives. She returned to Katten after her stint to lay the foundation for strong relationships in the Financial Services group that have continued to this day. As a capital partner, she has a client list once described as “some of the world’s most established asset managers” and is active in lateral recruitment of both associates and partners, and partner promotions.

Allison credits her “work hard, play hard” attitude for motivating her through every stage of her career and milestone of her personal life. “I try to live by that mantra in whatever I’m doing: negotiating a deal, making chocolate chip pancakes for my sons, running or going to a game. I tend to be all-in and completely invested.”

While climbing the career ladder at Katten, Allison worked full time as she raised her two young sons. Knowing that a critical element of being a successful attorney is to thrive on challenge and strive for excellence, Allison doggedly applies those principles to her professional and personal endeavors in her roles as manager, attorney and mother.

Allison’s passion to continually educate others on the need to be philanthropic inspires her two sons to volunteer in their community

She is an advisor, supervisor, coach, counselor and advocate for more than 30 attorneys and staff in her practice plus a revolving door of young lawyers, both male and female, in and outside Katten. Young professionals seem to find inspiration in her seemingly painless rise through the ranks. But Allison is quick to make this point: at the root of her exceptional success is extremely hard work, weapons-grade persistence, and unflinching initiative at every stage of her career and stalwart commitment to invest not only in herself but in the teams that surround her.

Signs pointing to her continual support of her teams and staff are all around the office. Allison often allows junior associates to accompany her on pitches as a learning experience. She gives and encourages constructive feedback and tries to ensure that the environment she fosters breeds honesty while being grounded in earnest teamwork. She buys cookies for colleagues on the heels of particularly hard weeks. She encourages a little levity here and there. She makes sure to mentor young female associates by spending time with them, listening and relating to their struggles, then helping them identify solutions to work-related roadblocks. She tries to get to know every member of her group, and values their insight, pushing them to find their own path to excellence while regularly pointing out that nothing worth much ever comes easily.

“The many women currently serving the firm in leadership roles, especially those like me who have spent their entire career at Katten, are a testament to the fact that Katten is doing something right,” said Allison. “My co-chair (Wendy Cohen) and I took very different paths in our personal lives as both women and mothers to get to very similar places in our careers today. I have no doubt that the personal and professional investment that Katten made in me, and the environment Katten fosters is directly attributable to my success.”