Women Bar Leaders news & updates |
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Happy Summer from the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations! It is amazing that almost a year has gone by since I had the honor to be sworn in as President of NCWCA, by my special friends Federal District Court Judge John Houston (Southern District of California) and San Diego Superior Court Judge Wendy Behan. And it was especially wonderful that Hon. Peter M. Reyes, Jr. (Minnesota Court of Appeals) and San Diego Superior Court Judge Olga Alvarez joined NCWBA’s Annual Leadership Summit to swear in the NCWBA Board of Directors. This swearing in was different than prior ones – we usually have one judge swear in the Board and the Board President. My goal was to make the swearing in process more inclusive; particularly because of NCWBA’s creation and support of the GOOD Guys program (www.goodguysinlaw.com), honoring our male allies by including them in our swearing in process was important. Including judges of color was also important. This meant increasing the number of people involved in the ceremony, and going outside the boundaries of what NCWBA has done before. The result was a swearing in ceremony that was diverse and inclusive, and we hope, created a sense of belonging for all who participated. It was a great start to a busy year. Please read on to learn about upcoming events for NCWBA, and the ongoing work of two NCWBA President’s Task Forces.
NCWBA’s Annual Women's Bar Leadership Summit: Empowering the Trailblazers of Tomorrow. It’s not too late! Join us in Colorado for our annual leadership summit. The agenda is chock-full of fantastic programs including change of leadership training, equity focused leadership competencies, a star keynote from the US Patent & Trademark Office, our highly reviewed mentoring circles, a panel discussing stories of challenge and triumph with several rock star judges, a Colorado Edition of GOOD Guys, and even yoga! Not to mention a GALA (!) to celebrate our award winners, a dine -around, and many special surprises. Our attendees will head back home with cutting edge ideas for advancing all women lawyers. Co-chair Jessie Pellant and Judge Kellie Hogan have done an incredible job at raising the bar for this event. Come experience the inspiration that only comes from meeting, collaborating, and brainstorming with women leaders! Register here: https://bit.ly/NCWBADenver2023.
President’s Task Force No. 1: With deep gratitude to Task Force Co-chairs Geneviéve Jones Wright, Executive Director and Founder of San Diego-based Community Advocates for Just and Moral Governance (www.moralgovernance.org), also known as MoGo, and Elvia Cortez, Senior Associate for Wilson Turner Cosmo, the task force has been working for the past year on what has now been named the Women's Bar Initiative for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. This team has put together a toolkit to be used by women’s bar associations so that we can all ensure we are diverse, inclusive, equitable, and create a sense of belonging for all women attorneys. Details and a sneak-peek at the toolkit will be announced at the annual leadership summit – another reason to attend! Many of us may be unaware of the schisms that developed between women’s suffrage and, later, women’s equality movements, which divided the women’s movement. It is our deepest hope that efforts like those of the Women's Bar Initiative for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion will lead us in a direction of greater diversity, greater equity, and greater inclusion, for the benefit of truly all women attorneys.
President’s Task Force No. 2: Another task force has been hard at work trying to maneuver through the complex problem of better preparing under-represented law students for the legal profession. As a person who identifies white, CIS-gendered, and heterosexual, I left law school (many years ago) thinking discrimination would not impact me, and it took many years for me to realize I was very wrong. It took many more years for me to learn that women of color face even greater obstacles than I did. NCWBA wants to level the playing field for law students from underrepresented groups by sharing information throughout the law school experience about what the profession actually looks like in terms of diversity, why the profession looks that way, how intersectionality impacts these issues, and what under-represented law students can do about these issues. This toolkit will be transformative for law students. Under the leadership of former NCWBA Board Member Kate Ahern, CEO of Unfrazzled LLC (a company dedicated to guiding women lawyers on time management, burnout, and the related impact of gender bias, and helping law firms support associates), this task force is making great strides. The toolkit will comply with the ABA’s new guidelines requiring education on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism twice in a law student's career (Standard 303). A PowerPoint presentation is also under construction which our members will be able to present to their local law school administrations to explain the toolkit and encourage participation. We are thrilled to announce plans to unveil the PowerPoint presentation at NCWBA’s board retreat, which will be hosted in Columbia, South Carolina, the hometown of our incoming Board President Sheila Willis, a partner with Fisher Phillips. The first law school to participate will be the University of South Carolina School of Law, Ms. Willis’ alma mater.
