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Not to go all girl-power on Briefly Legal readers, but in last week鈥檚 鈥淭his and that鈥� column, I talked about the challenges that women lawyers raising families face in the law profession. So I figured I might as well continue tugging at that thread and see what unravels.

Apparently, great minds think alike. Shortly after posting the column, I looked in my inbox and found a press release from Oregon Women Lawyers. The group spends a good part of its time trying to find ways to help both women and minorities move into legal careers and, once they get there, climb up the professional ladder.

When it comes to careers in law, women and minorities聽 face similar challenges. For starters, they often have a hard time accessing information about careers in the industry. And if they do find their way into the legal profession, they then have to develop the tools they’ll need to move onward — and upward. Add to the mix an issue touched on last week: raising children while maintaining career momentum in a world where success and worth are usually based on聽 billable hours.

Oregon Women Lawyers, which goes by the cool acronym OWLS, has been working to help law firms solve those problems. Rather than preach and lecture, though, the group prefers to teach by example. That鈥檚 why OWLS created its annual Workplace Leader Award. Winners of the award have been local law firms that OWLS feels can serve as models for other firms still struggling for ways to find and retain more women and minority attorneys and staff.

If you think you know of a firm that deserves the award this year, the nomination process is pretty straightforward. Each nomination should include any information that will help the award committee evaluate your nominee’s commitment to encouraging women and minorities. And don鈥檛 forget to include the names of people who should be contacted if the committee needs additional information.

The nomination deadline is 5 p.m., June 1. Send nominations by email to Dana Forman, the chairwoman of OWLS Transformation Committee, at [email protected].

The winning firm for 2012 will be honored during an OWLS CLE in the fall.