Member Histories

In the 150 years since Arabella Babb Mansfield overcame the first obstacle for women seeking to enter the legal profession in the United States, numerous others, most long forgotten, have continued to break barriers and pave the way for those who followed. We invited our members to send us the stories of the women who pioneered law practice in their jurisdictions and to tell us how their own women’s bar groups came into being. We were gratified to receive their accounts of women lawyers who truly made a difference through individual efforts and by collective activities. Unfortunately, we can only share a small portion of the articles and photographs we received. Taken as a whole, they paint a distinct picture of the challenges and successes women lawyers have faced.

We hope this sampling of histories will inspire you to learn more. You’ll find links to individual biographies of women lawyers as well as much more information about the history and accomplishments of women’s bar associations on our website at https://ncwba.org/history/.

We also hope you will take an active interest in researching the history of women lawyers and preserving the history that is still being made today by women in your own communities. Record the recollections of senior women attorneys, but don’t neglect to learn about the experiences of current law students and newer lawyers. Most importantly, share what you learn with others. Knowing our history enriches our present and provides guidance for the future.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, small groups of women lawyers in Birmingham organized get-togethers that were the forerunner of the Birmingham Bar’s Women Lawyers Section. Some of those same women finally formally organized a section and got the approval of the Birmingham Bar Association (BBA). The group continues as a strong section with representation on the BBA’s Executive Committee, offering its members leadership, networking, and volunteer opportunities. The section awards the Nina Miglionico Paving the Way Award to recognize those who advance women lawyers. The section also sponsors scholarships and networking with women law students.

In the 1990s, the Alabama State Bar (ASB) president appointed a Task Force on Women in the Profession that met for several years and organized a luncheon at the midyear meeting of the Alabama State Bar to honor women judges. Following the example of the Birmingham Bar’s Women

Lawyers Section, the task force proposed the creation of a section to the Alabama State Bar. The ASB Women’s Section was formed in May 2000, and voted on by the Board of Bar Commissioners on May 5, 2000. The section continues to host a brunch to honor Alabama’s women judges and awards the Maud McLure Kelly Award in honor of the first female admitted to practice law in Alabama and the Susan B. Livingston Leadership Award to honor women who exemplify service to the community. The section sponsors a silent auction to fund the Janie Shores Scholarship for women law students who intend to practice in the State of Alabama.

The Mobile Bar Association Women Lawyers (MBAWL) is an unofficial section of the Mobile Bar Association that dates back to the 1970s. Back when there were just a few women practicing law in Mobile, the late Alice M. Meadows (1923-1995) prompted these women to begin meeting for lunch on a regular basis so they could share advice and support one another. These lunch meetings took hold and eventually became more formalized. The group now meets regularly, elects officers, and hosts several annual events. MBAWL recognizes a local “trailblazer” – a woman attorney who has cleared the path for others – each May. MBAWL also hosts a networking event for women lawyers and other professionals in October. In recent years, MBAWL has moderated a panel discussion on the topic of women in elected office. Throughout the year, MBAWL holds lunch meetings and happy hours. One thing has not changed throughout the years, however, and that is the unique networking opportunity provided to those who attend the meetings and other events.

Alabama’s women lawyers decided to work within the established bar associations rather than create a separate organization. This has allowed us to capitalize on the existing structure and resources of those bar associations as well as their financial support.

By Aubrey Coffey-Urban and Diana Theos

Arizona was the last of the 48 contiguous states to achieve statehood (Feb. 14, 1912), but it was far from the last to advance women in law. As a western frontier, Arizona attracted women who would stake a claim on history through their achievements, and they continue to propel us forward.

Sarah Herring Sorin (1861-1914) was the first woman attorney in Arizona, becoming barred in the Arizona Territory in 1892. 1 Born in New York City on Jan. 15, 1861, Sorin’s family moved to Tombstone, Arizona, in 1882, at a time when Tombstone was the epitome of the Wild West. Her father, William Herring, was a prominent attorney there, sometimes finding himself involved in legal matters with the infamous Wyatt Earp. 2

Sorin taught school when she arrived in Tombstone, becoming one of Arizona’s first female educators and possibly Arizona’s first female school principal. But when her brother Howard died in 1891, she decided to become an attorney at William’s firm to help him in Howard’s absence. Several Arizona papers reported that Sorin had now “… thrown down the gauntlet … in asserting the right of woman to enter the race of life on equal terms with man.” 3

After she was admitted to the bar, she attended New York University’s School of Law and graduated fourth in her class in 1894. She returned to work at William’s firm, specializing in mining law. 4 In 1897, the Herring family left Tombstone and relocated to Tucson, where Sarah married Thomas Sorin in 1898. Changing the name of their firm to Herring and Sorin, she continued to practice law with her father. In 1906, William submitted a motion to admit Sorin to practice in front of the United States Supreme Court. 5 She was the 24th woman to be admitted to practice before the Supreme Court. 6

Sorin appeared before the Court on four occasions, twice with her father and once with her brother-in-law, Selim M. Franklin. Her fourth case was in 1913, Work v. United Globe Mines, in which she was the first woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court without the assistance of a male attorney. Shortly after this triumph, Sorin died of pneumonia in 1914. 7

Sorin’s motivation in practicing law seemed to come entirely from her desire to help her father in the family business after her brother died. Not a feminist by any stretch of the imagination, she didn’t believe women should have the right to vote. 8 Regardless, she started a trajectory of women lawyers that continues to expand today. In 1999, the Arizona Women Lawyers Association created the Sarah Sorin Award for members who have “demonstrated support and encouragement for the advancement of women in the legal profession.” 9

Lorna Lockwood (1903-1977) was the first woman to be elected to the Arizona Supreme Court and the first woman chief justice of any state. 11 But before that, she held many other firsts, including the first woman: to become assistant attorney general of any state; to become trial judge on the Arizona Superior Court; to graduate from the University of Arizona with a J.D.; and to chair the Arizona House Judiciary Committee. 12 She also formed the first all-woman law partnership in Arizona with Loretta Savage Whitney in 1932. 13 She accomplished all of this despite being told law school, the practice of law, law firms, and the bench were not places for women. 14

Lockwood was born in the town of Douglas in the Arizona Territory on March 24, 1903. 15 Right on the border with Mexico, Douglas was as rough a town as Tombstone at the time, 16 so much so that the citizens, including Lorna and her father, used to sit on rooftops and watch the battles of the Mexican Revolution. 17 Many things influenced her to go into law, including that her father was a lawyer, and Sorin’s career. 18

She attended the University of Arizona, majoring in Spanish (which she would speak fluently 19 ) and minoring in psychology. 20 She became the first woman to earn her J.D. from the university in 1925.

After graduating law school, it would be 14 years before Lockwood would practice law. 21 Unlike Sorin, she was not able to start practicing with her father as he had become a judge. 22 She worked as a secretary and legal clerk until she established the firm with Whitney in 1939. 23 In 1942, they dissolved that practice as they were not making enough money. 24 She would eventually begin practicing with her father in 1945, after he lost a judicial election. 25

In 1938, Lockwood ran for the Arizona House of Representatives, her long dedication to community and various women networks no doubt helping her win. 26 She had been involved with many community activities, including sports, chorus, and founding a sorority in college, 27 and later the Democratic Party, Eastern Star, Campfire Girls, her church, and many other organizations. 28 Lockwood was re-elected in 1940. During her time in office, she worked on a merit-based system for government employees, a more equal tax system, and better assistance for the elderly. 29

Lockwood eventually returned to the practice of law, then was appointed an assistant attorney general in 1949 (government jobs were some of the only ones open to women attorneys at the time). 30 Lockwood applied for membership in the Lawyers Club of Phoenix but was denied. So instead, she formed her own group of women lawyers with a standing lunch date at The Flame, a popular place for lawyers at the time, where all their male colleagues could see them regularly. 31 This group formed the foundation for what would become the Arizona Women Lawyers Association. 32

When Lockwood had been recommended to the governor for appointment to a vacancy on the Maricopa County Superior Court, he refused. “Lorna is a fine lady, and she may be a good lawyer. But no woman is capable of being a judge.” 33 So instead, she ran for the position during the regular election cycle and won her place on the court in 1950, becoming Arizona’s first woman judge. 34

On the trial court, she gained a reputation for being a tough, but fair, judge. She demanded order in her courtroom and was not afraid to reverse her decisions or question precedent. 35 In 1953, Lockwood began her service on the juvenile court, an issue that was very close to her heart. 36 The young people who appeared in her courtroom often came back to thank her for whatever sentence, advice, or direction they received from her. 37 In addition to her impact on children, Lockwood mentored many women lawyers and encouraged many to become judges. 38

In 1961, she became the first woman justice of the Arizona Supreme Court (there was no intermediate appellate court at the time). 39 She served as chief justice in 1965-66 and 1970-71, becoming the first woman to become chief justice of any state supreme court. 40 When Lockwood retired in 1975, a banquet was held in her honor with more than 2,000 attendees from all over the state. 41

In 1981, Lockwood’s goal of becoming a U.S. Supreme Court justice was realized by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

O’Connor said, “Each position I held in Arizona was one that was attained by following a course made far more accessible because Lorna Lockwood had prepared the way by proving it could be done and done well by a woman.” 42

