Shearman & Sterling’s Jessica Delbaum, a New York-based partner in the Antitrust Group, was featured as a "Voice of Experience" on The Glass Hammer, an online community designed for women executives in financial services, law and business.

Delbaum talks about the journey that led her from legal assistant at Shearman & Sterling to honors program attorney at the DOJ to partner at the firm today. An antitrust class she took during her second year of law school sparked her interest in the field. “I was almost immediately won over by antitrust’s complex and stimulating mix of corporate law, litigation, criminal work and business—all in one body of law,” she says. Today, Delbaum focuses on defending multinational companies’ mergers and acquisitions before the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice, as well as coordinating the multi-jurisdictional antitrust defense of transactions. As she explained, the most rewarding part of her job is helping clients achieve their strategic goals as they navigate the complexities of the antitrust realm.

Recognizing the importance of career development opportunities, Delbaum is involved in a number of Shearman & Sterling’s initiatives, including co-chairing the firm’s global Associate Development Partners Committee and serving as co-partner adviser for the firm’s Women’s Initiative for Success, Excellence and Retention.

Developing internal and external networks is the key to success both for new and more experienced women practitioners, she maintains. “We are great resources for each other and we need to take advantage of any opportunities to mingle our professional groups to help nurture potential business contacts.”

Read Jessica Delbaum's "Voice of Experience" profile on The Glass Hammer.