Company: Sidley Austin
Title:Â Management Committee Chair & Executive Committee Member
Industry: Legal
Hometown:Â Dallas, Texas
Notable in 2023: Fought for reproductive rights in Texas, and led Sidley Austin past $3 billion in revenue for the first time.
Yvette Ostolaza is the first Hispanic, and first woman, to ever lead 157-year-old law firm Sidley Austin, and in breaking down barriers at the firm, Ostolaza is breaking down barriers at the highest levels of the white-collar legal industry. With Sidley Austin ranked by American Lawyer at No. 6 based on gross revenue in 2023, Ostolaza is the first Hispanic women to lead any top 10 law firm. Its revenue reached over $3 billion for the first time under her leadership.
Ostolaza rose to the top spot at Sidley Austin after serving as global co-leader for its litigation group, a team of 750 Sidley litigators responsible for $800 million in revenue, which would place the group itself among the 50 largest U.S. law firms. During her time as head of the firm's Dallas office, she grew that team from 15 to over 125 lawyers serving clients including AT&T, American Airlines, and Neiman Marcus.
Ostolaza, along with Beatriz Azcuy, co-managing partner of Sidley's Miami office and head of its real estate group, oversaw the opening of the firm's newest office in Miami, with 50 lawyers serving 700 clients. They share something else in common, according to a profile in the The Miami Herald: Ostolaza and Azcuy are among the less than 1% of Hispanic female lawyers in the United States that have risen to become partner in a law firm.
"I try to spend a lot of time giving back to the community and making sure that other people know that your parents can be immigrants and you can end up running the firm that Mary Todd Lincoln used, and Barack Obama's firm," Ostolaza told the Miami newspaper. (Both Barack and Michelle Obama worked at Sidley Austin.)
I measure success by the happiness of my family and the impact to my community. I continue to draw great strength and inspiration from community involvement, moving the needle to effect change.Yvette OstolazaManagement Committee Chair & Executive Committee Member, Sidley Austin
Ostolaza has also been a leading corporate voice on women's reproductive rights in the wake of the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, and as a result, a target herself of political attacks by conservative groups including the Texas Freedom Caucus after she implemented travel reimbursement policies for the firm's employees related to women's health-care in 2022.
Educating the next generation of lawyers on business leadership skills critical to working with top corporations is among her key recent efforts. In 2023, Ostolaza created an MBA-level training program, Built to Lead, with Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and Columbia's Business School, which enrolled over 450 lawyers.
She told Dallas-based D Magazine that her leadership approach reflects a belief in the importance of diversity. "The best ideas should stand on their own, regardless of where they come from," she said. Ostolaza says this fundamental approach to building an inclusive team is helping Sidley Austin's competitive positioning. "Having different role models for attorneys and professionals we are recruiting is important. I see it as one of our superpowers. Sidley is winning the talent war because we attract and retain individuals from different backgrounds while other firms have lagged behind."
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