Breaking the Ice: From Stoel Rives summer associate to office managing partner

Sarah Johnson Phillips has “done the whole path” at Stoel Rives’ Minneapolis office, from summer associate to partner to, as of June 5, office managing partner.

Stoel Rives’ office here, which now has 16 attorneys, was brand new when Johnson Phillips worked there during law school.

“It’s fun to have been the first-ever summer associate at this office and now to be leading it,” Johnson Phillips said.

Johnson Phillips joins a small group of women managing partners and office managing partners at Twin Cities firms. But being a woman in leadership isn’t rare at Stoel, where the firm-wide managing partner is a woman and women account for a majority of the firm’s executive committee, she said.

Before law school, Johnson Phillips worked at a nonprofit focused on climate change and renewable energy advocacy.

“Renewable energy was a positive, forward-looking solution to climate change and environmental issues where you could be for something,” Johnson Phillips said.

Name: Sarah Johnson Phillips

Title: Office managing partner, Stoel Rives’ Minneapolis office

Education: B.A., geology, Carleton College; M.S., science, technology and environmental policy, Humphrey School of Public Affairs; J.D., University of Minnesota Law School

Q: Best way to start a conversation with you?

A: I love hearing about people’s travel plans. If somebody tells me about the cool wind farm or solar panels they saw on their road trip, I really love that. I’ll ask a lot of questions about it.

Q: Why law school?

A: Working in the nonprofit sector, there were a lot of policy advocates. I learned, hanging around the Capitol, that wasn’t what I wanted to do. I was interested in public policy, but not quite in that way. Law school and practicing law felt like a way to take my interest in policy and apply it in a more practical, hands-on way. I learned in my first few years of work that I was more that go-get-it-done-sort-of person.

Q: What are you reading?

A: The most recent book I read was “Station Eleven,” about a terrible pandemic and what happened after that. I loved the book but that was a little disturbing having gone through a lesser version of it in real life altogether.

Q: Pet peeve?

A: Vehicles that idle or park in the bike lanes downtown. I’m a bike commuter, and our office is downtown. It’s a real hassle when somebody pulls over in the bike lane. You have to figure out how to get around safely.

Q: Best part of your work?

A: The people. We have a great team here and great clients. Smart, dedicated people who are funny and good to be around. I love this work. But it’s also a job, and having people that you like to spend time with every day makes all the difference.

Q: Most challenging?

A: The hardest thing for me, and this is maybe true for many private practice lawyers, is the competing demands on my time. I want every client and colleague to feel like my top priority, but there’s a lot of balancing that goes into that.

Q: Favorite activity away from work?

A: I enjoy bike riding and using my bike as real transportation rather than driving everywhere. I like cooking. I like traveling when I can fit that into my schedule. As a busy lawyer and a mom, I don’t have a lot of complicated hobbies.

Q: Where would you take someone visiting your hometown?

A: The place I actually take all my visitors is Minnehaha Falls.

Q: Legal figure you admire?

A: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Nobody did more to pave the way for women in law than she did.

Q: Misconception about your work?

A: People think lawyers know how to go to court. There are plenty who do that every day, including down the hall from me. But I don’t know anything about a courtroom. That’s none of my business.

Q: Favorite book, movie or TV show about lawyers?

A: There was a great episode of “The West Wing” called “The Supremes,” about naming judges to the Supreme Court. It was very aspirational, finding the best in all of us, rising above politics, and I’ve always loved it.