Every day we celebrate very dynamic women who impact our lives. During March, we highlighted the accomplishments of historical and ceiling-shattering women. Tonya Mitchem Grindon is one such dynamic and ceiling-shattering woman. Several years ago, we highlighted her many accomplishments, when in 2008, Grindon became the first woman to chair the Securities/Corporate Governance Practice Group at Baker Donelson. Today she continues to chart her own course and break down barriers. In so doing, she has developed a very successful practice in corporate finance/securities, an area long dominated by men, and has developed one of the most demographically diverse practice groups at Baker Donelson in an area of law not known for diversity. Grindon has been very intentional about hiring successful lawyers and being self-aware:

"For quite a few years, I didn't realize it, but I was almost exclusively hiring lawyers who were 'mini-mes' (white, outgoing women). It wasn't until I participated in the Firm's implicit bias training, did I realize that I unintentionally had been hiring lawyers who resembled me. Following this training, I began to look for qualities that had also made other people successful."