Eighteen years ago Janelle Eveland Belling began her career as a litigation paralegal—and worked her way to her current job, Managing Director of E-Discovery Services and Strategy at Perkins Coie. Based in Seattle, she’s a role model for young women (and men) about how to grow their careers.

Along the way, Belling became an analyst; project manager; manager of the project management team before she was given the leadership role. Over the years, she confronted and overcame obstacles—and learned how to “manage up,” creatively deal with adversaries, inspire teams  and find important mentors.

Her story has many valuable lessons. And she offers a great “five favorite tech tools,” which include both Swype and Skype!

The Women of Legal Tech series (aka STEM Cells) can be found at ALM’ Legaltech news (free, but registration is required). Check it out: http://bit.ly/29M5DhL

Our goal is to encourage girls and women to dive into science, technology, engineering and math—and in doing so, to help the legal profession address the vexing gender pay inequality.

Monica Bay is a CodeX Fellow and a freelance journalist and analyst. A member of the California bar, she was Editor-in-Chief of Law Technology News (now Legaltech news) for 17 years before retiring in 2015. Twitter: @MonicaBay Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu.

Photo credit: Lydia Brewer
Cover image: Clipart.com