Our Founders
Alison Christian and Beth Fitch founded Ladder Down
in the Fall of 2012
Alison Christian and Beth Fitch founded Ladder Down in the fall of 2012. Alison came across an article Beth co-authored for a DRI newsletter in June 2012 entitled “Women Leaders in the Law: An Intergenerational Perspective on Long-Term Legal Careers and the Importance of Mentoring.” The article touched on an issue close to home – women lawyers not becoming equity and managing partners – and Alison knew it was a topic she wanted to explore.
As a member of the Board of Directors for the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel, Alison is responsible for planning monthly CLE luncheons. She invited Beth to present on the topic of the DRI article, and a lunch meeting to discuss the presentation evolved into a conversation about what more could be done to help women attorneys obtain leadership roles within their firms.
The problem had been identified in the legal community, but little had been done to resolve it. Beth and Alison came up with an answer – create a program to empower women in business development, leadership, and mentoring. Their desire to change the course for women lawyers and create a lasting legacy led to the development of the inaugural Ladder Down program, which formally launched in January 2013 with the help of the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel.
During the program’s first year, the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel was awarded the 2013 DRI Diversity Award. The DRI award recognizes the state and local defense organization that has demonstrated a significant commitment to diversity. It was an honor to receive such prestigious national recognition for our grass-roots program and the DRI award inspired other organizations across the country to introduce Ladder Down programs of their own. In 2016, Alison and Beth partnered with the prestigious Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel to create the FDCC/FDCC Foundation Ladder Down. The program is now running in Phoenix, Seattle, and Cleveland under the leadership of the FDCC.
While a shareholder at Christian Dichter & Sluga, P.C., I was an AV-rated attorney with a practice dedicated to insurance coverage and insurance litigation matters in Arizona and New Mexico. Now, I manage bad faith litigation against Liberty Mutual and its affiliates in the United States.
In 2012, I co-founded a business development program to empower women lawyers called “Ladder Down” (www.ladderdown.org). The program is unique in both structure and content, and runs year-long with monthly sessions dedicated to instruction in three key areas: leadership, business development, and mentoring. I partnered with the prestigious Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel in 2016 to launch FDCC Ladder Down programs in San Francisco, Seattle, and Cleveland in addition to the long-standing program in Phoenix. In honor of the program’s 10th anniversary, we are launching the first national Ladder Down program in March 2022!
I am active in the local and national defense communities. I served on the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel Board of Directors from 2011-2021, and am a Past President. I was elected to the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel’s Board of Directors in August 2021, as the youngest member ever to serve as a Director. I also served on the DRI Membership Committee from 2014-2021.
While in private practice, I was ranked by Chambers USA in the Band 2 category for Insurance Law in Arizona, and by Best Lawyers in the Arizona Insurance Litigation category. In 2019 I was recognized by Arizona Business Magazine as one of the top five insurance lawyer leaders in Arizona (and the only woman in the category). I was listed as a Southwest SuperLawyer in Insurance Coverage from 2016-2022. I was recognized by Arizona Business Magazine as one of the most influential women in Arizona business, as the youngest of five honorees in the 2014 “Generation Next” category. In 2016, I was included among the Top 10 Most Influential Millennials in Arizona.
Elizabeth S. Fitch is the managing member of Righi Fitch Law Group. She is an AV-rated trial lawyer with 27 years of insurance defense experience. Beth has defended multi-million dollar cases ranging from catastrophic injuries to construction defect. She has represented all types of professionals, from lawyers to architects. In 2014 she was recognized as one of Phoenix’s top lawyers, and again honored by Southwest Super Lawyer as a Super Lawyer. She is a past president of the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel and has co-authored articles on Mentoring and Rainmaking Essentials. She speaks nationally on empowering female professionals and as recently as October 2014 led a business development boot camp for a national network of trial lawyers.