Honigman celebrates women's leadership at 2007 Executive Women's Breakfast with Sandra Pierce

Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP (Honigman) celebrated cultivating leadership among women at this year's 11th Annual Executive Women's Breakfast with keynote speaker Sandra E. Pierce, president and CEO of Charter One Bank in Michigan and Indiana.

Honigman encourages and values its leading 64 women attorneys at the firm, including four female department heads and two members of the Honigman Board of Directors. Karen R. Pifer, firm partner in the Real Estate department, chaired the breakfast held on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007, at The Townsend Hotel inBirmingham, Mich. This year's breakfast brought together nearly 300 women executives from all over the state of Michigan.

Some of Pierce's advice on career planning included:

• Succeed and soar on your own terms.
• Define yourself by your performance, not your gender.
• Achieve balance in life by charting each week using "a circle of life."
• Picture your life as circle, which cannot be more than 100 percent full. Take time to determine how much of the circle will be filled by business and family.
• Take pride in your background.