Referred to by many people of her time as the most powerful woman in America, 43 O’Connor is undoubtedly a legendary figure. But her roots are humble Arizona ones. Born in 1930, O’Connor was raised on her family’s Arizona ranch (which extended into New Mexico), the Lazy B. 44 In contrast to the Wild West experiences of Sorin and Lockwood, O’Connor’s life in the West was much more isolated, except when she went to live with her aunt in Texas so that she could attend school. 45

At the age of 16, O’Connor attended Stanford 46 and graduated with both her undergraduate (economics) and law degrees in only six years. 47 Although Stanford didn’t rank individual students at the time, it’s widely believed she was third in her class. 48 However, she couldn’t get an interview with any firms, even though she applied to every position advertised at Stanford. 49 The only firm that even replied wanted her to be a secretary. 50 O’Connor got a job at the San Mateo county attorney’s office by working for free until they could pay her and sharing space with the secretary. 51 After John O’Connor graduated from Stanford, they were married at the Lazy B in 1952 and moved to Arizona in 1957 after spending a few years in Germany. 52

Back in Arizona, O’Connor again had trouble getting firms to hire her, so she opened her own firm with another attorney. 53 She quit her practice in 1959 to be a stay-athome mother and to volunteer heavily in the community, before becoming state assistant attorney general and then being appointed to fill a vacancy as an Arizona senator. 54 She became the first woman to be a party majority leader in any state senate in 1972. 55 While her support for the Equal Rights Amendment was questionable, 56 she systematically approached dismantling laws that discriminated against women. She made a list of such laws and in 1973 passed a measure amending more than 400 discriminatory statutes. 57

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan appointed her to be the first woman Supreme Court justice. 61 During her 25 years on the court, she was very influential. Some even called it the “O’Connor Court” because she so often directed the decision of the Court, either by being a swing vote (she preferred “decisive” vote), or by crafting an opinion that could convince at least four justices to join her. 62 Her retirement was delayed first by Bush v. Gore, as she felt it would have been “unattractive” to be a deciding vote and then have the winner appoint her successor, 63 and then by the death of Justice William Rehnquist. 64 She stepped down from the court in 2006 to take care of John, who had Alzheimer’s disease. 65

In Arizona, both a law school (the first to be named after a woman) and a federal courthouse are named in her honor. 66 After watching her mother, aunt, and husband die of Alzheimer’s, O’Connor herself, sadly, was diagnosed with it in 2016. 67

Continuing the legacies of many Arizona women lawyers before her, Janet Napolitano went on to achieve her own firsts, including being the first woman to hold the positions of attorney general of Arizona, 68 secretary of Homeland Security, 69 and president of the University of California. 70 In 2012, Forbes ranked Napolitano the world’s ninth most powerful woman. 71

Born in 1957 in New York City, Napolitano attended college at Santa Clara University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was the university’s first woman valedictorian. 72 After graduating from University of Virginia School of Law, she clerked for Judge Mary M. Schroeder on the 9th Circuit and then became a partner at the Phoenix office of Lewis and Roca in 1989. 73 While at Lewis and Roca, Napolitano was one of the attorneys to represent Anita Hill in her testimony to the U.S. Senate regarding Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Napolitano U.S. attorney for Arizona, during which time she prosecuted some of the first cybercrime cases. 74

In 2002, Napolitano became Arizona’s third female governor. As governor, her accomplishments included a literacy program and investments in higher education. She won re-election, but left to serve as the first woman secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama. In this position, she created the TSA Pre-Check, expanded the Global Entry program, and spearheaded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). 75 As president of the University of California, Napolitano has increased support for undocumented students, created a plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025, and led efforts to combat sexual violence and harassment on campuses. 76

This year, the Arizona Women Lawyers Association celebrates its 50th anniversary, continuing to support the advancement of women in law, and continuing the legacy of so many Arizona Firsts.

Endnotes 1. Jan Cleere, Levis & Lace: Arizona Women Who Made History (2011) at 154-159. 2. William Herring had attended Columbia law school and became a deputy district attorney and later served in the New York Legislature. Id. at 154. 3. Danielle Janitch, Sarah Herring Sorin: Arizona’s First Woman Attorney, Women in the Law: Stanford Law School, (2001), http://wlh-static.law.stanford.edu/papers0203/Sorin_DJanitch-S01. pdf, at 13. 4. Cleere, supra note 1, at 155. 5. Id. at 156. 6. Janitch, supra note 3, at 19. 7. Cleere, supra note 1, at 158. 8. Id. at 156-158 9. Id. at 159. 10. Lockwood was described by John Frank as “…the snowplow that broke the path for women in [Arizona].” Sonja White David, Lady Law: The Story of Arizona Supreme Court Justice Lorna Lockwood (2012) at 110. 11. Id. at xi, xii, 1, and 101. 12. Colleen Echeveste, Lorna Elizabeth Lockwood: In Pursuit of the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court Nomination, Women in the Legal Profession, Stanford Law School (2003), file:///C:/Users/Admin/ Downloads/LockwoodL-Echeveste03.pdf, 3-5. 13. James W. Johnson, Arizona Politicians: The Noble and the Notorious (2002), at 143. 14. David, supra note 10, at xi, 20, and 26. 15. Id. at 1. 16. Id. at 5-7. 17. Id. at 7-8. 18. While they didn’t know Sorin personally, her family would have discussed Sorin. Id. at 10-11. 19. Id. at 66. 20. Johnson, supra note 13, at 142. 21. David, supra note 10, at 23. 22. Johnson, supra note 13, at 143. 23. David, supra note 10, at 28. 24. Johnson, supra note 13, at 143. 25. Id. at 144. 26. David, supra note 10, at 68. 27. Id. at 18. 28. Id. at 27. 29. Id. at 30. 30. Johnson, supra note 13, at 144. 31. David, supra note 10, at 34. 32. Helen Perry Grimwood, We Still Need Women Bar Associations, Arizona Attorney, May 2001, at 44. 33. David, supra note 10, at xi. 34. Id. at 38, 40. 35. Id. at 44-46. 36. Id. at 49. 37. Id. at 51-52. 38. Id. at 52-53, 106-107. 39. Id. at 77-78. 40. Echeveste, supra note 12, at 3-5. 41. David, supra note 10, at 99-100. 42. Cleere, supra note 1, at 180. 43. Evan Thomas, First: Sandra Day O’Connor (2019) at 241. 44. Id. at 4-5. 45. Id. at 15. 46. Id. at 25. 47. Id. at 32-33. 48. Id. at 36. 49. Id. at 43. 50. Id. at 43. 51. Id. at 52. 52. Id. at 47, 54, 56. 53. Id. at 57. 54. Id. at 57, 68, 69. 55. Id. at 72. 56. Id. at 90. 57. Id. at 78, 94-95. 58. Id. at 103. 59. Id. at 104-105. 60. Id. at 110, 113. 61. Id. at 121. 62. Id. at xv, 297. 63. Id. at 333. 64. Id. at 378. 65. Id. at 320, 369. 66. Celebrating 10 Years as the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, https://law.asu.edu/asulawnewsletter/oconnor-renaming; Pub.L. 106–166. 67. Id. at xvi. 68. Ray Stern, Former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano Hospitalized With Cancer, but Recovering, Phoenix New Times, January 17, 2017, https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/ former-arizona-governor-janet-napolitano-hospitalized-with-cancer-but-recovering-8998232. 69. Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security 2009 – 2013, October 31, 2017, https://www. dhs.gov/janet-napolitano. 70. Biography of President Napolitano, https://www.ucop.edu/president/about/index.html. 71. Power Women 2013, Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/profile/janet-napolitano/#2d7a75bf195e. 72. Janet Napolitano, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/profiles/janetnapolitano-185708 73. Id. 74. Former Arizona Attorney General Confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary, NAAGazette, Vol. 3, No. 1, https://www.naag.org/publications/naagazette/volume-3-number-1/former-arizonaattorney-general-confirmed-as-homeland-security-secretary.php. 75. Supra note 74. 76. Supra note 75. 77. Thomas, supra note 46, at 269.

Founded in 1974, California Women Lawyers (CWL) promotes the advancement of women in the legal profession and is an active advocate for the concerns of women in society. CWL’s mission is to advance women in the profession of law; to improve the administration of justice; to better the position of women in society; to eliminate all inequities based on gender; and to provide an organization for collective action and expression germane to the aforesaid purposes.

As the only statewide bar association for women in California, CWL represents the interests of all facets of the legal profession, influencing lawyers, educators, students, and judges. CWL consistently provides a high level of support and commitment to their individual career goals, and to the collective goals of women in law and society.

CWL provides unique resources and support to its members. Each year, CWL presents two awards to outstanding members of the judiciary: the Rose Bird Memorial Award and the Joan Dempsey Klein Distinguished Jurist Award. These awards are named after, and presented to, members of the judiciary who are pioneers and luminaries for women in the legal profession.

Founded in 1962, Women Lawyers of Sacramento (WLS) reaches beyond the practice of law by promoting the interests of women in the community. We advocate for legislative changes to benefit women and children, support qualified candidates for judicial and other public appointments, and sponsor events to provide our members with opportunities to meet other attorneys, judges, and legislators.

WLS offers monthly luncheons and other programs featuring well-known speakers on a range of topics such as glass-ceiling issues, sexual harassment, judicial independence, civility, and health care reform. Our annual Supreme Court reception honors the justices of our state’s highest court, while our judicial and legislative receptions honor judges and legislators. WLS also encourages qualified women to seek judicial and other public appointments and supports legislation promoting the interests of women and children. We offer a monthly electronic newsletter with current legal issues, member achievements, upcoming events, and job opportunities. We engage in community outreach and work with other bar organizations on a variety of issues.

