Akin Gump partner, Cynthia Mabry, on committing to success.
CCBJ: Please tell us about your career path and what led you to your current role with Akin Gump.
Cynthia Mabry: As a dear friend and colleague of mine says, “I didn’t start at Akin Gump, but I got here as fast as I could.”
I had always wanted to be a lawyer, but I actually started my professional career as an accountant at Pricewaterhouse-Coopers in Houston. I left PwC in 2007, not knowing that the Great Recession was around the corner.
I graduated law school in 2010 and started work at another international law firm in Houston. As you can imagine, 2010 was not the ideal time to start a law career. Right before I joined, the firm did its first attorney layoffs in its history.
As a new lawyer, I worked on anything and everything – from company formations to title opinions to litigation support. My first real deal was a secured notes offering – and I was hooked. Capital markets was fast-paced and exciting, and my accounting background proved very helpful on transactions and related compliance work. So when a longtime client started working with Akin Gump, I was encouraged by the client and others to make the jump to Akin Gump. I was promoted to partner this January, less than three years after joining the firm.
You serve as a board member for the University of Houston Law Center (UHLC) Alumni Association. In addition, you are a member of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Ogden Honors College Advisory Council. Please share how you came to these roles and what your goals are as part of these organizations.
I am a devoted alumna of Louisiana State University (Geaux Tigers!), and I attended the Honors College while I was there. When I graduated and moved to Houston, I became involved with the local LSU alumni chapter. What started as planning football game watches and crawfish boils turned into serving as president of the Houston alumni chapter when I was just 25 years old.
I continued to stay involved with LSU following law school, and was asked to join the Advisory Council to the Ogden Honors College at LSU several years ago. The Advisory Council advises the dean on everything from recruitment and retention of Honors College students to fundraising and scholastic goals for the college. It has been eye-opening to see the challenges that state-funded higher education faces in America in the years ahead, and I am honored to serve and help the dean face these challenges.
As women, we need to take action and find ways to make the legal industry and corporate life better.
UHLC is a similar story: In law school, I served as president of the Student Bar Association and also chaired the 3L Gift Committee, which raised more than $35,000 from our graduating law school class for the Immigration Law Clinic at the Law Center.
Following graduation, I was asked to help coordinate small-scale fundraising efforts for the Law Center, and then I was one of three recent alumni asked to join the UHLC Alumni Board in an effort to energize recent graduates. While serving on the Alumni Board, I co-chaired the newly formed Young Alumni Committee, which provides networking and career-development events for recent Law Center alumni, and I also developed a “junior” Dean’s Society for recent graduates.
I recently finished my two-year tenure as president of the UHLC Alumni Association, and I’m now focused on organizing local UHLC alumni chapters in places like Washington, D.C., the Rio Grande Valley and Dallas.
Who and what has influenced you over the course of your career?
Starting “over” professionally in the middle of the recession was really humbling – but I think I am better for it. I learned to dig deeper, work smarter, and be ready to be flexible in a changing market.
First, my family has been very influential in my career. My husband is my tireless advocate and partner. We got married right before law school, so he has been with me from my first law school exam throughout the years leading up to me becoming partner. He has been incredibly supportive at each step of my professional journey. My parents have also been influential. They have always encouraged me to think big and push harder – with everything I do. And – of course – my kids. Working and parenting is definitely a challenge, no matter what your profession. I don’t like to use the word “balance” – you have to learn what works for you and your family, and be flexible.
Professionally, there have been so many people who have influenced me. I think that you find something you like about each person you work with – whether it is their work ethic, their presence in a room, or how they manage their work/life – and you find a way to make it your own. At Akin Gump, Chris LaFollette, John Goodgame and Steve Davis invested in me and helped me transition from associate to partner. They are each leaders in their field who understand their clients’ business and objectives. They have each shown me what it means to be a true partner with your clients, as well as challenged me to be a leader within the firm and the community.
As a new lawyer, I worked on anything and everything.
What is your advice to other women looking for a path to a leadership role?
Stay positive. For all women who are seeking leadership roles, it is up to the leaders to take the high road, to help other women and support other women – personally and professionally. And encouraging others to do the same – that is really key. Leaders must to lead by example.
If you are a professional woman, where there aren’t many women in leadership, it can feel like you are on an island. And there are challenges that men just won’t face in their career, which can be hard for others to understand.
While I do think affinity groups are helpful in some ways, having a women’s group in your place of work is not enough. As women, we need to take action and find ways to make the legal industry and corporate life better for the women that come after us.
Published December 4, 2020.
