Lauren Stiller Rikleen
Lauren Stiller Rikleen is a nationally recognized expert on developing a thriving, diverse and multi-generational workforce. Lauren launched the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership to help businesses and other organizations create a culture where their professionals can advance and flourish. She brings to each engagement nearly three decades of experience, including as a law firm partner, mediator, and professional and community leader.
Lauren is the Executive-in-Residence at Boston College's Center for Work & Family in the Carroll School of Management. Established in 1990, the Center links academic research and corporate practice to create workplace cultures that support individual and organizational success.
Lauren is the author of Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law, published in 2006, which has been highly acclaimed for its thoughtful insights into the management of today’s law firms and the institutional impediments to the retention and advancement of women in the legal profession. She is also the author of Success Strategies for Women Lawyers, published in the fall of 2010. She has authored more than 100 articles on a variety of topics within her area of expertise as well as topical commentary, including op ed pieces in major newspapers. Lauren is also a contributor to the Harvard Business Review Blog Network.
Previously, Lauren was an equity partner at Bowditch & Dewey, LLP, where she founded the firm's environmental practice group and managed a diverse environmental law practice, bringing her strategic and negotiating skills to her clients' enforcement and compliance problems. Lauren is also an experienced mediator. For the past two decades, Lauren was selected by her peers to be listed in Best Lawyers in America. She has also been recognized in Chambers USA America’s Leading Business Lawyers and Massachusetts Super Lawyers.
Lauren is the recipient of numerous awards. In 2011, she received the "Friend of the Division" Award from the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association for her guidance, support, and mentorship. Among her other honors, Lauren was a 2010 Leading Women Award recipient from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, a recipient of the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly 2009 Women of Justice Award, the 2007 Barbara Gray Humanitarian Award from Voices Against Violence, the Boston College 2004 Alumni Award for Excellence in Law, the Boston College Law School 75th Anniversary Alumni Medal, and the 2005 Lelia J. Robinson Award from the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts. In 1997, the Metrowest Chamber of Commerce named her Business Leader of the Year, and she was the 2001 winner of its Athena Award.
Lauren brings an extraordinary background of leadership positions in professional and community organizations to her work at the Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership. From August, 2008 until August, 2011, Lauren, served as a member of the governing body of the American Bar Association, the ABA Board of Governors. From 2005-2008, she served as one of twelve members of the ABA's Commission on Women in the Profession, whose mission is to secure full and equal participation of women in the legal profession and the justice system.
Lauren’s current leadership roles within the ABA include: Member, Presidential Task Force on Gender Equality; Member, Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity; Co-Chair, Women’s Caucus; and Chair of the Rights of Women Committee of the Individual Rights & Responsibility Section. She is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a Trustee of the Boston Bar Foundation, and a Trustee of the Middlesex Savings Bank.
As part of her commitment to the advancement of women in public leadership, Lauren serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus. Lauren is also a founding member of the Council for Women of Boston College, which is dedicated to furthering the role of women as active leaders and participants at BC.
Lauren was the only non-New York lawyer appointed to the New York State Bar Association's Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession. When she was President of the Boston Bar Association, Lauren established the Task-Force on Professional Challenges and Family Needs which produced Facing the Grail – Confronting the Costs of Work/Family Imbalance, a report which received national attention for its in-depth analysis of the cost of attrition in law firms.
Lauren is a former chair and member of the Board of Directors of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, served for ten years on the Board of Trustees of Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, and was the first chair of the Women's Leadership Council of the United Way of Tri-County. She was a founder and served for six years as president of MetroWest Harvest, an organization which transports donated food and personal care items to area shelters and food pantries. She is also one of the founders of an organization which created the first shelter in the MetroWest Boston area for victims of domestic violence.
She is also a founding member of the Massachusetts Equality Commission, which was created in 2004 to examine the link between the relative lack of women in leadership positions in the law, the growing rate of attrition, and the demands of law firm practice. The Equality Commission worked closely with the MIT Workplace Center to create a survey to track the movement of women and men in Massachusetts law firms between 2001 and 2005, resulting in the path-breaking study, Women Lawyers and Obstacles to Leadership.
Lauren has written for or been interviewed by such publications and media outlets as: The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The National Law Journal, Forbes Woman, the Careerist, WBZ Radio, New England Cable News Network, MSNBC.com, The Boston Business Journal, New York Lawyer, The Glass Hammer, Legal Management, Exchange Morning Post, Women's Health, Monster's Legal Career Center, LawCrossing,the Board Room, Know Magazine, JD Journal, The Detroiter and The Public Record.