Sarah Boot, LC President 2012-2013

Founded in 1972, Lawyers Club of San Diego’s mission is to advance the status of women in the law and society. Lawyers Club is the largest specialty bar association in San Diego, with more than 1,300 members of all genders, including attorneys at various public agencies, law firm managing and equity partners, retired and active federal and state judges, current and former U.S. attorneys, current and former San Diego district attorneys, San Diego public defenders, and federal defenders of San Diego, as well as law firm associates, law students, and others in the San Diego community who share our mission of advancing the status of women in the law and society. We are a proud affiliate of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and California Women Lawyers.

Our membership continues to grow each year, illustrating the value it provides to its members to advance the mission.

Our charitable arm, the Lawyers Club Fund for Justice, is a donor-advised fund at The San Diego Foundation. Lawyers Club, through its Fund for Justice, has awarded more than $400,000 to 45 organizations since its inception in 1997.

In 2022, Lawyers Club will celebrate its 50th anniversary, marking a half-century of advocacy, activism, and shared vision focused on advancing the status of women in the law and society.

The San Diego County Bar Association (SDCBA), which dates back to 1899, was run solely by males until January 1945. That’s when the Bar Association – at the time a membership-by-invitation-only organization – invited the 15 women who were practicing in San Diego County to join, serve on committees, and attend monthly luncheon/dinner bar meetings.

On Aug. 22, 1945, a week after VJ Day, eight of these women met with the officers of the Bar Association for a luncheon meeting in the English Room of the U.S. Grant Hotel. They agreed to form the Women’s Division of the San Diego County Bar Association, which later was called Women Lawyers of San Diego.

The first undertaking of this new group was to present the October Bar Association luncheon program featuring Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge May D. Lahey, who spoke on “Women in the Law.” After surveying the issue from ancient times down to the present day, Lahey suggested that the ideal law firm should include a woman attorney.

The second undertaking of the female members of the SDCBA was to elect a woman to the bar board. Madge Bradley was elected and took her seat in January 1946.

During the next 20 years, women lawyers continued to maintain a presence in the legal community as part of the SDCBA, but the number of women lawyers in the county remained relatively small.

Among the many firsts and seconds for women attorneys in the mid 1960s were: Betty Boone, who graduated from University of San Diego Law School in 1964, was the first woman to be employed as trust counsel by Title Insurance and Trust Company and later the first woman deputy county counsel of San Diego County; Artie Henderson, who became the second woman to be employed as a San Diego deputy city attorney in 1967; and Marge Stein, who became the second woman deputy district attorney of San Diego County, also in 1967.

Up until then, the San Diego legal community had grown accustomed to absorbing two or three new women lawyers a year. However, the second half of the 1960s saw the number of women attending law school grow tremendously. By the early 1970s, women comprised half of the students at some law schools. The new women attorneys coming to San Diego were less inclined than their predecessors to accept the fact that many professional clubs and meeting places were closed to them because of their gender.

These and other concerns led to the formation of Lawyers Club of San Diego, which was created on March 27, 1972, pursuant to a resolution of the members of the Women Lawyers of San Diego, and, according to the July 1972 DICTA (a publication of SDCBA), “supersede[d] the informal group known as The Women Lawyers of San Diego.”

In the 1970s, more young women were graduating from law schools, and women began making inroads into public agencies and private law firms, but women attorneys still were not very visible; they were few and not in high profile positions. Women and minorities were conspicuously missing from programs like Inns of Court. There were no women in the California Supreme Court until the controversial appointment of Rose Bird as chief justice, and there were no women in the U.S. Supreme Court until 1981.

The first decade of Lawyers Club (LC) saw the birth of key initiatives and recurring events that continue to define the club. Raging political battles over issues including abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and government funding for child care were frequently addressed. Legislative updates on proposed laws impacting women were regularly featured in the newsletter, including those addressing domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape.

Lawyers Club was not afraid to take on controversies, including an objectionable dress code ordered by a Superior Court judge but later stayed by a writ from the Court of Appeal. Members took note when a 1977 state study determined there wasn’t a single shelter for battered women in San Diego County. The board voted in 1978 to oppose the Briggs Initiative, which would have permitted the firing of homosexual teachers. In 1982, a club member discovered a “rape skit” was planned for the annual SDCBA dinner and Lawyers Club pressure took it off the program.

By law, husbands managed community property and women couldn’t have credit in their own names; they needed their husbands’ written permission to open accounts. There were hardly any domestic violence arrests or cases filed. Many people considered domestic violence the parties’ private business and argued the victim obviously liked it or she would have left. These injustices angered us and inspired us to work for change. Women attorneys helped change the laws.

The ERA was a national topic in 1972, and the fight was on to get states to ratify the amendment. In California, the process was stalled by a state senator. The fight for passage of the ERA in California was one of the first battles of LC.

The Equal Rights Amendment was written by an attorney, Alice Paul. Paul, a leader of the woman suffrage movement, wrote the ERA in 1923, the same year it was introduced in Congress. It took 49 years before the House and Senate passed the proposed amendment (after additional rewording), sending it off to the states for ratification in 1972.

The amendment to the U.S. Constitution sought to guarantee that equal rights under any federal, state, or local law could not be denied on account of sex.

When Lawyers Club of San Diego was founded in 1972, the first order of business after installation of officers was to create the Equal Rights Amendment Committee, chaired by one of the original founders of Lawyers Club,

Linda Navarro. It was agreed that a meeting with State Sen. James R. Mills (president pro tem of the Senate, and representing San Diego’s 40th District) should be arranged to “present arguments to rebut his opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment.” Navarro was tasked with coordinating the arguments written by each board member. She and Lawyers Club President Judith McConnell met with Mills, who assured them of the likely California passage of the ERA in January 1973. McConnell recalled Mills’ characterization of the ERA as “Mickey Mouse” and his use of position as chair of the Senate Rules Committee to block a vote on it in California. However, public support for passage and an impromptu meeting with Lynn Schenk, a Lawyers Club of San Diego founder, at a political dinner caused Mills to appoint a Blue Ribbon Committee, with members including McConnell, Sharron Voorhees, and Henderson (among others). “Our first and only meeting lasted less than 10 minutes as we all agreed the ERA should be supported,” said McConnell.

Mills stated publicly that he would give “considerable weight” to the findings of the panel; and in fact, the legislation to ratify the amendment was released from his committee and sent to the Senate, where it was ratified on Nov. 13, 1972. The Assembly had earlier that spring voted to approve the resolution to ratify the ERA.

Reflecting back, Schenk believes that seeking California ratification of the ERA “helped coalesce us and showed us how there is power in working together, and that we can make change working together.” Schenk said that with Lawyers Club being newly formed and generally unknown, the ERA push “helped expand the circle of people who knew about Lawyers Club.” She believed that Mills and others thought Lawyers Club was much bigger than it actually was at the time, “so we leveraged that.”

In the legal profession, the day-to-day life of a lawyer was tough enough. The daily life of a female lawyer had additional layers of frustration heaped upon it. Even assuming female attorneys could find work in the profession, they were still excluded from the “old boys’ network.” As Schenk recalled, in those days, “people went out to lunch every day; it was the time to bond and to get the ‘deals’ done … There were only three decent places within walking distance of the courthouse: the Cuyamaca Club, which was private, the Westgate Hotel, and the Grant Grill. The Grill was ‘the’ place, and they would not let us in at lunch. Our decision to bring down that barrier … was made at the same time we were already forming LC. It was not the impetus for forming LC. However … it was an understandable symbol of all the other women ‘keep out’ signs in the laws, in the legal profession, and in society.”

We wanted equal pay, equal treatment, and equal opportunities. It did not come easily. We knew if we were excluded from places where important decisions were being made, we wouldn’t have equality.

McConnell, Schenk, and Elaine Alexander insisted on being served at the Grant Grill in 1972, opening the door to women.

The San Diego County Bar Association’s board of directors had a female board member, Dorothy Belkin. It was Schenk’s recollection that the then bar president felt that “one girl” was sufficient, and thus was resistant to women lawyers participating on bar committees.

The founders and early supporters of Lawyers Club also wanted to take action to correct the underrepresentation of women in the judiciary. In April 1979, the club formed an Appointment Qualification Committee to help women seek judicial appointments, and so the club could issue endorsements to highly regarded candidates. Also offered were briefings about state board and commission vacancies and how to win them.

The work of Lawyers Club’s mission – to advance the status of women in the law and in society – continues. And it will continue until we achieve gender equality, here in San Diego and beyond. We, as an organization, as a sisterhood standing with hundreds of male allies, still have a great deal of work to do.

Our founding mothers and early members opened the doors to the legal profession for us … countless women have walked through these doors and made huge strides. Along the way, these women and their male allies have reached back to lift up the women coming behind them, and they have reached outward to improve the lives of women in this community. That’s what this organization is about. And it is clear that the work of Lawyers Club must continue.

This history is extracted from Lawyers Club of San Diego at 40, A Look Back and Forward, 1972-2012 and Beyond, with specific articles and contributions from Rivian Taylor (Lawyers Club Newsletter, June 1997), Pamela Lawton Wilson, George W. Brewster Jr., Betty Evans Boone, Sarah Boot, Hon. Judith McConnell, and Hon. Lynn Schenk.