Looking Back at the 2022/2023 Board Year: We kicked off the year with an incredible in-person Summit in Chicago, led by Summit co-chairs Tami Munsch and Sheila Willis. There were many fantastic sessions, but my favorite was hearing Helen Wan talk about her book turned into a Netflix series, The Partner Track – I highly recommend the book and the series. You will recognize many familiar settings, and unfortunately, many micro-aggressions that women lawyers, and especially women lawyers of color, face every day. The good news is that the Netflix series helped moved these issues into the public eye, and that’s progress! NCWBA hosted several Quarterly Membership Meetings over the past year, under the leadership of Vice President of Membership Tricia Scaglia, with topics ranging from fall recruitment to budgeting, and more. Our Membership Committee also hosted Women’s Bar Wednesday on social media, where we highlighted and recognized our very diverse members, and hosted a viewing party of The Partner Track with Q&A afterward with the author herself. In September 2022, the NCWBA Board visited San Diego for its retreat, and we focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for all of our members. We hosted GOOD Guys: National Leaders Edition featuring GOOD Guys from Qualcomm, and Sony, and more! With the help of our sponsor, ALPS Insurance, we hosted the third in a series about managing a solo practice. According to ALPS, women lawyers are less likely to be sued for malpractice (interesting, right?)! We are grateful for ALPS’ sponsorship!
We also hosted a program about “The Role of Women’s Bar Associations In Judicial Appointments” which included discussion about how women’s bar associations can increase diversity on the bench. The program featured the perspectives of an elected Texas judge and Virginia Women Attorneys Association’s Diversity Chair on harnessing the power of women’s bar associations in this important endeavor. In February, we met in New Orleans, and brought GOOD Guys to NOLA for the first time ever, which included the Chief Justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, and other impressive male allies. We were honored to work with Association of Women Lawyers (New Orleans) to make this happen! We also visited with students at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, and board members gave presentations about voting rights, and racial justice, among other topics. Many thanks to our Mid-Year Meeting Committee led by Chris Chambers-Goodman. We also engaged in high-level long-range planning led by our committee chairs Elizabeth Bryson and Celia Collins.
As you all know. behind the scenes of any successful women’s bar association are many people supporting us. Our Awards Committee has worked hard to select the very best of the best (and it’s tough to choose), led by VP of Fundraising Lindsey Savage. Our VP of Finance, Chris Chambers-Goodman, has kept us on a fiscally safe path with the help of Treasurer Elizabeth Bryson. Angel Zimmerman, our Food From the Bar Committee Chair (and former President) is working hard to raise the visibility of Food From the Bar programs. We have some of the coolest-looking social media posts thanks to Social Media Outreach Committee Chair Jami Cooper and her team. Committee Chair Misty Blair helped spread the message of the power of male allies to New Orleans and beyond, and former President Shiloh Theberge has continued to be a trusted advisor on all manner of subjects. Every board member has contributed to making the 2022/2023 year a true success, and my deepest gratitude goes out to each one of them. Many thanks also to our Executive Director Christina Simpson for her continued dedication, and to all of our board members and committee members. All of you are the glue that holds us together and the engines that keep us going! If you run into any of these awesome women at your local bar events, please say hello, and thank you!
Apply to Join One of Our Committees. 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. 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, be thinking about who you support to apply to join our Board of Directors for the 2024-2025 term. The nominations will be due in 2025, but we all know how time flies!
Looking Ahead: As Sheila Willis takes the helm of NCWBA, and as NCWBA gets ready to celebrate its 40th Anniversary (!), we have much work ahead, and much to look forward to. Women’s progress in the legal profession is improving, but the needle continues to barely move. Yet we know there is a massive amount of untapped female talent in the legal marketplace, so we will continue our efforts to help celebrate and build women’s bar organizations, celebrate and empower male allies, grow in diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and reach a hand out to law students to send them into the profession far better prepared than we were. Here’s to a year ahead for all of us where we break down walls, build longer tables, and magnify voices of marginalized lawyers, all of which will advance our profession. Vice President Kamala Harris once spoke at a Lawyers Club of San Diego lunch many years ago. Who knew then that she would one day be the first female and first woman of color to become Vice President! Vice President Harris tells a story about her mother telling her “You may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.” Indeed! And NCWBA is here to help.
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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 Annual Leadership Summit in Conjunction with the American Bar Association Annual Meeting 2023 Upcoming Membership Events |
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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 Thanks Its 2023 Sponsors! |
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Faegre Drinker, Fisher Phillips LLP, Polsinelli Law Firm, Studio IP, and U.S. Coast Guard |
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ALPS Legal Malpractice Insurance, CorePower Yoga, Klinedinst P.C., Midnight Oil, Pike Reporting Company, and SRD Legal Group |
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Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, Elizabeth A. Bryson, Lindsey B.W. Savage, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Munger, Tolles & Olsen LLP New York Women's Bar Association,
and Optimize My Firm
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Jeanne Marie Clavere, Grillo Law, Law Office of Manisha P. Patel, LLC, Launch Point, Lockton Companies, U.S. Navy JAG Corps, Wichita Women Attorneys Association, Women's Bar Association of the State of New York, Zimmerman & Zimmerman, P.A., and ZipSprout, LLC |
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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
Women's Law Caucus
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
Women Lawyers' Association of Greater St Louis
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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