This year's theme focused on women and the military by exploring the "unique forces shaping women's access to power in the U.S. military" according to the school's publication.

The Women and Law Conference has a distinguished background for bold and revolutionary examinations of sensitive and often controversial topics that reflect current societal challenges. This year was no exception as it addressed sexual assaults in the U.S. Armed Force and the official enactment of permitting women into combat roles in the military. Speakers and panel members were individuals with extensive experience in the military and civilian sectors of law.

Clearly, this conference represented many diverse points of view that unfortunately included a continued practice of insensitivity and victim blaming.

During an open question forum, a female audience member spoke about the danger of women reporting every harassing event that happened to her and gave the example of a serviceman grabbing the hips of a servicewoman with his hands and "booty bumping" her, this is described as a grinding and gyrating motion of the hips against the woman's butt without actually making contact to simulate the act of sex. She further spoke about how she thinks it's unfair and that it was "garbage" that the man would face harsh punishment like prison time for this "harmless act".

In response to the anecdote, Nicole Heffel, Navy veteran and alumni of Thomas Jefferson School of Law, said she was disappointed and offended that anyone would disapprove of someone coming forward with something that they felt emotionally and psychologically violated over. "I think it's disrespectful that you would say it's "garbage" for a woman to report her violation of her person," said Heffel. "Although he didn't penetrate her physically, he did penetrate her career, he penetrated her success in that career, and he penetrated her upward movement in life."

With a strong presence of active servicemembers in the room and an even stronger presence of powerful active duty military leaders and officers in the room, the conference presented Captain Stacy A. Pedrozo, Judge Advocate General's Corps, U.S. Navy, Commanding Officer, Naval Justice School, and this year's 2014 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecturer.

In response to the question, "Why more women in the military?", Pedrozo stated that women are committed to their careers and concerned about negative issues affecting them not because they are "advocates for social change, but because they want to be better war fighters." She attributes her own successful upward climb in the military to having good examples in leadership and focusing on the larger picture. "We have to figure out how we can impact the mission," said Pedrozo.

"I never felt I was held back because [of my gender]," said Pedrozo. When asked if she had any negative experiences because of her gender, she said that she never felt any discrimination and said that her career was more about knowing your own strengths and weaknesses and taking care of the people that have helped you along the way.

Echoing her sentiment, Keynote Speaker, Vice Admiral Nanette M. DeRenzi, also spoke about the power of concentrating energies on doing a good job to the best of your abilities. As 42nd Judge Advocate of the U.S. Navy and the first female to hold the position, DeRenzi attributed her success to knowing and understanding the people that worked for her, being ambitious for your organization, and executing their vision.

Seeing two such successful women representing the military in a forum speaking about the issues of women serving in the U.S. Armed Forces was an opportunity for both civilians and military members in the audience to have a general idea of the unique challenges they face.  Army veteran Stacy Renoldo is a student at San Diego State University and heard about the conference through social media. "I wanted to come here because it's not often that there are events for women veterans to gather in solidarity, but after this, I'm a little disappointed," said Renoldo. "Although the speakers were powerful women and I'm glad they made it to where they were without experiencing a little backlash because they were women, that's just not the average "G.I. Jane's" experience. I'm not represented."

Navy Veteran Lauren Halle said, "I thought this conference was informative and I'm really glad I came. It's nice to know that even the experts don't exactly know how to fix the problems of gender inequality and in this case, sexual assaults."

There are broad and generalized statements of change and many are left wondering who has the best solution. Until then,  DeRenzi said, "Sexual assault is a reflection of the society. It's a problem, we have to work on it day in and day out. We can talk about the numbers, we can quibble about the 26,000, we need to embrace it, we need to solve it. I don't have the luxury to complain about it, we need to work together to solve it."