By Rebecca Hooley

Queen’s Bench Bar Association of the San Francisco Bay Area was established in 1921, 43 years after the first woman lawyer, Clara Shortridge Foltz, was admitted to practice in California and, with the help of Foltz’s lobbying, the California state Woman Lawyer’s Bill, allowing admission to “any citizen or person,” was passed. The law was one of the earliest American statutes allowing women to practice law. Despite this success, Foltz and other women attorneys in California faced severe obstacles to the practice of law for many years to come. Women’s suffrage passed in California only in 1911, and it took until 1917 that another law was enacted allowing women on California juries. In 1920, 72 years after the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, granting all women the right to vote. It was in this context that the first women’s bar associations in California were formed.

Begrudgingly granted admission to the California State Bar and to the Bar Association of San Francisco, women lawyers were not welcome. Ever resourceful, the women lawyers of the San Francisco Bay Area banded together to form Queen’s Bench to further the interests of women in law and society. The first Queen’s Bench planning meeting was held Dec. 11, 1920. Invitations were sent to every woman lawyer in the vicinity of San Francisco, California – a total of 26 at the time. Twenty-one women accepted and gathered at the Tait-Zinkand Cafe on O’Farrell Street in San Francisco. Some attendees felt the purpose of the organization should be to further professional contacts and create a substitute for the Bar Association of San Francisco, where intolerance by some male members made participation by women lawyers uncomfortable and difficult. The attendees were nevertheless mindful of those who believed that “it was inadvisable to emphasize a distinction between the sexes in the profession, and that a woman’s bar association would increase, rather than diminish, the obvious prejudice of men in the profession.” The final policy decision at the first meeting was not to create a separate bar association, but to work within the existing one. All 21 of the attendees at the December luncheon signed on as charter members, and another four women attorneys joined Queen’s Bench before the end of the year.

Queen’s Bench eventually did become an independent bar association, however, in acknowledgment of the distinct issues women face in gaining equal recognition in the legal profession. Since that time, Queen’s Bench has gone on to see its membership and community grow, which includes many esteemed women judges, women judicial officers, and other distinguished women leaders in the legal profession. Queen’s Bench looks forward to celebrating its centennial in 2021.

The Canadian Bar Association (CBA) Women Lawyers Forum (WLF) is a much younger women’s bar association than many in the United States and other countries. The idea of creating it was first raised in the late 1990s and was the focus of a CBA President’s Forum held in 2001 in Vancouver, British Columbia (BC). The President’s Forum was such a success that it became apparent that the time had come to start a women lawyers section.

Unlike the NCWBA, the WLF is a section of the Canadian Bar Association. The CBA is the equivalent of the American Bar Association. You must be a member of the CBA in order to join the WLF. However, the WLF is more similar in structure to the NCWBA than to the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, as it forms a cross-country network of provincial forums that work with the national WLF.

The first WLF was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2003, when the CBA BC Branch voted to create a new section devoted to women lawyers.

As the BC WLF was such an immediate success, the first BC WLF chair took the idea across Canada and spoke to many CBA provincial council meetings. As a result, a national WLF (as part of the CBA) was formally created in 2005.

Each province was encouraged to start its own Women Lawyers Forum, and today, in addition to the national WLF, there is a forum in all 10 provinces and two of the three territories.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, had a longstanding women lawyers association within the CBA called the Feminist Legal Action Committee. After some years of coexistence with the Ontario WLF, the two groups merged to form one women lawyers group known as the Ontario WLF. There are also a few cities in Canada that have longstanding independent women lawyers’ associations that are not part of the CBA. Some of these independent associations coexist alongside their provincial WLF while some remain the sole women lawyers’ group (often due to the small number of women lawyers in their region).

Each provincial WLF has programs that suit its jurisdiction and population, such as educational workshops and speakers, networking events, local conferences, and awards recognizing outstanding women lawyers.

One of the British Columbia WLF’s flagship programs is its Mentoring Program, which has seen more than 2,000 women mentors and mentees participate since 2003. It is the largest mentoring program for women lawyers in Canada.

The BC WLF now has branches in three other regions around the province, each with its own local programs and access to programs run province-wide, such as the Mentoring Program.

The national WLF holds a biannual two-day leadership conference. These conferences have been very successful at bringing women from across the country together. National Leadership Conferences have been held in Toronto in 2010, Montreal in 2013, Vancouver in 2015, and Calgary in 2017; in 2019, the conference will be held in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The national WLF focuses its programs, research, and submissions to the national CBA on important women’s issues such as sexual harassment within the legal profession, equal pay, using gender-neutral language, and the appointment of more women judges.

The national CBA WLF is the only women lawyers’ association outside the United States to have formal liaison status with both the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession (since 2009) and with the NCWBA. A member of the WLF executive committee attends the ABA Midyear and Annual meetings and NCWBA Midyear meeting and annual Women’s Bar Leadership Summit to share knowledge and experience with our American sisters in law.

The WLF has been an important reason why many women have joined the Canadian Bar Association as members and why it was chosen in 2018 for a special CBA Sections award. The WLF is seen as the voice of women lawyers within the CBA and in the public arena.

By Jessica A. Volz, Ph.D.

Forty years after filing its articles of incorporation with the Colorado secretary of state on June 1, 1979, marking its official formation as a nonprofit, the Colorado Women’s Bar Association (CWBA) continues to be the largest diversity bar association in Colorado, with nearly 1,300 active members, most of whom are in the Denver metro area. In the five years leading up to this anniversary, the CWBA engaged more than 2,000 women attorneys in its critical program of work. The CWBA’s mission remains unaltered since the organization’s inception in 1978: “to advance women in the legal profession and the interests of women generally.” Even if times have changed since the days when Past President (Judge) Theresa Spahn organized potlucks to stir up momentum for the CWBA, finding the fortitude to do what it takes to get the job done is something for which members have always had an insatiable appetite. Likewise, the CWBA recognizes that it must embrace change in order to effect it: In 1997, the CWBA was one of the first women’s bar associations to have a homepage on the World Wide Web; in 2006, Vanessa Walton became the first woman of color to be president of the CWBA; and in 2018, the organization embarked on a strategic plan prioritizing, among other objectives, increasing the diversity and retention rate of its membership by 2020. 1

The need for a women’s bar association in Colorado has not diminished, as women’s issues remain a battleground to be conquered. The CWBA offers women attorneys an intergenerational forum for championing the elimination of affinity bias, discrimination, intimidation, and other roadblocks to achieving their goals. Since 2012, the organization has also focused on facilitating meaningful networking and mentoring sessions for young women lawyers. A 1998 careers and compensation study found that the average net income for full-time female attorneys in Colorado was 59 percent of that of their male counterparts. 2 Twenty years later, McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2018 indicated that though companies profess to be committed to gender diversity, desired outcomes are lagging. 3 More disturbingly yet, in 2019, the World Bank reported that only six countries currently give women and men equal rights – and the United States is not one of them. 4 Addressing the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which Titanic survivor and barrister Elsie Bowerman helped form, 5 UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a pushback against the recent “pushback” on women’s rights. 6 As the #MeToo, Time’s Up, and HeForShe movements shake up patriarchal power structures, the possibility of a society where women can “have it all” (or all that they want) – and get paid the same, too – presents the CWBA with an opportunity to shape the course of the future for women in the legal profession and beyond. Fueled by this boundless energy, the organization was the driving force behind the introduction of the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act in the Colorado General Assembly on Jan. 18, 2019.

Today, the CWBA has eight chapters outside of the Denver metro area and offers a spectrum of committees dedicated to supporting women in the law and the welfare of all women. The CWBA recognizes that to promote a more just society, a woman’s place should be everywhere, from the legislature to the bench. Colorado is a role model in this respect, as women now make up 45 percent of the Colorado General Assembly – the highest proportion of any legislature in the nation – and represent 37 percent of the state’s judges. 7 While these benchmarks indicate how far women in the state have come, gender parity remains a call to action rather than an actuality.

The rise of the CWBA is inextricable from Colorado’s history of pioneering women in the law. According to most sources, the first woman licensed to practice law in the Centennial State was Mary S. Thomas, who, in 1891, successfully petitioned the state of Colorado for the right to practice law, making Colorado the 25th state to enable women to take up the profession. 8 Though American women would have to wait until 1920 to vote in federal elections, in 1893, Colorado became the first in the nation to use a state referendum to pass women’s suffrage into law. 9 Prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment, Colorado had opened a number of other doors to women. In 1894, Clara Cressingham, Carrie Holly, and Frances Klock were elected to the Colorado House of Representatives, becoming the first women to be elected to any legislature in U.S. history. 10

In the 20th century, women lawyers continued to defy the limitations imposed on their private and professional lives. The commitments of motherhood and “lawyerhood” were not entirely incompatible. In 1911 – the year that witnessed the first International Women’s Day – Lydia B.

