June NCWBA Newsletter

Serving on the Board of the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations has been an honor and privilege. Currently, I am serving in my second term as Treasurer and completing my fifth year on the Board. I am a proud past president and longstanding member of the Association for Women Lawyer of Greater Kansas City, one of NCWBA's member organizations.

As a life-long Kansas City resident, I received my Juris Doctor from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), w here I am an adjunct professor. My undergraduate degrees are a Bachelor of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Missouri-Columbia. I served as law clerk to the late Honorable Kelly J. Moorhouse, Sixteenth Judicial Circuit of Missouri and to the Honorable Robert E. Larsen, United States District Court Western District of Missouri. My legal career has been shaped by many strong women as well as men that I think are "Good Guys." I am a solo practitioner representing clients primarily in the area of family law and the many intertwined issues family law matters bring.

NCWBA has been invaluable to me both personally and professionally. After my first call on the Membership Committee six (6) years ago, it was evident the wealth of information and resources NCWBA could provide to my local women's bar association. That first call was about member engagement. I ended the call energized and inspired by the collaborative nature and spirit of generosity of the NCWBA Board members, member organizations, and the amazing leaders of our member organizations.

During my time on the Board, that initial impress ion has been cemented. The woman on the Board are phenomenal and are laser-focused on our mission: advocating for the equality of women in the legal profession and in society by mobilizing and uniting women's bar associations to effect change in gender-based processes and laws.

Through our vision, NCWBA provides our member organizations practical answers and accessible resources. Where else can a bar association learn about a new program and literally be given the tool kit of how to adapt the program to your local bar? And, where else do you have the ability to ask women from all over the country how their organization navigates the many issues affinity bars face from increasing membership to shifting programming during these COVID times. I hope you and your organization find NCWBA as valuable as it has been to me.

I remain humbled to work with our Board, our remarkable president Jeanne Marie Clavere to serve our more than 35,000 members as we all work together toward the future and to #OwingtheChange Reaction.

2020 Virtual Women's Bar Leadership Summit -- Registration is now LIVE

This year's theme is Owning the 'Change' Reaction. Although we won't be able to gather in the beautiful Chicago offices of McDermott Will & Emery as planned, we are pleased to embrace the theme of Change with our first-ever virtual Summit and announce that registration is now LIVE. You can register here. Keynoting the Summit will be Kori Carew . Ms. Carew is an advocate, speaker and inclusion strategist who is passionate about people, human and civil rights, diversity and inclusion and is a former litigator and trial attorney. She loves to ask "why?" and negotiates with "should."

Highlights of the summit programming will include multiple virtual networking opportunities (before, during, and after the live programming), opening remarks from Chief Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer; a dynamic conversation with Mary Reding Smith, co-founder of Military Spouse JD Network, Moya O'Connor, founder of the New York Caribbean Attorney Network and Michelle Browning Coughlin founder of Mother's Esquire discussing their roles as women founders of their organizations including why they founded their organization, the hurdles they overcame as women creating and changing spaces for attorneys, how they balance their roles as leaders with their careers and other obligations and their advice for other women attorneys seeking to create organizations for change in the legal profession.

We will offer practical programming, recognizing it is a stressful and anxious time for many. You may be overwhelmed trying to figure out how to work from home, manage childcare, care for elderly parents, and worry about what's ahead. Jeena Cho, attorney, and author of the best-selling book, "The Anxious Lawyer: An 8-Week Guide to a Joyful and Satisfying Law Practice Through Mindfulness and Meditation" will share tools for relaxing the anxious brain, practices for returning to homeostasis, and lead us in a short guided meditation.

As many are now working from home indefinitely, Catherine Sanders Reach, Current Director for the Center for Practice Management at the North Carolina Bar Association, and formerly Director, Law Practice Management and Technology for the Chicago Bar Association and the Director at the American Bar Association's Legal Technology Resource Center will share tips on practice technology and management assistance for attorneys.

As always, we will recognize and virtually congratulate the winners of this year's NCWBA Awards, and hear from member organizations as they present and share their organizations' innovative programs, initiatives, services, and solutions for issues facing their bar associations and women in the profession (please reach out to [email protected] if you would like to contribute).

Bobbi Liebenberg & Stephanie Scharf will discuss their report, "Walking Out the Door" which addresses why senior women are far more likely than men to leave the practice of law. Women surveyed were far more likely than men to report factors that blocked their "access to success," including lacking access to business development opportunities, being perceived as less committed to career and being denied promotion.

Please join us for this and more on July 31st, by registering here. Sponsorship opportunities are available as well and start at $200, please contact [email protected] for more information.

2020 NCWBA Award Recipients

It is hard to believe we are basically two months away from the Women's Bar Leadership Summit on July 31, 2020. In addition to the inspirational and motivational speakers we plan to feature, our member organizations that have worked hard on projects, submitted them for consideration and were chosen to receive an award, will also be an important focus of the Summit. On our website, each year's award winners are commemorated. These awards represent an important aspect of the mission of NCWBA. Part of what makes this organization unique and relevant to women in the law is that our focus is upon the development of women leaders and their organizations. It is with that mission in mind that we again congratulate the 2020 award recipients for their leadership and innovation and look forward to acknowledging their achievement at the Summit.

Congratulations again to our recipients:

2020 Outstanding Member Program Award- Women Lawyers Forum, Canadian Bar Association, for its program Pathways to Power Series.

