The Recorder announced winners of the 2026 California Legal Awards on Wednesday, and Keker, Van Nest & Peters partner Rachael Meny was honored among Women Leaders in Tech Law. This is the fifth time Meny has been named to the annual list.
A digital slideshow of Women Leaders in Tech Law profiles is on Law.com (subscription required). Excerpts of Meny’s responses are included below.
What’s your proudest professional achievement of the past year and why?
We achieved successful outcomes for clients across a broad range of cases, including in the employee mobility and trade secret cases that I love. These successes show the value of developing fast, efficient, and strategic ways to address concerns around departing and incoming employees and being pro-active and smart in how we tackle every case, whether large or small.
In other cases, I handled the damages issues, while also securing disability benefits for an indigent individual client who had no other source of support and asylum for an El Salvadorean woman who suffered extreme domestic violence in her home country.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a woman starting out in tech law?
Spend the time to learn your client’s business, products, needs and employees. Clients want you to understand their business and look for lawyers who both understand their business and can be smart and strategic about their business. Also, find people at your client that you like, and connect with, and make an effort to get to know them. When you work with people that you like and connect with, it makes the work more enjoyable for all involved.
What is a group, tool or initiative that has helped you grow in your career or contributes to the development of pipelines for women leaders in tech law?
During my career I have found numerous different groups of female lawyers that have created pipelines to help develop space for, and the careers of, women leaders in tech law. These can be formal – like ChIPs – but also informal like the relationships you build with women who are working as lawyers in tech law. Finding such groups, and taking advantage of the opportunities they provide, is key.
Reprinted with permission from the June 25, 2026, edition of Law.com © 2026 ALM Global Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-256-2472 or asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com
