As part of the Portland Business Journal’s Executive Insights
series, PBJ Market President and Publisher Candace Beeke
spoke with Anne Talcott, shareholder with Schwabe, Williamson
& Wyatt about advancing women in health care and law.
As the leader of Schwabe health care and life sciences industry
group, Anne guides lawyers across three states and various
practice groups in serving health care and biotech clients.
With over 28 years of experience, she represents national and
regional health care providers as well as some of the largest
pharmaceutical, medical device and biologic manufacturers and
distributors worldwide.

The full video interview can be found here.

CANDACE BEEKE: How did you come to working with
health care and life sciences clients?

ANNE TALCOTT: I took a lot of science classes as an
undergraduate at UC San Diego. I eventually pivoted to
political science and economics, but retained a deep interest
and curiosity in the sciences. When I came to Schwabe, I was
drawn to this practice group because of the science focus.
It was also, coincidentally, the practice group with the most
women partners. There were three, and in the mid-’90s, that
was unheard of, both at Schwabe and nationally. I saw them
as role models with careers I could attain someday.

BEEKE: What have been the biggest challenges?

TALCOTT: Any woman who’s been practicing for almost
30 years has encountered biases — challenges within the
firm, judges, opposing counsel and even clients who, over
time, have come to understand that a female lawyer is just
as competent as a male. That was not true when I started
practicing.

But what’s more important are the challenges the industry
has been facing in the last five years with COVID and the
pressures employees in health care have experienced being
frontline workers; the pressures of practitioners at all levels
deciding to leave the field after the pandemic. And now,
nationally, the regulatory changes impacting funding for
research in life sciences, the coming changes to Medicare,
and finally, what’s happening to the workforce with
immigration at all levels. The health care and life science
industries are facing crises like they’ve not seen before.

BEEKE: Did you have a mentor? If so, what was their
role? How did that help you?

TALCOTT: I worked with three strong, successful female
partners from the day I started. They gave me the ability to
see I could do this job and represent clients at a high level.
But my strongest mentor and promoter was a conservative
white male partner at Schwabe. I practiced with him until
he retired a couple of years ago. He had confidence in me
and gave me the space to grow, including enough latitude to
succeed and sometimes to fail. And he helped pick me up
when I did make mistakes. Young lawyers need to remember
it’s called a “practice of law” because there’s always going to
be growth. This mentor helped me learn from my mistakes.
Long before he retired, he already had in mind transitioning
his practice. That’s the biggest show of confidence an
attorney can give — the willingness to turn their clients over.

BEEKE: How have you seen organizational support for
women attorneys change?

TALCOTT: Thirty years ago there was almost no
organizational support for women attorneys. The attitude
back then was, you were lucky if you got that one single
spot for a woman, and you should just be happy to be here.
I, at least, had the women I practiced with who were ahead
of me, breaking down some barriers. So I had more latitude
to be myself, to understand that I could be a parent and
practice at Schwabe, but it still was a struggle.

About 20 years ago, Schwabe realized that although
we were hiring the best and the brightest lawyers, who,
coincidentally, were primarily women, we were not retaining
women at the same rate that we were retaining men. We
were not losing them to other law firms, but either to our
clients or they were leaving the practice of law completely.

So Schwabe formed our Women’s Initiative, which has
multiple purposes. An important one is bringing women
together, because we found that our women don’t tend
to come together as organically as our male attorneys
do. But Schwabe’s Women’s Initiative also has a more
important business purpose, which is to pay attention to
the training and advancement of women within the firm,
and to succession planning when lawyers retire, to ensure
that women attorneys inherit books of business to the same
extent as their male counterparts.

Our women’s initiative has been a huge organizational boost
for women at the firm. Today, Schwabe is very strongly led by women. We have a female CEO. Our board of directors
is 60% women. Half our department heads are women, and
our industry group leaders, are (about) 35% women.

BEEKE: What is your advice to young women attorneys
interested in health care and life sciences?

TALCOTT: It’s an exciting industry to be in right now,
one where you need to continue to learn because things
are constantly evolving, both with science and regulatory
changes.

And remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint. There will be
peaks and valleys, and sometimes a detour, and that’s OK.
You cannot map it out completely and think it will be a
straight road. But you learn from those valleys, as much as
from the peaks. And the detours may bring you to a deeper
passion.

My final bit of advice is the idea of work-life balance. Some
days will be in balance. Other days, I will be focusing more
on my career than on my family, and sometimes my family
needs to be the most important. Let go of the idea that
everything will always be in balance. Give yourself a little
grace and understand it’s going to be OK. As long as you
communicate at home and at the office, it can be done.

This article first appeared in print in the Portland Business Journal on August 29, 2025.

This article summarizes aspects of the law and does not constitute legal advice. For legal advice for your situation, you should contact an attorney.