Maslon LLP

Holly Dolezalek//September 26, 2024//

Keiko Sugisaka, Maslon LLP

Holly Dolezalek//September 26, 2024//

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For 68 years, Maslon LLP has provided strategic legal counsel to the business community in Minnesota.

But Maslon’s 137 employees now include five female firm leads, and that changes the equation. They include Keiko Sugisaka, chair of the board of directors and executive committee; Suzette Allaire, COO and board member; Susan Link, a board member; Susan Markey, chair of the corporate and securities group; and Katie Maechler, co-chair of the litigation group.

Those leads have embraced diversity, inclusion, and different ways of working. “Having women leaders means that a hybrid work schedule is not merely tolerated but encouraged, and that decisions are made in a truly collaborative manner,” said Sugisaka.

With women in those decisive positions, Maslon has been able to resist the kind of sexism that sometimes causes clients to see a male lawyer as the “safe option.”

It has also supported organizations like Twin Cities Diversity in Practice and the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.