Women Bar Leaders news & updates |
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TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS AND MAKING “GOOD TROUBLE”
The National Conference of Women's Bar Associations has been busy! With both our "day jobs" and our personal lives, we are making “good trouble.” We have been busy advancing causes for equality in the profession and support for women's bar and legal organizations, and we have new initiatives to tell you about, including upcoming events.
Centering Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the profession is one of the core values in our mission. As a relatively new board member of California Changelawyers, I have been learning new ideas about improving DEIB, particularly as a board member. You may want to try something I learned recently for having board members introduce themselves at board meetings. At a recent retreat, instead of identifying ourselves by talking about our law firms and our bar organizations, we were asked by California Changelawyers meeting facilitators to identify ourselves by our DEIB-based identities. As an example, I introduced myself as a CIS-gender, white woman, educated in public schools until law school, a Navy brat, daughter of a Presbyterian minister, raised by bitterly divorced parents, with mixed-race siblings through adoption, sister to a gay brother who died of AIDS in the early 90's, experienced with poverty, a wife, and a mother.
During these introductions, I listened as other board members described aspects of their key identities - many of different races, sexual identities, ethnic backgrounds, sexual preferences, life experiences, and more. I made discoveries about my fellow board members that I wouldn't have known had we done the typical introductions. I recently used the same technique at a Board meeting of NCWBA, and I'm considering using it in other contexts as well. The practice normalizes a broad range of identities and openness, and it can create an environment of acceptance and safety. We would love to hear your ideas for more inclusive board practices, too.
NCWBA’s New Task Forces Seek To Increase DEIB in The Profession
NCWBA has been hard at work – planning new initiatives to address stubborn problems. First, a task force has been created to develop a tool kit that women's bar associations can use to ensure they and their members are benefitting from all that DEIB practices have to offer. The goal is to ensure that all women's bar associations can readily create a sense of belonging for all attorneys. The task force, whose tag line is "All Women Attorneys Belong Here" is led by Elvira Cortez, former President of Lawyers Club of San Diego, and Senior Associate at Wilson Turner & Kosmo in the firm’s Business Litigation and Employment Law groups. Ms. Cortez is joined by an exceptional team of women leaders. The task force plans to launch this toolkit in August, at NCWBA's incomparable, not-to-be-missed Annual Women's Bar Leadership Summit in Denver, Colorado. We hope you will join us in Denver (see Summit flyer in this issue for details).
A second task force has been created to better prepare law students in under-represented groups for the legal profession. This task force is led by former NCWBA Board member Kate Ahern, who heads the Business Start-up Clinic at Roger Williams University School of Law, which serves nonprofit and small business clients. She also teaches business law at the University of Rhode Island and is a former President of the Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association. Ms. Ahern has gathered an accomplished group of lawyers, law school officials, and law students on this task force, and they are working on building a toolkit that can be used by law schools across the country. If you or any of your members of your organization are interested in serving on either of these task forces, please contact me at tbeck@klinedinstlaw.com.
Apply to Join One of Our Committees or our Board!
If you or any of your members would like to get more involved with women lawyers on the national level, consider joining one of our Committees. The only qualifications are a) that the nominee be a member in good standing of one of our current member organizations, and b) that the NCWBA President approves the nomination. In addition to the two task forces mentioned above, the NCWBA Committees consist of: Awards, Finance, Food from the Bar, Fundraising & Strategic Partnering, GOOD Guys, Long-Range Planning/Bylaws, Membership, Midyear Meeting 2024 (Louisville, Kentucky), Social Media/Outreach, Summit 2023 (Denver, Colorado), and Website Task Force. Join us! Also, see our separate announcement in this Newsletter about applying for a position on our Board of Directors for the 2023-2024 term, which commences at our Summit in August.
