Would you like your women's bar group to get more involved nationally? The National Conference of Women's Bar Associations is currently accepting applications for board openings for the two-year term beginning August 11, 2017. Board members are nominated by their member bar association and agree to participate in three in-person meetings a year, as well as in committee work. For more information and a downloadable application form,  click here . Completed nomination forms should be sent to  info@ncwba.org  no later than May 31. Final selection of nominees will be made by the NCWBA Nominating Committee and presented as a slate for election at the August Women's Bar Leadership Summit in New York. Questions? Ask us.

Our 2017 Women's Bar Leadership Summit: Succeeding with Strength and Savvy will be held in the heart of New York City, in the 30th-floor offices of Thomson Reuters at 3 Times Square, with spectacular views from the Hudson River to Times Square's New Year's Eve Crystal Ball.  Here is a preview of some of the highlights:

Events will be kicked off on Thursday, August 10, at Fordham Law School, with a Welcome Reception, which will include a screening of the documentary Balancing the Scales, a film featuring candid interviews with a wide range of women attorneys and judges who will share their career perspectives--from young lawyers facing challenges as they start their careers, to mid-level associates striving to achieve professional success, to senior attorneys and judges who have become leaders in the profession. A panel of distinguished speakers, including filmmaker and attorney Sharon Rowen and Aracely Munoz Petrich, will be on hand to answer questions about the film and ways in which we can work to further advance equality in the profession.

On Friday, August 11 we will hold a full day of Summit events, featuring extraordinary speakers and panels, and our annual awards luncheon. Our first program on Friday will be Women in the White House - A Conversation with Kathy and Kim. This will feature  Kathryn Ruemmler, now a partner at Latham & Watkins and former Chief Counsel to President Obama, and Kimberley Harris, former Deputy Counsel to President Obama, who now serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for NBCUniversal. The moderator will be Jessica Brown, Gibson Dunn partner and past president of the Colorado Women's Bar Association.

Keynoting our Awards Luncheon will be Roberta Kaplan, Paul Weiss partner known for her successful litigation of cases involving Title IX, the sharing economy and same-sex marriage. She is the author of  Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA, which was named by Ms. Magazine as one of the top books of 2015.

The NCWBA Public Service Award and Outstanding Member Program Award will be presented at the luncheon. The recipient of our 2017 Public Service Award is the  Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts , for their  Pay Equity Project . Receiving an honorable mention in the same category is the  Women's Bar Association of the State of New York  for their  Voter Registration Project . The recipient of the 2017 Outstanding Member Program Award is South Carolina Women Lawyers Association for their  Building Resilience Project .

In the coming weeks, we will provide more information about our Summit line-up, including a wonderful panel on networking, mentoring, coaching, and sponsorship (and how we all need each of these to advance our careers), and G OOD Guys 101 - Engaging Men in Our Success .

In addition to these and other programs, there will be plenty of time for networking and sharing ideas about effective programs and services for women's bar associations.

Who should attend the Summit? Anyone seeking ideas to energize their women's bar associations, sections or committees, and anyone who wants to stay on top of the latest trends and issues facing women lawyers. This will be a terrific event, in an amazing venue, and we hope you will join us. Cost of registration is $250 and includes all Summit events: the Welcome Reception and Film Screening, Awards Luncheon, and an end-of-Summit reception, where we will be able to enjoy wine and refreshments and mingle with Summit participants as the sun sets and the lights come on in Times Square.

To register, click here.

We also encourage individuals, firms and companies to become Summit sponsors. For details and options for  sponsoring the Summit,  click here . We also want to thank our "early-bird" sponsors: 

Financial Sponsors:
Gold: New York Women's Bar Association

Silver: Elizabeth A. Bryson, Munger Tolles & Olson LLP
Bronze: Jeanne Marie Clavere,  Cuba Cultural Travel, Diana Theos PLLC, FindLaw, Sutliff & Stout, Zimmerman & Zimmerman PA

In-Kind Sponsors:

Platinum: Thomson Reuters and the Legal Executive Institute

Fordham University School of Law

Silver: Gibson Dunn

By virtue of membership in the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations, you are entitled to a 10% discount when you register for the National Association of Women Lawyers' 2017 Seattle Conference, to be held Tuesday, May 9 at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel. Just use the code SCNCWBA2017 when you register. For more information, click here.

Our membership year runs with the calendar year, which means that this is the right time to send in your organization's membership dues for 2017. Dues for 2017 have not increased, and are based on your organization's membership numbers. We rely on your membership dues and active participation in order to strengthen women's bar groups throughout North America.  Click here to download a membership form  to send in with your dues check. If you prefer to pay by debit or credit card,  click here .