Tague, a widow raising five children, was appointed as the first female judge in Colorado and possibly the nation. 11 Nonetheless, gender-based discrimination endured. When Norma Comstock became the first female president of the Denver Bar Association in 1965, she was prohibited from attending the annual membership picnic because it was a “stag party.” 12 Three years later, after applying to the FBI and receiving multiple rejections, Sandra Rothenberg was informed that “our Special Agent position must be limited to males.” 13 Undaunted, the future president of the CWBA showcased her stamina as the lead plaintiff in a historic class action lawsuit alleging sexual discrimination by the FBI. 14 Even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which established the illegality of discrimination on the basis of sex, the status of women in the legal and political spheres remained so lackluster that Pat Schroeder – the first woman to represent Colorado in Congress – had to share a single chair with the first black member of the House Armed Services Committee. 15 The infamous “bathroom excuse” fortified skyscrapers’ glass ceilings as firms resorted to citing the nonexistence of a ladies’ room to veil their resolve not to hire women lawyers. 16 Yet Colorado women persisted and prevailed: In 1974, Aurel M. Kelly became the first woman appointed to the Colorado Court of Appeals; in 1977, Christine Arguello (now a federal judge) became the first Latina admitted to Harvard Law School; and in 1979, Jean Dubofsky became the first woman appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court. 17

Despite the many strides that Colorado women lawyers made from 1891, when they secured the right to practice law, to 1979, the year when the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin entered into circulation, perhaps their greatest achievement lies in the formation of the Colorado Women’s Bar Association. On Jan. 19, 1978, Natalie Ellwood and 18 other women lawyers, similarly fed up with the status quo, convened in her law office’s basement to discuss the need for an independent power base in Colorado that promoted women in the law and the judiciary. As there was no debate as to whether such an organization should exist, the meeting concluded with Jo Ann Weinstein, who had been appointed temporary treasurer, collecting $10 from 17 attendees, amounting to $170 in dues. 18 To put it more poetically, these women were, in their own way, fulfilling the call to action that Mary Wollstonecraft, the mother of feminism, had issued in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792): “I do not wish [women] to have power over men, but over themselves.” 19

At the next meeting on March 2, 1978, the discussion returned to the pressing question: What were they to call the organization? The Bylaws and Constitution Committee had already thrown out, among other suggestions, “Amici Curiae” and “Colorado Women’s Law Caucus.” 20 While some were concerned that the phrase “women’s bar association” would anger male attorneys, others concluded that “those who wish to view it benevolently will see it that way regardless of the name.” 21 The case of Colorado Women’s Bar Association v. Some Other Name ended with a vote of 25-13 in favor of the use of Colorado Women’s Bar Association. 22 Temporary officers were elected to serve for an initial period of three months, at which point a convention was to be held outside of Denver at a date, time, place, and expense that would be left to the recommendations of the Convention Committee. 23

On July 22 and 23, 1978, approximately one-eighth of the female attorneys licensed to practice in Colorado ascended to Keystone to form their own bar association. The first Annual Convention of the CWBA attracted 105 attorneys and 15 law students. 24 Acting President Ellwood called the meeting to order, paving the way for numerous motions to be made. Following a cookout lunch, Barbara Allen Babcock gave the keynote address. The event culminated in the unanimous election of the CWBA’s first official cohort of officers: Ellwood (president); Frances Koncilja (vice president); Sandra Rothenberg (secretary); Weinstein (treasurer); and Kathy Bonham (parliamentarian). 25 The Annual Convention continues to represent a calendar highlight, with the 2018 edition at The Sebastian – Vail attracting record numbers and nationally renowned speakers, including Paulette Brown, the first woman of color to be president of the American Bar Association.

Perhaps the most poignant summation of the impetus for a women’s bar association in Colorado appears in Ellwood’s article in the November 1978 edition of CWBA’s quarterly newsletter, The Advocate:

At the age of thirty, after five years of practicing law, I suddenly realized that I had had an unrealistic dream about practicing law and being a woman. By the age of 34, I was made abruptly aware by an overbearing Denver District Court Judge ... that the dream was totally unrealistic; and never existed at all. The dream: that since I was a young woman who managed to thread my way through the rigors and boredom of law school, that not only would I be accepted by the lawyer fraternity upon receiving my license, but that I would most certainly pave the way for acceptance in that same community for all women who desired to practice law. Wrong! ... I saw that when a female attorney entered the courtroom she was scrutinized by the male attorney with an eye I have never seen cast upon another male both in terms of ability and physical looks. Finally, I realized that women are definitely treated differently than men in my conservative profession, run and promoted for centuries by males. I also discovered that ... I yearned for support and companionship from women who shared common goals and ideas with me. 26 Whereas Ellwood reflected on the past, other early contributors looked to the future with newfound hope. One article recorded 33 women from both major political parties as seeking office; another inclusion articulated the governor’s “desperate need” for the resumes of women attorneys interested in serving on judicial selection committees. 27 A third contribution discussed the minimum continuing legal education (CLE) requirements for all Colorado attorneys and the CWBA’s resolve to provide accredited programs that shared the expertise of notable women professionals. 28

By May 1979, Weinstein had reported that the organization’s budget was 180 members strong, and Judicial Committee Chair Beth McCann was fortifying women lawyers with her slogan, “You don’t have to be a Superman to be a Judge!” 29 The Public Policy Committee, chaired by Janice Buchanan, was also translating talk into sustained action and had approved a lobbying effort in support of the continuation of Colorado’s Commission for Women. 30 Thirteen years later, in 1992, the CWBA opposed Colorado’s Amendment 2, which would have prevented any city, town, or county in the state from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to recognize homosexuals or bisexuals as a protected class. Though Coloradans narrowly voted in favor of its passage, the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled it as unconstitutional in Romer v. Evans. Fittingly, it was CWBA member Jean Dubofsky – Colorado’s first female Colorado Supreme Court justice – who, after returning to private practice, was the lead attorney on the case. 31

The CWBA’s philanthropic reach continues to achieve altitude and influence. In 1988, the CWBA established a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable fund, now known as the CWBA Foundation. Its mission and purpose are to implement the charitable and educational work of the CWBA. The Foundation’s annual “Raising the Bar” dinner, introduced in 2006, honors women lawyers who have made a difference in the community and “raised the bar” for all women.

Justice Mary Mullarkey, who starred in the CWBA’s 2004 Raising the Bar film, is one recipient of the CWBA’s Mary Lathrop Trailblazer Award who raised the bar in a way that laid the architectural foundations for a new skyline of justice in the state. As the first female and longestserving Colorado Supreme Court chief justice to date, she has recognized that “the CWBA makes Colorado a better place for women to practice law.” 32 Throughout Colorado’s phases of growth, there was one fixture that troubled her: the overcrowded and outdated justice center. After becoming chief justice in 1998, she found a way to achieve bipartisan support and ultimately secure the funds to pay for the state-of-the-art Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center through court filing fees and federal stimulus money. 33 While a Colorado woman has yet to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor told a captivated CWBA audience in 1982 that “[i]f you’d like to come sit with me, I’ll save you a seat.” 34 More than a decade after her departure, the dream lives on.

This article is indebted to the CWBA’s historical records and those Colorado women lawyers who graciously provided their perspectives on the organization’s past, present, and future.

Endnotes 1. This information is documented in the CWBA’s timeline and on the organization’s website. 2. This study is included in the CWBA’s timeline. 3. McKinsey’s report can be accessed here: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/genderequality/women-in-the-workplace-2018. 4. The World Bank’s study—Women, Business and the Law 2019—can be downloaded here: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/31327/WBL2019.pdf. 5. Many of Bowerman’s papers are housed in the Women’s Library at the London School of Economics: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/7faddc17-6891-4f8b-9004- 50df790b0787. She and Margaret Brown were among the women’s rights activists who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic on lifeboat 6. Bowerman went on to become the first woman barrister at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales. In 1946, she was tapped to become the first secretary of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. 6. See, e.g., “UN chief warns of ‘relentless’ pushback on women’s rights” (March 11, 2019), The Washington Post, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un-chief-warns-of-relentless-pushbackon-womens-rights/2019/03/11/17bd3d2c-4447-11e9-94ab-d2dda3c0df52_story.html?utm_ term=.0c5695b1dbd9. 7. Statistics supplied by CWBA Executive Director Kim Sporrer in March 2019. 8. See, e.g., Samantha T.F. Lillehoff’s “2018 National Women’s History Month: The 1891” in The Advocate (Spring 2018), pp. 7, 15. 9. See Jennifer Frost’s “Why Did Women Win the Right to Vote in Colorado in the 19th Century?” (October 14, 2018), History News Network, https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/170178. 10. See “7 women who led the way to equality in Colorado” (August 23, 2018), History Colorado Center, https://www.historycolorado.org/story/womens-history/2018/08/23/7-women-who-led-wayequality-colorado. 11. See The Hon. Mary A. Celeste’s “A Brief Herstory of Colorado Women Trailblazers in the Law” in The Advocate (December 2002), pp. 4–7. 12. Id. 13. The Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame offers an evocative account of Rothenberg’s victories in combating discrimination: https://www.cogreatwomen.org/project/sandra-i-rothenberg. 14. See Alli Gerkman’s and Monica Rosenbluth’s article on Rosenberg in The Advocate (Winter 2014–15), p. 9. 15. See The Hon. Mary A. Celeste’s “A Brief Herstory of Colorado Women Trailblazers in the Law” in The Advocate (December 2002), pp. 4–7. 16. Id. 17. Id. 18. This information is documented in the Minutes. 19. See Volz, Visuality in the Novels of Austen, Radcliffe, Edgeworth and Burney (London and New York: Anthem Press, 2017), p. 210. 20. This information is documented in the Minutes. 21. Id. 22. Id. 23. Id. 24. See the first issue of The Advocate (September 1978), p. 1, and the Minutes. 25. Id. 26. See “Why A Women’s Bar?” in The Advocate (November 1978), p. 3. 27. See The Advocate (September 1978). 28. Id. 29. See The Advocate (May 1979). 30. Id. 31. See Susan Berry Casey’s Appealing for Justice (Denver: Gilpin Park Press, 2016). 32. Perspective supplied by Justice Mullarkey during an interview with her in December 2016. 33. See Volz, “A Conversation with CBA Award of Merit Recipient Justice Mary J. Mullarkey,” 46 The Colorado Lawyer 2 (February 2017), pp. 13–16. 34. See the CWBA’s “Women Lawyers in Colorado—Past, Present & Future.”