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Balancing our Personal and Professional Lives
On a personal note, I am delighted to announce that my family welcomed an adult son when our attorney daughter Madison married her high school sweetheart Robert Castillo. We had an incredible celebration, including many family gatherings and a blessing event in our Episcopal church, which our family has attended since Maddie and our two sons, Ryan and Evan, were little. NCWBA is also proud to share that our Executive Director, Christina Simpson, welcomed baby boy Princeton Xavier to the world last fall, and she, Stevenson Sr. and Stevenson Jr. are thrilled. Needless to say, births, weddings, and family gatherings are the essence of our lives, and while many of us (including me) dearly love our jobs and our women's bar organizations, these moments are what we work for – what we live for! We hope you are also making good trouble and enjoying all of the goodness that family and friends bring us.
~ Teresa Beck
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NCWBA 2023 Upcoming Membership Events |
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Click below to register for each of the Quarterly Membership Meetings:
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SAVE THE DATE - NCWBA Annual Leadership Summit in Conjunction with the American Bar Association Annual Meeting |
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Send your members to Denver to empower your trailblazing leaders with Tools, Training, Technology, Mentorship, Stories of our Past, and, Trusted Allies to light the way ahead. Attendees will receive a badge of certification by Diversity Way-Maker; engage in leadership training by the Center for Grounded Leadership; learn from mentorship circles; hear stories from a panel of female justices who contributed to the Her Story, and take in thoughtful impressions of the future from the Director of the Rocky Mountain Regional Office of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Molly Kocialski. Plus, you might leave with a lifelong NCWBA friend made over dinner at one of our many walkabout dining options. Save the date and look out for registration details soon!
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NCWBA 2023 Midyear Meeting Recap |
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NCWBA BOARD MEMBERS IN NEW ORLEANS, FEBRUARY 2023 |
NCWBA took the opportunity while in New Orleans for the ABA midyear meeting to engage in a pipeline program by partnering with a local high school to provide presentations on various aspects of the law and legal careers. Over a dozen of our board members from around the nation presented panels on election/voting rights, constitutional law and racial justice, women in the law, and a practice area panel describing the variety of options for careers in the law. |
NCWBA Board members engaged with approximately 150 high school students at Benjamin Franklin High School in their Advanced Placement Government, and Women’s Studies courses. Benjamin Franklin High School was founded in 1957 with a mission to “prepare students of high academic achievement to be successful in life,” and is consistently ranked as the number one school in the state of Louisiana. It was an honor to present to these engaged in enthusiastic students from diverse backgrounds. Be a special thanks to the teachers and staff who helped put this program into fruition.
In addition, in honor of Black History Month, President-Elect Sheila Willis and Vice President of Finance Chris Chambers Goodman gave a lunchtime presentation to the Black Culture Club and the Women for Social Justice Group at the school. The luncheon presentation was well attended by faculty as well as staff, and we enjoyed some delicious a king cake along with lunch. Inspired, we then moved on to a strategic planning session for NCWBA.
At the conclusion of our Saturday board meeting, we boarded a coach and enjoyed box lunches, both provided by women-owned businesses St. James Cheese Company Louisiana Motor Coach to head out to the Whitney Plantation. There we experienced a guided tour describing the history of the plantation, the changes in ownership, and the stories of the enslaved people who lived, worked, and died there. We learned some details about the original owners of the plantation -- the Haydel family -- and the efforts of the current owner to ensure that the stories are told and remembered. One of our board members discovered that one of her relatives was a descendent of an enslaved person who had worked and lived on that plantation. The Whitney Plantation is a must-see next time you are in the New Orleans area. More details can be found at https://www.whitneyplantation.org. |
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GOOD Guys Expands its Footprint with Program in the Crescent City
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The National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations is proud to add Louisiana to the ever-expanding GOOD Guys map, with an event held on February 2, 2023, during the ABA midyear meeting in New Orleans. This was a true import of the national GOOD Guys program, as a number of local organizations -- Association of Women Attorneys New Orleans, New Orleans Bar Association, Federal Bar Association New Orleans Chapter, and Martinet Legal Society Greater New Orleans Chapter -- joined together in hosting the event. The en banc courtroom of the Hale Boggs Federal Building and Courthouse served as a stunning backdrop.
