Robyn Minter Smyers
Executive Committee, Thompson Hine
By Sharon |I Holbrook Photograph by Angelo Merendino
“want to live on Leighton Road,” real estate
attorney Robyn Minter Smyers told her
husband Bert. This was some 15 years ago,
when they were contemplating a move away from
New York City. Remarkably, thanks to inquiries
with a network of friends in Shaker Heights,
that’s exactly where the Shaker native and her
family wound up.
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Smyers, recently promoted from
partner-in-charge of the Cleveland
office to Thompson Hines’ Executive
Committee – the firm’s nine-member
governing body – grew up in the
Boulevard neighborhood and attended
Shaker public schools until she left for
Harvard University. Smyers moved
back when she and her husband were
thinking about having children. “We
couldn’t think of a better place to raise a
family than Shaker Heights,” she says.
Smyers credits much of her own success to her Shaker roots, which still shape her work. “I believe that growing
up in Shaker gave me a tremendous advantage in life. First of all, I had such a high-quality education.”
But it wasn’t just academics, she says. “I had a strong appreciation for diversity and inclusion. As a person who is
biracial, I had a healthy sense of myself from having grown up in such an integrated community. And I had a passion
for social justice. The Shaker schools have done a good job in preparing young people to care about the world.”
It’s not an accident, she says, that some of Thompson Hine’s priorities echo the Shaker values she describes.
It’s part of why – in addition to its stellar real estate practice – she chose Thompson Hine when she returned to the
Cleveland area.
“As an African American, I was searching for a firm that already had a lot of history and tradition of attracting,
retaining, and advancing people of color.” The firm’s support for women was also a factor in Smyers’ decision to
choose Thompson Hine.
“We are proud of our tradition of attracting, advancing, and retaining women, and the fact that we have so many
women in leadership roles at the firm is a reflection of that deep and longstanding commitment,” says Smyers.
Finally, Smyers was also attracted to the firm’s longstanding commitment to community involvement
and service.
Now Smyers is at the center of shaping its culture, which has continued to evolve and grow. One innovation has
been in the ways the firm supports its attorneys as they become parents. Thompson Hine has long had a generous
maternity leave. Smyers took more than seven months after the birth of her first child. Now there is even more
support, including for dads.
“We’re a talent-oriented business, so nothing is more important than ensuring that we keep and support our
people through the process of becoming parents,” says Smyers.
Thompson Hine has received national recognition for its Mother-to-Be mentoring program, which partners
younger lawyers who are expecting a child with more senior partners who are mothers.
Part-time arrangements are also workable at Thompson Hine. Smyers came back part-time after the birth of her
first child, and she actually changed the structure of her part-time arrangement almost every year for a few years.
When she was named a partner, she was still working part-time and was expecting twins.
When I talked to Smyers this spring, she was still the partner-in-charge of the Cleveland office. As such, she said
she relished her role in fostering this sort of culture.
Sometimes that’s as simple as thinking of everyone when an office renovation takes place, as it recently did
at Thompson Hine. Attorney offices on the outer ring of the Key Center location now have glass on their hallwayfacing
side, meaning that the support and administrative staff on the inner ring have much more natural light
than they did before.
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