As readers of Big Law Business know, women remain underrepresented in the partnership ranks of Big Law, and many women lawyers pursue alternative career tracks within the legal industry because they feel frustrated by a lack of growth opportunities or equal pay. But that’s not always the case.

At this year’s Legalweek conference, Bloomberg Law reporter Stephanie Russell-Kraft spoke with Haley Altman, a 36-year-old mother of 2 children who recently left an equity partnership at Ice Miller to start her own legal tech company. Her story struck Ms. Russell-Kraft as something of a rarity. Altman said didn’t leave because she was unhappy. In fact, she loved being a lawyer.

Below is an outline of her career path, which notes some of the factors that contributed to her journey, including support from her former law firm, which helped land her a $2.2 million seed financing round to start her company.

• Altman joined Ice Miller in Indianapolis after finishing law school at Indiana University in 2006. She briefly moved out west to Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s Palo Alto office, but returned to Indiana after a few years servicing the tech industry.

• She was an associate when she came up with the idea for Doxly, a transaction management software that claims to streamline the diligence and closing processes for time-strapped attorneys. The idea came late one night when she and another associate scrambled to find a missing signature page that threatened to hold up a multi-million-dollar closing.

[Click link below to continue reading]