Teresa Beck (President, NCWBA; Shareholder, Klinedinst PC) opened the program with welcoming remarks and an overview of the GOOD Guys program. Pamela Carter (Managing Partner, Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A.) followed with a presentation on why diversity efforts are not only the principled path forward, but also a financially beneficial one, and she engaged attendees with the interactive, online game of Kahoot!.
As with any GOOD Guys event, the focal point was a panel of prominent people dedicated to diversity in the workplace. Megan Peterson (Partner, Simon, Peragrine, Smith & Redfearn LLP) moderated a panel from a cross-section of the legal industry, including the Hon. Ivan L.R. Lemelle (Senior Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana), the Hon. John L. Weimer (Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Louisiana), Marcus Brown (Executive VP, General Counsel, Entergy), and David Bienvenu (Partner, Simon, Peragrine, Smith & Redfearn LLP). Discussions among the panelists included the reasons why diversity efforts matter to them and the tools they use to enact change around them.
GOOD Guys is a model program designed for replication by member organizations, with a Toolkit containing panel questions, programming considerations, marketing materials, and list of resources. More information can be found at www.goodguysinlaw.com. |
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NOMINATIONS OPEN FOR
NCWBA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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TAKE YOUR LEADERSHIP TO THE NEXT LEVEL! NCWBA IS SEEKING NOMINATIONS FOR NATIONAL BOARD MEMBERSHIP!
Are you interested in impacting women’s bar organizations on a national scale? Take your leadership to the next level by applying to join the Board of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations (NCWBA). NCWBA is seeking new ideas and energy to develop strategies and solutions for our member organizations and their individual members across the country. NCWBA currently has a small number of openings available on its Board of Directors. Member organizations of NCWBA are invited to submit a nomination for someone to join our NCWBA Board for a two-year term beginning with our Annual Meeting on Friday August 4, 2023.
Nominees should be passionate about the value of women’s bar associations, sections, and interest groups, and want to work collaboratively to strengthen and empower them and their members. Typically, Board members attend three in-person meetings each year as well as periodic remote meetings via Zoom. NCWBA is an affiliate of the American Bar Association, so two of the in-person meetings are held in conjunction with the ABA midyear and annual meetings, where our Board members make impactful, national connections. A Board retreat is also held each Fall, generally in the hometown of the President (in 2023, in South Carolina). In addition, Board members participate in two committees (such as Membership, Social Media, GOOD Guys, Food From the Bar, etc.), which meet by phone or Zoom, generally on a monthly basis.
Nominations should be submitted no later than Monday, April 18.
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Nominations for NCWBA Member Annual Awards |
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Now is the time to submit awards nominations for the NCWBA annual awards!
Each year the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations recognizes the work of its member organizations with its annual awards -- the Public Service Award, Outstanding Member Program Award, and Women’s Law Student Association Award. Nominations are now being accepted for all three awards, to be presented at the Women's Bar Annual Leadership Summit this August. For information about past recipients of our awards, click here.
Nominations must be submitted via the Nomination Form no later than Tuesday, April 5, 2023 at 5:00 pm PST. (Any supplemental information should be limited to 10 pages.)
If you have any questions, please contact our Executive Director at info@ncwba.org.
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NCWBA Thanks Its 2023 "Early Bird" Sponsors! |
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ALPS Legal Malpractice Insurance, SRD Legal Group, and Klinedinst P.C. |
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Elizabeth A. Bryson, Lindsey B.W. Savage, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher |
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Law Office of Manisha P. Patel, LLC and Zimmerman & Zimmerman, P.A. |
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Above contributions are as of early March 2023.
We look forward to adding sponsorships to this list in our next issue!
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NCWBA Sponsorship Opportunities! |
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Please consider a Sponsorship this year! The National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations offers a variety of ways to show your support for women in the law! We rely on sponsorship funds to achieve our mission and fulfill our goals. Our sponsorship levels start at $200 and go to $10,000 and beyond, with benefits commensurate with the contribution level.
