Tony Kelly, a doctoral candidate at George Fox University, is seeking 6-8 African American women partners to interview by the end of February for his dissertation (more details below). Please feel free to circulate this invitation to partners in your network.  Those interested in learning more about this study and/or participating should contact Tony Kelly, Adjunct Professor & Doctoral Candidate at George Fox University tkelly@georgefox.edu or 503-753-7300.

STUDY: Phenomenological Study of African American Female Partners in Top U.S. Corporate Law Firms

PURPOSE OF THIS RESEARCH STUDY

Looking for individuals to participate in a phenomenological study designed to examine African American female attorneys that have attained partnership positions in top 250 U.S. corporate law firms and how they overcame barriers unique to their gender and race on their journey to the top rung of their profession. This study aims to build upon previous research identifying the consistent barriers faced by African American women on their leadership attainment journeys in the corporate world by capturing the lived experience of a select group of Black women that successfully attained the position of partner in a law firm. The primary goal is to determine how these women were able to overcome the barriers on their journey and identify commonalities in their experiences and approaches that propelled them past barriers that hindered other African American women that were unable to make partner in the legal profession.

PROCEDURES

·         Volunteers will participate in three interviews, a written pre-interview, a 60- to-90-minute semi-structured interview, and a follow-up interview if required for clarification and transcript corrections.

·         Interview questions will be designed to capture data that will lead to a textual and structural description of the experiences and ultimately provide an understanding of the common experiences of the participants.

·         Interviews will be recorded for accurate transcript analysis. If you grant permission for interviews to be recorded, you have the right to revoke recording permission and/or end the interview at any time.