WOMENS WAY's immediate past board chair Stephanie Resnick was honored on December 8 by the Philadelphia Business Journal and the National Association of Women Business Owners as a 2004 Woman of Distinction. Many longtime WOMENS WAY supporters, including founder Lynn Yeakel, were among the other 24 honorees."
Stephanie Resnick, Partner, Fox Rothschild O'Brien & Frankel LLP
"To function well, you need to be a team player"
Team sports background helps Stephanie Resnick in her legal career
Rob Laymon Special totthe Business Journal As a managing partner with the law firm of Fox Rothschild, Stephanie Resnick has seen her share of legal fights.
Resnick chose business law as her specialty and her litigation skills have gone into action on all sorts of disputes: breach of contract, partnership breakups, unfair business practices, directors’ and officers’ liability and employment issues. She works in state and federal courts alike.
But her work outside the courtroom also marks a will to progress.
Resnick started with the firm 18 years ago. She began at the bottom and moved steadily through male-dominated ranks. Resnick now finds herself chairing the firm’s Partnership Advancement Committee — the committee charged with recommending new partners to the firm. During her committee tenure, the number of women partners at the firm increased 50 percent.
She also serves as one of six elected members of Fox Rothschild’s management committee. She was the first women elected to that body in the firm’s 96-year history.
She got involved with the Philadelphia Bar Association as well, and for that organization she chaired the Federal Courts Committee — the liaison between the federal bench and federal court practitioners. She is a former co-chair of the Women’s Rights Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association. She served on the Executive Committee of the Fairness in the Courts Task Force. And she served on the Committee on Judicial Selection and Retention, which she chaired in 1997.
This last committee is one of the most difficult and prestigious in the Bar Association, said Fox Rothschild partner Abe Reich.
Chairing that committee “is a very sensitive position,” Reich said, “because it requires great diplomacy and tact in handling the evaluation of judges. And Stephanie came away with high marks.
“She has had a career that spans a lot of different areas, including serving our own clients, which is our first purpose. She has, on every occasion, demonstrated strength of character, high moral fiber and a work ethic that is admirable. She brings wisdom and sound judgment to everything she does.”
Outside of the work for Fox and the bar association, Resnick got involved with WOMENS WAY, the country’s oldest and largest nonprofit funding organization for women and children. For WOMENS WAY, Resnick directed the organization’s funding campaign for a few years, then became vice-chair of the board, and ultimately chair. During her time as chairwoman, Resnick participated in an overhaul of the organization’s structure and mission.
“She was chair during our strategic planning process, and that involved intense discussions about change,” said Melissa Weiler Gerber, executive director of WOMENS WAY. “That is never an easy thing for organizations to face, and she was instrumental in seeing that process through. She has a very tough and effective personality, but underneath it all she has such a soft place in her heart for issues that impact women and children in our community. She brought the skills of her profession to our organization and was able to make an effective change.”
Born in New York, Resnick moved with her family to the Virgin Islands when she was 10. There she became a sailor, a competitive swimmer and a diving instructor. She played varsity field hockey in high school and at Villanova University.
All through college she also played varsity lacrosse, and these experiences taught the benefits of team play.
“In order to function well, you need to be a team player,” she said, “and I feel that I am a team player, and that part of my responsibility is bringing other members of the team along.”
Through all the activities she had one objective.
“I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer,” Resnick said. “I was always one of the kids in class who couldn’t keep my mouth shut.”
She started her professional life as a summer intern with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office. Then she did a two-year stint at another law firm, and finally came to Fox Rothschild.