WOMEN’S BAR ASSOCIATION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (WBA DC)

n 1917, the Bar Association of DC (BADC) refused to admit women, which inspired the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia’s (WBA DC) founders and visionaries, Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma M. Gillett, together with 29 other founding members, to create their own professional organization to address the needs of their female colleagues. Any woman in good standing with the Bar of the Supreme Court of DC could join for annual dues of $1.00. Membership increased rapidly, and by the end of 1917, at least 40 percent of those eligible had joined the WBA.

One of the first WBA committees, and for decades one of its most active, was the Legislation Committee. In the WBA’s first decade alone, the committee drafted and testified on Capitol Hill in support of legislation to:

• Repeal restrictions on the capacity of married women to contract;

• Prevent discrimination against women under inheritance laws;

• Support maternal health and hygiene, in order to reduce the unacceptably high death rate for women and their babies in childbirth; and

• Guarantee protections to children born out of wedlock.

The WBA also endorsed a proposed treaty providing for the extradition of men who had “deserted their families” by crossing the border between the United States and Canada.

Prior to the ratification of the 19th Amendment, the WBA’s founders were marching on Washington and demanding the right to vote. In addition to its focus on women’s suffrage, throughout its history, the WBA has advocated for voting rights for DC residents.

The WBA’s founders, Mussey and Gillett, also founded what is now American University’s Washington College of Law (WCL). In 1924, the WBA began scholarships for women at the WCL and the National University School of Law (now The George Washington University Law School).

During the late 1920s and 1930s, the WBA continued its legislative activism. The WBA endorsed revisions to the laws of descent and distribution in order to eliminate the preference for males over females, and in 1935, the Legislation Committee worked toward passage of a bill to further improve the inheritance status of women. In 1937, the WBA moved to endorse bills in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to revise the DC Code and reduce the barriers to women serving on juries.

The WBA continued to champion DC suffrage. In 1936, the WBA endorsed joint resolutions of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives proposing a constitutional amendment to grant DC representation in the Senate, House, and Electoral College and provide the citizens of DC the same rights before courts as the residents of the states enjoyed.

More than 20 years after the WBA’s founding, in 1941, the WBA successfully lobbied the BADC to amend its bylaws to admit women.

The WBA’s Legislation Committee lobbied in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and laws on the equalization of inheritance rights. The WBA endorsed the Adoption Bill and the Juvenile Court Bill, both of which were passed by Congress in 1938.

Continuing its ongoing campaign for DC suffrage, the WBA publicly supported a plebiscite on suffrage for DC residents in 1946, and the WBA president gave a radio address in support of the vote in which she focused on reasons women in the District should want to vote in national elections.

In the 1950s, the WBA supported the creation of a Legal Aid Society for DC. In addition, the WBA provided comments on proposed changes to DC laws regarding adoptions, the administration of estates, and the abolishment of dower and curtesy (a surviving spouse’s right to a set portion of a deceased spouse’s estate). The WBA also continued to voice public support for DC home rule and DC suffrage.

In 1954, the WBA began a tradition that has continued into current times, sponsoring its first reception honoring new U.S. citizens. Following a naturalization ceremony at the federal courthouse in DC, 99 new citizens were greeted by members of the WBA.

One of the most contentious yet important moments within the WBA’s history occurred in 1962, when the WBA voted to “break the color barrier” and admit its first African- American member, Dovey Johnson Roundtree.

Also in 1962, the WBA established a Committee on the Placement of Women Lawyers to assist members in identifying available legal positions, and it continued its endorsement of women lawyers for nomination to the bench. In 1965, the WBA sent a letter to President Lyndon B. Johnson decrying the lack of female judges in DC.

In 1965, the WBA successfully lobbied the Presidential Commissioners appointed to oversee the District to include a prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sex in new fair employment regulations. In the 1960s, the WBA also endorsed legislation eliminating rules allowing the federal government to specify “men only” when selecting employees, addressing requirements for obtaining divorces, confirming the rights of married women to own property, supporting the abolition of mandatory capital punishment, and reforming the role and scope of the juvenile courts.

By 1966, more than 45 states had created commissions on the status of women, but DC had resisted. Consequently, the WBA sponsored a conference of local women’s organizations, which unanimously agreed that the creation of such a commission would be advantageous to the women in the District. As a result, DC instituted a local commission in 1967.

In 1971, with the support of several WBA members as cofounders, the Women’s Legal Defense Fund, later renamed the National Partnership for Women & Families, was established to advance women’s rights through litigation, education, information, and counseling.

Throughout the ’70s, the WBA endorsed legislation removing restrictions on the careers of female military officers and other forms of sexual discrimination, as well as measures targeting bail reform, drug crimes, and nofault insurance. In 1976, the WBA joined 50 women’s organizations in the Coalition for Women’s Appointments working to increase the number of women in administrative policy-making positions. The National Women’s Political Caucus reported that within three years of the coalition’s founding, the number of women in full-time appointed positions increased by 10 percent.

The WBA created a task force to assess the purposes and effectiveness of the WBA in 1979. Following a recommendation from that task force, in 1980, the WBA instituted a series of forums and committees intended to provide informal outlets for discussions between members with similar interests. Initially, the WBA launched a dozen forums centering around particular practice areas and, recognizing their unique concerns, also started groups for working parents and new lawyers.

In 1980, the WBA voted to break a different gender barrier, accepting male members for the first time. During the ’80s, the WBA also endorsed federal bills relating to civil rights, domestic violence prevention and assistance, parental and medical leave, and equal pay for equal work for women.

In 1981, the Women’s Bar Association Foundation (WBAF) was founded as the association’s charitable and philanthropic arm. An early project sponsored by the WBAF included an annual holiday party to collect donations for the House of Ruth, a shelter for homeless and battered women in DC.

The WBA ushered in 1991 with the election of its first African-American president. Twice in four years, mayors of DC announced a Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia Day: Mayor Marion Barry on Oct. 2, 1989, and Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly on May 5, 1992, in celebration of the WBA’s 75th anniversary.

In 1993, the WBA provided testimony before the DC Council’s Judiciary Committee in support of the Anti-Sexual Abuse Act of 1993. The WBA participated extensively in letter-writing campaigns, issued public statements, and lobbied Congress and the White House in support of the Family & Medical Leave Act of 1993. In 1994, the WBA submitted a letter supporting H.R. 966, which placed a numerical value on the unremunerated work related to family care and maintenance of households. The WBA was part of a coalition supporting the federal Freedom of Choice Act that would guarantee the right to abortion even if Roe v. Wade was overturned and joined a campaign to support the ABA’s reproductive rights resolution. Both actions were in keeping with the membership’s vote in 1989 to take steps to protect women’s right to choose.

As this decade progressed, the WBA recognized that women’s advancement had stalled. While many of the battles to hire women seemed won, it became increasingly clear throughout the 1990s and early 2000s that, compared to men, there was disproportionate attrition of women and women of color from law firms and other places of legal employment.

In 2006, recognizing the need for a more sustained focus on issues affecting women’s advancement and satisfaction in the profession, the WBA launched its groundbreaking Initiative on Advancement and Retention of Women. The initiative sought to create a dialogue among stakeholders in the profession and to facilitate women and women of color’s success in, and stem their disproportionate attrition from, law firms. In Phase I, the WBA brought together law firm and corporate leaders, experts on diversity and inclusion, professors, and lawyers to discuss why women disproportionately leave law firm practice. The WBA used the findings from those programs to write its 2006 initiative report, Creating Pathways to Success. This report garnered national acclaim and can be found at www.wbadc.org/initiative.

That same year, the WBA filed briefs and provided comments in connection with cases and legislation of interest to its membership, including filing an amicus brief in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and submitting a letter to U.S. senators urging passage of the Fair Pay Restoration Act. Through its newsletter, Raising the Bar, the WBA continued to spotlight and educate its members on critical issues affecting everyday rights, such as “Infertility and Contraception Coverage Under the Americans With Disabilities Act, Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act” and “The New Battleground in Gender Discrimination Claims: Family Responsibilities Discrimination.” In 2007, the WBA wrote to every senator and representative in Congress asking them to vote in favor of the DC Voting Rights Act, which would have allowed DC’s delegate to vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2008, the WBA created the Task Force on Fair, Impartial, and Independent Courts, which held a series of seminars to explore how to promote and maintain fair, impartial, and independent courts and the role that diversity plays in ensuring the legitimacy of this third branch of government.

Also in 2008, the WBA implemented Phase II of the Initiative on Advancement and Retention of Women and held a Diversity Summit. The purpose of the summit was to discuss issues facing women lawyers of color and to develop practical strategies for eliminating the barriers that lead to the disproportionately high attrition of women of color from law firms. From the findings of the summit, the WBA created its 2008 initiative report, Creating Pathways to Success for All, which is available at www.wbadc.org/initiative.

