It was only two years ago that Melinda Giftos was recognized as a rising star in the legal profession by Wisconsin Super Lawyers, but little did she know that her star would soon reach the executive galaxy.
Giftos, already Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek’s technology law team leader and a key member of its intellectual property practice group, recently became the first woman to be appointed to the position of managing shareholder of the firm’s Madison office.
She succeeds Jerard Jensen, who in April was named general counsel for the Marshfield Clinic after more than 25 years as regional managing shareholder and a health care attorney for Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek. “To be honest with you, I did not expect it,” Giftos notes. “I didn’t expect my predecessor to leave and have the position open, so that was surprising to me. I’ve always been interested in leadership positions, and I’ve always imagined that I would have a leadership role in my firm, but I didn’t expect it to happen so fast. It’s an honor.”
Dramatic change
After embarking on what she called a nontraditional path, Giftos has been with Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek for seven years. Giftos, whose husband also is an attorney, was out of the workforce for six years as a stay-at-home mom. Now a 41-year-old mother of boys ages 12 and 13, she appreciates recent and dramatic changes in the way law firms operate as businesses.
Giftos received a Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law and earned a bachelor’s of science degree from Florida State University. The first law firm she worked at was a boutique firm in Jacksonville, Fla., and it had mandatory office hours — mandatory “face time” — from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.
More recently, fewer mandatory office hours are required, and more flexible and family friendly policies have been adopted for men and women. For example, Whyte Hirschboeck has offered paid maternity and paternity leave, 12 weeks for women and four weeks for men, and its board of directors recently voted to expand both.
For Giftos, the commitment is a simple matter of investing in people, but it helps that men in the firm also value work-life balance and appreciate the benefits of a diverse workforce. The latter, she believes, allows the firm to better represent its client base, while the former is a must-have human resources practice.
“You have to invest in your people,” she states. “If you want to attract and retain good people, you need to take care of them. If somebody is going to go out on family leave, and is gone for a few weeks, it’s really not a long period of time, so we think it’s well worth it. It makes economic sense to do it.”
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Double duty
As managing shareholder, Giftos will be entrusted with business development and strategic hiring to build practice teams, but she will continue to do some lawyering. She represents clients in a wide range of industries on intellectual property matters such as copyright and trademark infringement, licensing, the sale of “IP” assets, and complex technology transactions involving open source software and software-as-a-service license agreements.
Giftos also serves on the board of directors of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s intellectual property and technology law section. She’s grateful to have been entrusted with leadership roles, but notes that hasn’t been easy for women in the legal profession. “It’s pretty well known, particularly in the legal industry, that there are many obstacles [for women],” Giftos states. “A lot of law firms are making an effort to change that, and it’s important because women bring an important perspective to the management of a law firm.”
Pro bono bonus
Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, which was founded in 1985, has offices in Milwaukee, Madison, and Waukesha County. The firm employs more than 150 people who practice in more than 50 industry and specialty areas, but it also encourages community service and pro bono work. The firm provides volunteer pro bono legal services for students facing expulsion in the Madison Metropolitan School District through the Dane County Bar Association’s new StEPP (Student Expulsion Prevention Project) program, and Giftos provides pro bono representation to nonprofit organizations that support members of the U.S. military and veterans.
Giftos also serves as chair of the Board of Directors for Girls on the Run of Dane County, a youth development program that encourages girls in grades 3–5 to become self-confident leaders and healthy, active people. There is a fitness component to the program, as girls train 10 weeks for a 10K run, but it’s also about character development. Participating girls also complete community service projects and learn about the harm caused by bullying and gossip.
The program needs adult coaches — Giftos volunteers as a coach — and monetary contributions can be made online. “It’s a great way to reach girls at a young age, before they get into the harder years of adolescence, where there is a lot of peer pressure,” Giftos says. “We try to give them tools so they can cope with situations and make smart and healthy choices for themselves.”
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