Freddi Weintraub, another partner at the largest corporate immigration law firm in the world, Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, adds, “In order to succeed, as hackneyed as this may sound, you have to love what you do. It does not work otherwise.” She enjoys helping talented people from around the world emigrate to the United States to work at universities, companies, and as athletes, and doing pro bono work including political asylum cases. With a notable 43 percent of its partners being women, Fragomen is a particularly supportive environment, Weintraub and Robosson note.

But it would be misleading to suggest that the path to the top, even for those who love their careers and don’t mind long hours, is easy. “It was very, very hard in the beginning,” says Chemtob, whose clients include celebrities and billionaires. Chemtob did it all by herself, she notes, “no financial help, no mentor, nothing. I worked so hard for so long to get the office where it is. It didn’t happen by luck, and I think women need to know that.”

Riesel initially worked in the field of criminal defense but switched her focus in the late 1970s. “I found matrimonial law much more gender-neutral than criminal defense,” she says. Today, at least 50 percent of divorce lawyers are women, she says, a dramatic increase in the past 30 years.

"...you have to love what you do. It does not work otherwise."

High-stakes medical malpractice law is one of the most challenging fields in the legal profession. “It’s not an easy road to travel successfully,” says Livingston. “The pressure is huge. There are probably few endeavors in life fraught with more anxiety than trying a case because you have so much you have to be prepared for and so little you can actually control.” For her, the joy comes when she gets a great result for a client, and, while doing so, is able to prevail over a physician in his or her own area of expertise. “There’s little more satisfying than taking on a true expert against you and have them concede where they’re wrong,” she says.

Many of these women rose to the top of the profession while also raising children, a feat that every working parent recognizes as not only difficult but exhausting. Balancing family and mega-success at work isn’t easy but can be done—if you want it badly enough, they say.

“I think the reality is that you’re on a treadmill, working and taking care of family concerns,” says Riesel, who began practicing law in the late 1960s. “I have two children, and when they were young I never felt I was in the right place. If I was at work, I felt should be at home, and vice versa. Once you learn that’s part of your landscape and you expand hours of the day, I think it can be done.”

Livingston, the mother of three teenagers, agrees. Trial law, she says, “is not 9 to 5 or even 8 to 6. When you’re on trial and in the weeks before, it’s all consuming. To balance working 24 hour days with life outside the courtroom is very difficult.” But when a trial ends, Livingston makes her family as a priority, leaving the office early to make school plays or sporting events.

Chemtob says she took “literally no time off” after the birth of each of her three sons. Not taking any maternity leave was “the biggest decision of my life,” she says, but Chemtob did not want to lose the ground she worked so hard to achieve. “Unfortunately, if you take a year off, it’s equivalent to taking two to three years ago because technology changes, the market changes, the law changes,” she says. “If you really are committed to your career, I really believe taking time off is going to hurt you.”

For any successful female executive, whether she has children or not, there’s something else invaluable in trying to stay healthy and happy while climbing the career ladder. “A sense of humor is a huge key to success,” says Weintraub, as are good role models, collegiality in the workplace, and a team spirit. “Balance is a hard one, but it bears repeating that you do it with hard work and a lot of laughter.”