Women In White Collar: An Interview With Susan Bozorgi

I’m at the ABA’s white collar crime conference this week, although sadly without the bingo card that Matt Kaiser came up with last year and should really be standard-issue here.  I took this opportunity to interview the inimitable Susan Bozorgi, who I first met at the conference in 2014 in Miami and is widely considered to be one of the most formidable white-collar lawyers in Florida (and beyond).  Below is a lightly edited version of our conversation about her advice for young women coming up in the white-collar world.

So how did you get into white-collar practice?

I was a public defender in the state court system in Miami, Florida. From there I went into private practice and at first I was doing traditionally street-type, state-oriented general criminal defense-type work. But then I found my way to a mentorship with some federal practitioners in the community which opened up opportunities to working on federal matters.  I also got appointed to the CJA panel, which gave me the chance to gain experience in federal court, and then from there, I think both of those experiences opened the door to what I would define as corporate white-collar work, which is what my practice primarily consists of today.

You mentioned finding a mentor. Were those mentors men or women, and how did you find them?

For me, it happened to be a man. When I left the PD’s office, there really weren’t a lot of women in private practice. There were some women in private practice, but at the time they didn’t feel accessible. My mentor happened to be a man, and I was grateful for that regardless of what sex he was.

How do you think a woman coming up in white-collar should go about trying to find a mentor?

I think that there are many paths for any young lawyers to find their way to white-collar work, and I don’t think there’s one path. Obviously, there are paths from government. But by the time you reach private practice, I think everyone needs to find a mentor. I think it’s impossible to gain access to the kind of learning and understanding needed in the white-collar field unless you have a mentor. The work is too complex without somebody guiding you and helping you. Especially for women, it’s important to find a female mentor to help guide you in the business if at all possible. Find a women’s network would be my suggestion, such as the Women White Collar Defense Association (wcda.org).

What’s been your most successful approach for developing business?

One of the most successful approaches for me in developing business was in 2012 when I finally realized I couldn’t network to the masses. Back then I decided to focus on networking to women lawyers, women entrepreneurs, and women general counsel to advance my business, and it’s paid off. I started a blog focused on women lawyers. I also joined the Women”s White Collar Defense Association, in which I am now honored to have a leadership role, where women are truly dedicated to supporting each other’s careers and businesses. It was a bit of a leap of faith back then because I was concerned that focusing my marketing efforts so heavily on one group would suggest I didn’t feel connected to the greater legal community but you have to focus your efforts in business development, otherwise you get lost.

How do you network to that group?

Networking in general is the same. You have to be able to articulate your strengths to somebody else. You have to be able to articulate what you do, that you do it well, and what separates you from the others in the pack. But most importantly just be yourself so people will like you and want to be around you. Nothing is more compelling than a lawyer that is comfortable in their own skin. That sells itself.

One of the difficult things that a lot of people have in marketing white-collar work is trying to get more specific in your marketing than just “I do white collar.”

I think you have to first sit back and examine who you are as a person, and then figure out who you are as a lawyer so you can articulate those things as your brand. For example I certainly have a lot of trial experience and I am aggressive in court but in my office with my clients I am particularly protective and hands-on. That’s part of my brand.

As in, clients feel you’re giving them intense personal attention?

Absolutely. I don’t take high volume. So when you come to hire our firm, that means you get 100 percent of our attention. If a client needs to call us 10 times, 20 times, and ask us the same question over and over (which happens a lot in our business) we are going to talk to that client over and over again. Clients need that sometimes, and maybe being a woman on balance in that regard is advantageous. Most of our clients are men, and I believe it matters to them that they can talk to us comfortably about their problems. Let’s be clear — clients first hire us because they believe we are the best lawyers and that we are going to fight for them, but client relationships also matters. I also think more and more smart clients understand the significance today of having or adding a woman lawyer to their defense team.

What do you wish that you had known in your early 30s, as you were just starting to expand your practice and move into the areas you’re talking about?

What I wish I would have known that I know now is, number one, trust yourself, trust your judgment. I think that a lot of women struggle with that and figure that out too late. So if you get one thing from this interview get that. I also wish I would have known what I know now, that you need to spend about 75 percent of your time networking and focusing on getting business. The power in private practice is capturing business, and if you don’t figure that out now, and you wait to figure that out later, you’re figuring it out too late.

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Justin Dillon is a partner at KaiserDillon PLLC in Washington, DC, where he focuses on white-collar criminal defense and campus disciplinary matters. Before joining the firm, he worked as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, DC, and at the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. His email is [email protected].