The initiative also launched a daylong practical skills training program for third-year law students in 2009: “Hit the Ground Running: Practical Skills You Need to Succeed.” This program focused on bridging the transition from law school to legal practice. As a result, the WBA received the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations (NCWBA) 2010 Outstanding Member Program Award.

The third phase of the initiative, in 2010, turned its attention to advancement and retention of women in corporate law departments. The report, Navigating the Corporate Matrix, can be found at www.wbadc.org/initiative.

In 2013, the WBA pursued the fourth phase of the initiative, which examined the variety of paths available to women to achieve success in the legal profession. This phase was called “Initiative 2.0: Creating a Path to Success in a Changing Economy.” Because the economic recession had a disparate impact on women lawyers, this phase tackled challenges encountered by women that have been compounded by the rapid changes in the legal profession resulting from changing economic conditions.

Recognizing that women’s rights are an international issue, the WBA and ABA held a program to discuss the global impact of the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) addressing and guaranteeing gender-related legal reforms. Support of CEDAW was particularly significant because the United States is one of the few nations in the world that has not ratified it. The WBA also participated in the 2012 International Women’s Day Summit.

In 2017, the WBA celebrated its 100th anniversary! In honor of the celebratory annual dinner/meeting, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser proclaimed May 17, 2017, the Women’s Bar Association of DC Day.

The WBA continues to challenge the barriers to entry and success for women of color in the legal profession. In 2019, the WBA held “Dare to Make an Impact Conference: Advancing Women of Color.” The conference focused on impediments to success for women of color within the partnership ranks of law firms; strategies and tools for overcoming those barriers; and essential structures that must be built within firms to support the success and advancement of women of color. The focus was on how inhouse legal departments are uniquely positioned to help move the needle on the advancement of women of color by setting diversity standards for the management and staffing of their outside legal matters.

Just as the WBA guided women through the battles for women’s suffrage and access to law school, and against barriers to equality found in unfriendly courts, laws that discriminated expressly because of gender, and doors to law firms and other legal jobs once locked tightly against women, today the WBA continues to fight to break down the more subtle impediments to success that stall women’s progress in the profession.

By Wendy Loquasto, FAWL Historian

F lorida Association for Women Lawyers (FAWL) Historian Judge Mattie Belle Davis, trailblazing woman lawyer admitted to practice law in Florida in 1936, founding member and past president of FAWL (1957-58), past president of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), FAWL historian, matriarch, and mentor for generations of FAWL members, began A History of Florida Association for Women Lawyers 1951- 2001 as follows:

In 1950, the year the Florida State Bar Association became integrated as The Florida Bar, and one year before the FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN LAWYERS was organized, 3,758 lawyers were authorized to practice law in Florida. Of these, less than 100 were women. Twenty-seven of these women assembled in Miami Beach on June 30, 1951, to discuss the need for a separate women’s bar association, to be called the FLORIDA ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN LAWYERS. ...[ 1 ] FAWL’s founders believed that women lawyers would benefit from forming a women’s bar association that would meet at least annually “for the purpose of fellowship, having workshop discussions and talks on professional and timely subjects, helping to further the comradeship among the women lawyers of Florida, and fostering continued high standards of professional service ...”

What started 69 years ago with 27 women in Miami has grown to 3,326 current female and male members in 26 local chapters stretching from Pensacola to Jacksonville and south to Tampa, Orlando, Naples, Palm Beach, and Miami- Dade, and 11 law school chapters. 2

FAWL’s roots lie with the Women Lawyers’ Club founded by a group of 18 women lawyers in New York City in 1899, which became NAWL in 1923. 3

In its infancy, FAWL encouraged its members to become NAWL members and attend its annual conventions, where they could connect with other women lawyers from around the nation. By serving on NAWL committees and as officers, FAWL members obtained important bar leadership skills and experience. FAWL’s association with NAWL has continued over its 69-year history.

During those early years of FAWL, when women were often deterred from attending any of the local bar association meetings, FAWL provided invaluable fellowship and support for women lawyers, as well as lawoffice management and practice advice.

In the 1950s, FAWL started hosting legal forums on topics of interest, such as wills and estates, adoptions, landlordtenant, family law, and personal injuries. These forums provided a public platform for women lawyers to share information and to be seen and heard by citizens, with the aims of increasing their knowledge and demonstrating their competency and growing their practices. They also formed speakers’ bureaus to provide programs at civic and religious organizations for the same purpose.

From its inception, FAWL actively supported legislation to benefit women. In 1953, FAWL partnered with the Legislative Committee of the Florida Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs to present the “Equal Pay for Equal Work” bill to the Florida Legislature, which FAWL continued to support over the years until its passage in 1969. In 1955, FAWL adopted the Uniform Divorce Bill as a project to support. It worked to eliminate gender bias in Florida’s constitution through the 1968 Constitution Revision Commission to substitute the words “natural person” for “men” and to make other gender-neutral revisions. FAWL members joined the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of the Florida Bar in 1972 to study changes in dower and women’s rights, and they were vocal supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, urging the Florida Legislature and Gov. Lawton Chiles to ratify the ERA. In the early 1980s, FAWL worked to establish programs to help battered women, and it began focusing on gender bias in the legal profession and was instrumental in the creation of the Florida Supreme Court Gender Bias Study Commission in 1987. In the late 1980s, FAWL focused its attention on state court litigation involving women and children, reproductive freedom and Florida’s right of privacy, and DNA testing, which was useful in paternity cases seeking child support.

In the spring of 1989, FAWL hosted its first Annual Legislative Reception in Tallahassee, and through these annual legislative receptions, FAWL has promoted a host of domestic legislation based upon recommendations of the Gender Bias Study Commission. In the 1990s, FAWL lobbied the Florida Legislature for gender equity on the Judicial Nominating Commissions. The mid-1990s saw renewed effort for ratification of the federal ERA, and then in 1997, FAWL focused on the Constitution Revision Commission and supported passage of Florida’s Basic Rights Amendment. Florida’s ERA was opposed by those who feared it would support gay rights, but was ultimately approved by Florida citizens in large part due to the stateby-state research of similarly worded ERAs gathered by FAWL’s members, particularly FAWL President Jennifer Coberly (1997-98).

Fast forward to the present day, and FAWL’s efforts to better the lives of women in Florida can be seen through its lobbying and support of legislation to stop human trafficking.

FAWL actively recommended and supported qualified women for appointment to the judiciary, including the successful nomination of Past President Mattie Belle Davis as the first woman judge of the Metropolitan Court of Dade County in 1959.

FAWL also successfully supported appointments to other leadership positions in the legal profession.

In 1962, FAWL was recognized for the first time as an integral part of the Florida Bar and was permitted to give a brief report at the Board of Governors’ meeting.

In 1972, FAWL was still a “small” organization by today’s standards, with only 77 paid members, but women lawyers were in many positions of power.

The 1970s saw a substantial increase in the number of women lawyers in Florida, as well as around the nation. A Florida Bar News article published in 1979 reported that there were 1,627 women lawyers in Florida, which was about 7 percent of the then-total 24,000 Florida lawyers. Indeed, it was during the 1970s that women first became 10 percent of incoming law school classes.

By the end of 1979, President Jimmy Carter had appointed 28 of the 32 women serving as federal judges, and of his 2,110 appointments, 22 percent were women. He appointed other women judges in 1980, bringing his total to 42, more than any previous president.

Hispanic women lawyers advanced in the late 1970s. Cuban-American Maria Korvick, the first Hispanic woman judge, was elevated from the Dade County Court bench, where she had served since 1979, to the 11th Judicial Circuit Court by Gov. Bob Graham in 1981. Graham had appointed Margarita Esquiroz, who was also Cuban- American, as Judge of Industrial Claims Court in 1979, and then appointed her to the 11th Judicial Circuit in 1984. 4

The first African-American women lawyers were not admitted to practice law until the 1950s and 1960s: Bernice Gaines Dorn (1958), Gwendolyn Sawyer Cherry (1965), Ruby Burrows McZier (1965), C. Bette Wimbish (1968), and Arthenia L. Joyner (1969). 5 It would not be until 1981, however, that Florida would see its first African- American woman judge: Leah Simms, who was appointed Dade County judge by Graham. 6

In 1980, FAWL’s bylaws were amended to add local chapters and members were encouraged to form FAWL chapters in their home counties. As President Irene Redstone then explained, the time was ripe for the birth of local chapters:

Because of the small number of women lawyers attending the Annual Meeting, held in conjunction with The Florida Bar annual convention [in June 1978], it appeared that women could not afford either the time or money, or both, to make the trip to meetings. It was common knowledge that the majority of women lawyers were being paid about 50% of men lawyers, although doing the same amount and quality of work. It seemed only common sense to have smaller meetings close to home, where only one day was required and very little expense, but would offer an opportunity for networking among women lawyers. There was a need for helping qualified women to be elected or appointed as judges and in policy-making posts, so the Bylaws were [also] amended to provide a procedure for FAWL to endorse and support qualified women. In 1980, the FAWL bylaws permitted political endorsements and candidates could qualify for contributions from FAWL’s political action committee (PAC). FAWL supported America’s first major party woman vice presidential candidate when it endorsed the Walter Mondale/Geraldine Ferraro presidential ticket in 1984. The FAWL PAC was particularly active in regard to the ERA – Patricia Ireland then chaired FAWL’s ERA Committee.

