Rosângela Delgado, Partner, Veirano Advogados
 
How long have you been working for your current company?
19 years.

Briefly explain your career history and what led you to your current position.
I was a trainee at veirano until 1995. I was hired as an associate in 1995 and made partner in 2006. I am now the national coordinator for the civil litigation department of our firm.

What is your proudest professional achievement and why?
Making partner in a law firm that had only 3 women partners in over 30 male partners at the time and being promoted to the position of coordinator for the litigation department less than a year after.

What are the greatest challenges that you face in your current role and what do you do to overcome them?
Unifying the department practices in our different offices (rio, são paulo, brasilia and porto alegre), establishing the action plan requested by our management committee, and thinking ahead as to how to promote our practice nationally and internationally.

How difficult is it for you personally to attain work-life balance and how do you endeavour to do this?
I have a flexible schedule, when necessary. It is hard to balance work and family when you have small children, but thanks to the help of wonderful care takers, i am able to do it and still manage to spend quality time with my kids. Unlike in other countries, full-time care takers are still very accessible in brazil, which makes a considerable difference.

Did you have a mentor or role model in your career or while you were studying law? Who were they and how did they help you?
I had many partners who inspired me throughout my career. My senior partner at the department is certainly one of them.

How effective do you think corporate diversity initiatives are? What methods do you think are most effective and why?
I have my doubts. Having succeeded with no diversity policy in place, I used to believe they were not necessary, much less critical. I now have a different view and believe diversity policies can be healthy as they acknowledge the undeniable gender differences.

Were there any points in your career when you felt you were at a disadvantage or at an advantage because you were female?
Absolutely. It is not easy dealing with clients that tend to look for ‘the man in charge’ in specific tasks. Working as a female lawyer is much easier when you are not at the top of the chain, where the vast majority is still of males.

What do you think have been the most significant changes for women in the legal industry over the past five years?
I have seen more and more women on the top of legal careers, either as in-house counsels or law firm partners. This is also true for superior courts.