LEGAL & FINANCE
LARGE LAW FIRMS, RANKED BY NUMBER OF ATTORNEYS
Top 10 SNELL & WILMER 400 E. Van Buren St., Phoenix, 85004 // 602-382-6000 // swlaw.com ATTORNEYS 204 EMPLOYEES 476 PRINCIPAL Matthew P. Feeney, chairman HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Barbara J. Dawson, partner FENNEMORE CRAIG, P.C. 2394 E. Camelback Road, Suite 600, Phoenix, 85016 // 602-9165000 // fennemorecraig.com ATTORNEYS 128 EMPLOYEES 287 PRINCIPAL Stephen Good, managing partner HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Sarah Stunk, shareholder and chairman QUARLES & BRADY LLP 2 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, 85004 // 602-229-5900 // quarles.com ATTORNEYS 120 EMPLOYEES 215 PRINCIPAL AND HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Nicole Stanton, office managing partner LEWIS ROCA ROTHGERBER CHRISTIE LLP 201 E. Washington St., Suite 1200, Phoenix, 85004 // 602-262-5311 // lrrc.com ATTORNEYS 106 EMPLOYEES 241 PRINCIPAL Kenneth Van Winkle Jr., managing partner HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Amy Altshuler, practice group leader, partner; Carla Consoli, practice group leader, partner JONES, SKELTON & HOUCHLI, PLC 2901 N. Central Avenue, Suite 800, Phoenix, 85012 // 602-263-1700 // jshfirm.com ATTORNEYS 83 EMPLOYEES 211 PRINCIPAL Bill Holm, managing partner HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Georgia Staton, partner
ATTORNEY DEEP IN WATER
SHERYL SWEENEY SENIOR SHAREHOLDER BY HAL MATTERN
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When Sheryl Sweeney was a student in Kansas, she had no idea what she wanted to do when she grew up. But she figured she had to say something when people asked her what she wanted to be. So when she was in middle school, she starting telling them she planned to go to law school, even though it really wasn’t her goal. In fact, Sweeney wound up majoring in sociology in college. “I graduated from college as a social worker with the prospect of working who knows where—probably a prison,” Sweeney recalls. “Suddenly law school looked pretty good.” Now, 32 years later, Sweeney is very happy she decided to follow through with her declared childhood desire to be a lawyer. “I love being a lawyer,” says Sweeney, who worked at Ryley Carlock & Applewhite in Phoenix as a summer clerk while a student at the University of Kansas School of Law, then joined the firm as an associate when she graduated in 1984. And she has been there ever since, a rarity these days in the legal industry— and in the working world in general. “When I started, you picked a firm where you wanted to stay forever,” says Sweeney, the firm’s senior female shareholder.
There was something else different about law firms when she started— there were few women. “There were three of us who started with the firm at the same time, all of us women,” Sweeney says. “And there was only one other woman at the firm at the time. We sort of broke the ice.” She recalls when male lawyers would ask her to type for them, something that would never happen today. The days also are long gone when clients refused to work with female attorneys. “If it’s happening, I’m sure not being told about it,” Sweeney says. “I think we are pretty well beyond that.” When she joined the firm, Sweeney was assigned to the water law practice, an area she has focused on ever since, along with environmental and energy law. “Water law was perfect for me,” she says, explaining that much of her work involves assured water supplies, water rights and hydrology studies. “In Arizona, it makes you feel like you are in the middle of everything.” Sweeney says she is one of a small number of female lawyers in Phoenix working in energy law, which she says is going to continue to be a boom area. “I always encourage women to get into that area,” she says.
GALLAGHER & KENNEDY 2575 E. Camelback Road, Suite 1100, Phoenix, 85016 // 602-5308000 // gknet.com ATTORNEYS 79 EMPLOYEES 171 PRINCIPAL Dean Short, managing partner HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Julie Rystad, shareholder RYLEY CARLOCK & APPLEWHITE 1 N. Central Ave., Suite 1200, Phoenix, 85004 // 602-440-4800 // rcalaw.comFounded xx ATTORNEYS 72 EMPLOYEES 125 PRINCIPAL James Brophy, managing shareholder HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Sheryl Sweeney, shareholder PERKINS COIE LLP 2901 N. Central Ave., Suite 2000, Phoenix, 85012 // 602-351-8000 // perkinscoie.com ATTORNEYS 62 EMPLOYEES 131 PRINCIPAL Shane Swindle, managing partner HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Judy Weiss, partner GUST ROSENFELD PLC 1 E. Washington St., Suite 1600, Phoenix, 85004 // 602-257-7422 // gustlaw. com ATTORNEYS 60 EMPLOYEES 127 PRINCIPAL Tom Chauncey, member HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Barbara Rodriguez-Pashkowski, member DICKINSON WRIGHT PLLC 1850 N. Central Ave., Suite 1400, Phoenix, 85004 // 602-285-5000 // dickinsonwright.com ATTORNEYS 58 EMPLOYEES 102 PRINCIPAL Gary Birnbaum, member HIGHEST-RANKING WOMAN Anne Tiffen, member
WHO’S WHO IN BUSINESS // 2016
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