Honorable Mention - Women's Bar Association District of Columbia for its creation of the Corporate Counsel and Law Firm Women of Color Task Force.

2020 Public Service Award - Minnesota Women Lawyers for the Gender Data Project.

Honorable Mention - Florida Association for Women Lawyers for their work on the Florida Parental Leave Continuance Rule.

2020 Women Law Student Association Award - Women's Law Caucus at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law for the Feminine Hygiene Donation Drive.

Diana Theos and Gina Glockner, Co-Chairs Awards Committee

Share Your Best Practices

Does your bar association have a program successfully addressing issues impacting women attorneys? Do you have a great new way to connect virtually, a way to support our communities through COVID, or empower change makers working towards gender and race equality? The NCWBA Summit Committee hopes to hear from you! Please email us at [email protected], and we'll reach out to discuss how to share your best practices during our 2020 Summit!

Regional Conference Calls

We Want to Know How You're Doing!

Announcing Regional Phone Calls with NCWBA Members! Please join us for one-hour regional ZOOM meetings hosted by the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations. Look below for your organization's name, date and time, and plan to attend. Our only agenda is we want to hear from you about how you and your organizations are navigating the "new normal" and share your experiences! We are looking forward to catching up. Find your region below - Central US, Northwest US & Canada, East and Southeast US, Southern US, and Western US. We're looking forward to connecting with all of you!

If you don't see your group listed below, please let us know, and in the meantime, sign up here for the time zone that works best for you.

Date/Time and Region	NCWBA Members
Central US June 29, 2020 at Noon Central	Women's Bar Association of Illinois Colorado Women's Bar Association Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys Association for Women Lawyers (Wisconsin) Association for Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City Kansas Women Attorneys Association Minnesota Women Lawyers Polk County Women Attorneys Wichita Women Attorneys Association Women Lawyers Association of Michigan
Northwest US/Canada June 29, 2020 at 11 am Pacific/1 pm Central	Canadian Bar Association Women Lawyers Forum Oregon Women Lawyers Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation Women Lawyers of Utah Washington Women Lawyers
East and Southeast US June 30, 2020 at Noon Eastern	Broward County Women Lawyers Association Florida Association for Women Lawyers Women's Bar Association of Maryland Maine State Bar Women's Law Section New Hampshire Women's Bar Association New Jersey Women Lawyers Association New York Women's Bar Association Rhode Island Women's Bar Association Women's Bar Association of the State of New York Military Spouse JD Network Ms. JD Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia
Southern US June 30, 2020 at Noon Central/1 pm Eastern	Georgia Association for Women Lawyers Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys Lawyers Association for Women - Marion Griffin Chapter North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys South Carolina Women Lawyers Association Tennessee Lawyers' Association for Women Alabama State Bar Women's Section Bexar County Women's Bar Association Mobile Bar Association Women Lawyers Texas Women Lawyers Women Lawyer's Section, Birmingham Bar Association Dallas Women Lawyers Association El Paso Women's Bar Association Association for Women Attorneys (New Orleans) Mississippi Women Lawyers Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County
Western US June 30, 2020 at Noon Pacific	California Women Lawyers Lawyers Club of San Diego Santa Barbara Women Lawyers Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles Women Lawyers of Sacramento Queen's Bench Arizona Women Lawyers Association New Mexico Women's Bar Association Hawaii Women Lawyers

Looking forward to seeing all of you!

Free June Webinars

Please invite your members to join us for the following free webinars:

Tuesday, June 16 at 10:00am PDT: Helen Wan, novelist and author of "The Partner Track", speaker, and consultant on diversity and inclusion.

Thursday, June 25 at 11:00am PDT: "How to Organize Your Group's GOOD Guys Program" with Teresa Beck:

Use this one hour interactive workshop to brainstorm your organization's first ever or next GOOD Guys program. The workshop will address:

Various GOOD Guys program formats
Setting a date and time
Recruiting GOOD Guys
Promoting your GOOD Guys program
Filling the room with male leaders
Extras to increase the impact of your GOOD guys program
Resources

Leave this workshop with all of the major details of your GOOD Guys program complete, and interact with GOOD Guys committee members who will help see your plans to fruition!

GOOD Guys is a national movement to engage male leadership in diversity and inclusion for exponential change, based on NCWBA's free GOOD Guys programming. With our unified model program, we can spark unprecedented change reactions!

Information on how to register for these exciting webinars will be available soon. Please look out!

Coronavirus Resources

Coronavirus has thrown us all into a whirlwind of uncertainty, whether it comes to your job, personal lives and/or even mental state. During this time period, one thing's for sure: everyone is trying to figure out what works and what does not from a virtual and remote perspective. It's particularly hard, at this time, as a bar association trying to maintain your connection with your members as you try to figure out which communication tools and methods are most effective.

We've decided to put together some resources that you can use in your transition to new ways of providing services and value to members. Click here for resources for your members and ideas from other groups. And please do share your ideas, either by emailing us or by posting to the [email protected] listserve. (If you are not already a member of this list, please email us to request to be added.)

Women in the Workplace

Here's a link to the annual McKinsey and LeanIn.org Women in the Workplace Report.

Women Lawyer News

Remember to check Women Lawyers News for articles and unique tools to make practicing law just that much easier.

National Conference of Women's Bar Associations | [email protected] | http://www.ncwba.org

PO Box Boston, MA 02126

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