March 14, 2022
Dysart Taylor Director Amanda Pennington Ketchum spoke with Kansas City attorney Steve Cosentino for the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association (KCMBA)’s KC Counselor March issue.
The interview was included in the KC Counselor cover article, Breaking the Glass Scales: A Look at KC’s Women Lawyers in Law Firm Leadership.
An excerpt from the article is below.
Many of our KCMBA lawyers would say that they love their job but it certainly is a difficult one. What could be more challenging than practicing law? Managing several lawyers facing the challenges of the legal practice certainly rises to the top of the list. This article celebrates some of the many women lawyers who have risen through the ranks of the law firm leadership. The firms they represent benefit greatly from their hard work, perspective, and selfless leadership. Our legal community is also a much better place because of their efforts and accomplishments. While most of the law firm names are relics of male lawyers of past, the contributions of these outstanding women will contribute much more to their prowess, integrity, work environment, and success than any name ever will.
Mandy Ketchum has been a leader in the legal community for years. She served on the Missouri Bar Board of Governors, chaired the Young Lawyers Council, was the president of the Association for Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City, is on the board of the Association for Women Lawyers Foundation, has served in leadership roles in the US LAW Network and the American Bar Association and, of course, she has served in many roles at KCMBA over the years. It is no surprise that she also served as
Dysart Taylor Cotter McMonigle & Brumitt, P.C.’s Managing Director from 2015 to 2021. She was the first female Managing Director and served the longest tenure of anyone in that role.
In all of her many leadership roles, Mandy is known as a strong supporter of diversity and inclusion efforts. Mandy was the only female lawyer when she started at Dysart Taylor. Today, about one third of their partners are female and all of their litigation associates are female. Her work with the Association for Women Lawyers not only gave Mandy experience in promoting diversity efforts, it also helped her to figure out how to manage her many responsibilities. She learned to delegate and find appropriate times in the mornings and evenings to manage emails about day-to-day issues. These skills served Mandy well when she took the Managing Director position on her first day after maternity leave.
Read the full article in the March 2022 issue of KC Counselor.