Sponsorship is a great way to demonstrate your commitment to the advancement of women, diversity, and equality in the legal profession. We support our member associations and organizations in their advancement of women in the legal profession, through in-person networking events, membership webinars, our listserv, electronic newsletter, website and social media, programming ideas, and our annual Women's Bar Leadership Summit - which will be held this August in Denver, Colorado, during the ABA Annual Meeting. Click the links below for more information.
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Compelling Results from 2023 Membership Survey |
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The NCWBA Membership Committee thanks members for completing our 2023 Membership Survey. The responses were very thoughtful and provided real insights into the wide variety of members organizational structures, processes, and interests. The comments provided as part of the survey were also much appreciated. These results will help inform NCWBA how to best serve our members going forward.
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NCWBA Women's Bar Wednesdays |
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The NCWBA wants to celebrate and highlight our membership organizations by posting information about our membership on social media and special Wednesdays. Please fill out the following link, and we will randomly select members throughout the year to feature on our social media. Let us help you amplify your work and connect you to other members throughout the country! |
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Have Something You Want to Share? |
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Do you have an event, program or any other information related to your organization that you want us to share with our members? Please send an email to info@ncwba.org so that we can include it in our next newsletter or publicize on social media! Also, consider submitting your programs and initiatives for our annual awards (see Awards section, above).
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NCWBA Member Organizations |
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Alabama
Alabama State Bar Women's Section
Birmingham Bar Association, Women Lawyers Section
Alaska
Anchorage Association of Women Attorneys
Arizona
Arizona Women Lawyers Association
California
California Women Lawyers
Lawyers Club of San Diego
Los Angeles County Bar Association - President's
Advisory Committee on Women in the Legal Profession
Queen's Bench Association of the San Francisco Bay Area
Santa Barbara Women Lawyers
University of San Diego Law School - Women's Law Caucus
Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
Colorado
Colorado Women's Bar Association
District of Columbia
Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia
Florida
Florida Association of Women Lawyers
Georgia
Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys
Hawaii
Hawaii Women Lawyers
Iowa
Iowa Organization Women Attorneys
Kansas
Kansas Women Attorneys Association
Wichita Women Attorneys Association
Women Attorneys Association of Topeka
Maine
Maine State Bar Association
Maryland
Women's Bar Association of Maryland
Massachusetts
Western New England University - Women's Law Association
Women's Bar Association of Massachusetts
Michigan
Women Lawyers Association of Michigan
Minnesota
Minnesota Women Lawyers
Mississippi
Mississippi Women Lawyers Association
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Missouri/Kansas
Association for Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City
New Hampshire
New Hampshire Women's Bar Association
New Mexico
New Mexico Women's Bar Association
New York
New York Women's Bar Association
Westchester Women's Bar Association
Women's Bar Association of the State of New York
North Carolina
North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys
Oregon
Oregon Women Lawyers
Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Women’s Bar Association
South Carolina
South Carolina Women's Bar Association
Tennessee
Lawyers Association for Women–Marion Griffin Chapter
Texas
Dallas Women Lawyers Association
El Paso Women Lawyers
Texas Women Lawyers
Utah
Women Lawyers of Utah
Virginia
Virginia Women Attorneys Association
Washington
Washington Women Lawyers
West Virginia
West Virginia Women Attorneys
Wisconsin
Association for Women Lawyers (Milwaukee)
National
Military Spouse JD Network
Mothers Esquire
Ms. JD
Polsinielli - Women's Empowerment Committee
Truist Bank - Women Lawyers
Women Lawyers on Guard ACTION Network, Inc.
International - Canada
Canadian Bar Association - Women Lawyers Forum
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NOTE: The above list includes members for both the 2022 and 2023 membership years. Has your organization renewed for 2023? It’s easy – just click on the “Membership” page of our website (www.ncwba.org) or contact us at info@ncwba.org. |
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