Review: The Partner Track by Helen Wan

The Partner Track by Helen Wan: Ingrid Yung is a rising star at the Manhattan law firm of Parsons Valentine and Hunt LLP. She dedicates herself to meeting the many demands of the partners and after almost nine years of glowing reviews, she is firmly on the "partner track". As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Ingrid feels a tremendous amount of responsibility to be successful in an effort to repay her parents for all their sacrifice. As the announcement of new partners nears, Helen is asked to take on an important deal and to close it in record time. She gladly takes on the challenge but is less enthused when she is asked to be a champion for the firm's diversity initiative. Can Ingrid bear the burden of her parent's expectations, be the firm's diversity darling and close this major deal on her way to partner?

Ingrid Yung attended Yale undergrad and then Columbia Law before arriving at Parsons Valentine. Working in NYC at a top law firm fulfilled a dream that had taken root at a young age. While visiting a friend of her parents in Manhattan as a young girl, Ingrid looked out the window of their exclusive apartment building and mused:

I could not stop looking and looking out that window, at the deep violet hue spreading across the sky. It felt as if the day's humiliations were draining from my body, and I was waking up fresh. I had never wanted to belong to anything more than to that shimmering landscape of office towers lit up against the dark New York sky. Each individual glittering box of light - like gems strung along a necklace - seemed to me to be a tiny, oblong window onto success, acceptance, respect, that is to say, a place in the world. 

Getting to NYC and into one of those glittering boxes of light has not been easy - Ingrid has succeeded against a lot of odds. All the women who started at Parsons Valentine with her eight years ago have now left the firm; some left to pursue careers with less challenging hours and expectations while some left to have families. Ingrid is surrounded by an "old boys club" where subtle, and often not subtle, gender discrimination abounds. Being a "two-fer", a woman and person of color, Ingrid has also faced thinly veiled racism. With single-minded focus, however, Ingrid has ignored these obstacles and succeeded by keeping the prize of partner squarely in her sights. With the advent of the diversity initiative, however, Ingrid is beginning to give more consideration to the sleights and inequities she has faced.

My Thoughts
This smartly written debut novel takes on big topics like the glass ceiling and racism but packaged in a story line that makes these bigger themes very accessible. Ingrid is an appealing heroine - she is smart, direct and just flawed enough to make a reader like her and most importantly, to relate to her. She has a touch of idealism but is not naive and although she is bothered by the lack of diversity at the firm and the lack of women at the top, she wants to make partner more than anything else. That raw ambition is impressive.

As a woman in corporate America, I saw much in this book to which I can relate. The subtle discrimination that takes place when men at the top of the ladder give opportunity and access to those that look a lot like them is very real and you ignore it at work at your own peril. I don't believe that is is deliberate but that it represents an unconscious bias and one we must all stay vigilant in order to ensure fair play for everyone.

Finally, I could relate to Ingrid's feelings as a first generation American. The quote above reflects thoughts not unlike my own about living and working in NYC. The theme of fitting in and being accepted as the daughter of immigrants is not a primary one in the novel but the author weaves it in expertly and it serves to further flesh out Ingrid's character. I definitely recommend this debut novel!

I received an ARC of this book for review from Wunderkind PR. 

Review: The Love Wars by L. Alison Heller

In The Love Wars by L. Alison Heller, Molly Grant is an associate at a premier Manhattan law firm and has recently moved into the matrimonial division where she is dealing with the demise of the marriages of the rich and powerful. In addition to their demanding clients, Molly and her colleagues are managing the demands of their high maintenance boss and partner in the firm, Lillian. As her clients argue over custody and who is going to pay the other's legal fees and Lillian's demands become ever more insistent, Molly questions why she has sold her soul to this profession and the firm, Bacon Payne.

 Molly comes from a humble background with parents that own a small store and they are immensely proud of their daughter, the attorney. It is partially a sense of obligation to her parents for all they sacrificed that keeps her working at the firm even though the hours are grueling and she doesn't always like her clients or some of her colleagues. She is due is large bonus at the five year mark and she hopes to pay off her parent's mortgage with the bonus which keeps her motivated despite the demands and her occasional struggles with insecurities about her ability to perform. She has difficulty relating to her clients and their "problems" like the successful banker who is bringing her soon to be ex-husband to court over custody of their cats. But Molly is touched by one client, Fern, who seeks the firm's help with the custody agreement between she and her ex-husband. Robert Walker is a powerful media mogul and since the couple's divorce, he has been alienating the children from Fern and denying her visitation. The firm is courting Mr. Walker as a corporate client and they don't want to touch this matrimonial case so Lillian instructs Molly to move Fern along and make recommendations to other firms. When none of those firms help Fern, Molly "goes rogue" and begins helping Fern independently.

While Molly deals with the dissolution of other's relationships, her own love life has suffered.  Relationships have definitely taken a back seat to her career. An old college boyfriend is back in the picture and there seems to be a spark with Henry at work but it is hard to differentiate between a spark and someone with whom you spend 60+ hours per week! Is Molly too busy to get involved or has bearing witness to and trying to help her clients navigate the messy space when a relationship sours made her wary of getting involved?

 My Thoughts
Molly is an immensely likable character  - she has faults but she also has values and is often motivated by the right things.  Her ability to see through the antics of her clients and colleagues resonates and serves to make her an interesting observer of the crazy world of divorce proceedings and custody agreements.  As Molly goes to great lengths and personal risk in helping Fern, the reader sees a character who understands right  from wrong and looks to even the score between the powerful and those without tremendous resources.

I have a lot of friends who have worked in large NYC law firms and many feel the same way as Molly - overworked and constantly questioning why they are doing what they do.  Like Molly, the author is also a divorce attorney which I am sure helped her get this struggle just right - the story did not feel cliched. This is definitely a great read and, like The Devil Wears Prada, will make you appreciate your own job no matter how tough it might be!

Thank you to Books Sparks PR for providing a copy of this book for review.