It’s no secret that, despite great progress in the last couple of decades, secured finance remains a male-dominated field. Here, we shine the spotlight on three unique SFNet members whose teams are made up of more women than men.

Parker, Hudson, Rainer & Dobbs Commercial Finance Practice Group

(Replies attributed to Bobbi Acord Noland, Lizzie Garner, Sarah Proctor, and Vicki Papanikolaou)

The Commercial Finance practice group routinely handles the negotiation, structuring and documentation of commercial loan transactions related to large business concerns. These loans typically range in size from $10 million to in excess of $1 billion, are often multi-lender syndicated credit facilities and are usually secured by some or all of the assets of the borrowers. Typically, the loans are documented as revolving credit, term loan and letter of credit facilities, the proceeds of which are used for working capital or asset acquisitions or as part of a leveraged buyout transaction. In many instances, loans are made in multiple currencies to foreign affiliates of U.S. borrowing concerns.

The Commercial Finance practice group is chaired by Bobbi Acord Noland, the co-general counsel of SFNet and a member of the practice group since 1992. The team is proud that 11 of the 18 dedicated finance attorneys on the team are women. Five of those women are partners, two of whom have been with the fi rm for more than 15 years each. We are excited to have added three female partners within the last year to our partnership. The team is well positioned in our associate and counsel ranks as well, with six female attorneys who are rising stars and strong contributors to the practice group and the firm.

Did your team become predominantly women organically or was it intentional?

The team began hiring more women attorneys many years ago, with the full support and dedication of the male team partners. Once the team had a critical mass of experienced women with Bobbi and Kathleen Currey as partners and with Kathleen as chair of the firm’s diversity committee for over 15 years, the process became even more intentional. The focus of all team partners is to provide growth opportunities for all of our lawyers and to reflect the industry that we serve. We make a concerted effort to look at the diversity of the team across all levels of experience and have found that flexibility for the entire team has helped us retain talented women attorneys at the firm.

What would you say are your team’s greatest strengths and do you think these traits are affected by gender?

Our collaborative, team approach to all we do is our biggest strength. Given our team composition, we have great diversity of perspective, and everyone brings something different to the table. Our team plays to each person’s strengths, regardless of gender, to serve our clients. We complement each other, not only in the services we offer, but in our views and life experiences. We also have a strong desire to constantly improve our internal knowledge base and skills and place a focus on education and mentoring. We strive to instill in new team members that we all are continually honing our craft. Our strengths are not necessarily affected by gender, but by the diversity of our team generally. Advancing women and fi guring out creative ways to keep them on the team adds great value to our clients, and clients appreciate their exceptional contributions.

Please click here to read the full article, which includes additional spotlights on Sky Business Credit and Bank of America Business Capital Western Region Business Development