Ireland went on to become the first FAWL News editor and members received the first edition in October 1980.

Spurred on by their ERA efforts and gender equity, FAWL amended its bylaws in 1981 and its name was changed from Florida Association of Women Lawyers to the Florida Association for Women Lawyers, thereby permitting men to become FAWL members.

As the decade of the 1980s opened, women numbered approximately 2,000 of the 27,000 Florida lawyers, but it was noted that women lawyers were a rarity in the bar’s power structure. FAWL members were encouraged to take part in the Florida Bar. The Florida Bar’s first female president, Patricia Seitz, was then the FAWL member on the Executive Committee of the Young Lawyers Section of the Board of Governors, and she spoke of involvement in bar activities. In 1982, there was only one woman on the Florida Bar Board of Governors – Kay Finley of Monroe County – but FAWL Past President Phyllis Shampanier (1965-66) was subsequently elected to the Board in March 1982.

The glass ceiling for the Florida Supreme Court was finally broken when Graham appointed Rosemary Barkett, who was then on the 4th District Court of Appeal, after having served on the 15th Judicial Circuit Court since 1979, as Florida’s first woman Supreme Court justice. Her Nov. 15, 1985 investiture was a proud day for FAWL, as reported by then-President Gill Freeman in the FAWL News. Palm Beach FAWL President Lois Frankel, a longtime friend of Barkett, spoke at the investiture, remarking that everyone in the chambers was smiling, “but if you look closely at the women’s faces, you’ll see their smiles are just a little larger.” Barkett remained on the Florida Supreme Court until 1994, with the help of FAWL members during a contested retention election in 1992, and she became Florida’s first woman chief justice in 1992. FAWL was not to see a second woman on the Court until Justice Barbara Pariente was appointed in 1997, followed the next year by Justice Peggy Quince, Florida’s first African-American woman justice.

It was not until the 1990s, however, that other glass ceilings were finally broken. It was 1993 when Miami prosecutor Janet Reno was nominated by President Bill Clinton to become the first female U.S. attorney general. It is interesting to note that when she enrolled in Harvard Law School in 1960, Reno was one of only 16 women in a class of more than 500 students.

In the spring of 1993, Seitz was elected Florida’s first female bar president. Since the Florida Bar’s formation in 1950, 44 men had been presidents, so it was with a great deal of pride that FAWL welcomed Seitz as bar president. Seitz was no stranger to breaking glass ceilings, as she was the first woman lawyer at Steel Hector. Clinton subsequently appointed Seitz to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where she remains today as a senior judge.

FAWL’s leaders have always cultivated and valued its relationship with bar and professional associations from around the country, first with NAWL and then with the American Bar Association (ABA), but then later with the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations (NCWBA). NCWBA was formed in 1981 and the ABA granted it a seat in its House of Delegates. FAWL was involved at the inception of the NCWBA, which it saw as a great resource for sharing ideas and assisting women in attaining leadership roles. FAWL member Gill Freeman, who would become FAWL president in 1984-85 and would chair the Florida Supreme Court Gender Bias Study Implementation Commission in 1991-94 and later the Florida Supreme Court’s Commission on Fairness in 1999, served as vice president of the NCWBA in 1983-84, and she remained on the board of directors in various roles from 1985-87. FAWL President Debra Weiss Goodman (1982-83) was also on the original NCWBA board in 1983-84 and remained on the board through 1985. 7 Numerous FAWL members, including past presidents Redstone, Hawkins, and Davis, as well as FAWL members Denise Morris and Jenneth Pemberton, attended the joint NCWBA and NAWL meeting in New York in 1986, and Dade FAWL received an award recognizing its scholarship auction, which raised more than $34,000.

FAWL President Edith Osman (1989-90) was on the NCWBA board in 1990-91; FAWL President Leslie Reicin Stein (1991-92) of Tampa was on the board in 1992-94; and Dawn Siler-Nixon, also of Tampa, served on the board from 1998-2006, and as NCWBA president in 2002-03. Barbara Twine-Thomas, also of Tampa, joined Siler-Nixon on the NCWBA board in 2005-06, followed by Amy Furness of Miami in 2006-08, and Helene Daniel of Tampa in 2010-12. Most recently, FAWL President Robin Bresky (2014-15) of Boca Raton joined the NCWBA board in 2013-14, rising through the ranks to become president in 2017-18, and she remains on the board as immediate past president of NCWBA. 8

FAWL has worked tirelessly to accomplish its mission, which is to “actively promote gender equality and the leadership roles of FAWL’s members in the legal profession, judiciary and community at large.” Although much progress has been made over its 69 years of existence, there remains work to be done, because women lawyers continue to face barriers in the legal profession.

Like our “sisters in law” before us, today’s FAWL is committed to continuing the struggle for gender equality in the law. For instance, FAWL is aggressively working to grow its membership, because, as recognized long ago, power comes with numbers. On the legislative front, FAWL continues to work to end human trafficking. We are encouraging women to run for elected and appointed offices, particularly in the judiciary and legislative branch, and we look forward to returning the Florida Supreme Court, which now has only one female justice – Barbara Lagoa – and no African-American members, to its former level of diversity or better. As we open lactation rooms in Florida courthouses, we will continue to strive for gender equity in the practice of law. Women should not be denied continuances in their cases in childbirth situations, which disadvantages them with their firm standing and in the eyes of their clients. We celebrate two women lawyers elected in 2018 to the Florida Cabinet – Attorney General Ashley Moody and Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried – but let us hope that a woman lawyer – perhaps a FAWL member – will soon break the glass ceiling in the Florida Governor’s Office and in the highest office of this great nation.

Based upon A History of Florida Association for Women Lawyers 1951-2001, written by Judge Mattie Belle Davis, with the assistance of Rebecca Bowles Hawkins, Henrietta Biscoe, and Wendy Loquasto.

Endnotes 1. The source for all statements, unless otherwise specifically noted, is FAWL’s history book. Mattie Belle Davis, Rebecca Bowles Hawkins, Henrietta S. Biscoe & Wendy S. Loquasto, A History of Florida Association for Women Lawyers 1951-2001 (2001). FAWL’s history is available on its website, under the Historian tab, at https://drive.google.com/file/d/10y67r.JgJJg- X26j0Og3Ei9ky3PnHEoUc/view. 2. The local chapters are: Brevard, Broward, Central Florida (Orlando), Citrus Hernando, Clara Gehan (Gainesville), Collier, Hillsborough, Jacksonville, Lee, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Miami-Dade, Northwest Florida (Pensacola), Okaloosa, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sarasota, Seminole, South Palm Beach, Tallahassee, and Volusia/Flagler. The law school/student chapters are: Barry, FAMU, FIU, Florida Coastal, FSU, Nova, St. Thomas, Stetson, UF, UM, and WMU Cooley. 3. NAWL History, National Association of Women Lawyers, https://www.nawl.org/p/cm/ld/fid=20 (last viewed Mar. 24, 2019). 4. Judge Maria Korvick, “Florida’s Hispanic Heritage Judicial Reception & Celebration,” MSP Forum, www.mspforum.net/event/floridas-hispanic-heritage-judicial-reception-celebration (last viewed Mar. 24, 2019); David Ovalle, “Margarita Esquiroz, Dade’s first female Cuban-American judge, succumbs to cancer,” The Miami Herald (Apr. 17, 2012), www.mdc.edu/clippings/2012/ April/18.pdf (last viewed Mar. 24, 2019). 5. Janeen L. Rivers & Barbara Twine Thomas, Celebrating Florida’s First 150 Women Lawyers 106-10 (LEXIS Pub. 2001), https://www.fawl.org/historian (last viewed Apr. 8, 2019). 6. Leah Aleice Simms, Commissioner of Education’s African American History Task Force, afroamfl.org/fl-black-history-facts/ (last viewed Mar, 24, 2019); Judge June C. McKinney, “Florida’s first black lawyers,” The Florida Bar News (Feb. 1, 2009), https://www.floridabar.org/ the-florida-bar-news/floridas-first-black-lawyers (last viewed Mar. 24, 2019). 7. About Us, National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations, https://ncwba.org/about-ncwba/ history-of-the-ncwba/ (last viewed Mar. 24, 2019). 8. Id.

Polk County Women Attorneys (PCWA) was founded in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1977 to foster and support women in the legal profession. Since its inception, the organization has grown as the number of women lawyers has expanded in the Des Moines metro community. We currently have more than 300 active members representing the federal and state bench and bar in Polk County as well as law students from Drake University Law School. PCWA focuses on professional development, work-life balance, mentoring, and community service, especially service projects that will benefit women and children.

Every woman attorney in Iowa owes her thanks to Arabella Babb Mansfield (1846-1911). “Belle” as she was fondly called, was the first woman in the United States admitted to practice law. This year marks the 150th anniversary of her admittance to the Iowa Bar. Iowa women marked this anniversary with a celebration in June in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, “in the room where it happened.”

PCWA, with the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys, was the 2015 recipient of the Public Service Award from the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations (NCWBA) for a project it designed in conjunction with the Iowa Women’s Correctional Facility. PCWA was instrumental in raising funds and purchasing furniture, toys, and books for the visiting room where women inmates interact with their children. PCWA continues involvement with the women incarcerated at the facility through a monthly book club.

PCWA’s flagship event is its annual Seasons of Change Basket Auction, a live and silent auction that is held every fall to benefit the Young Women’s Resource Center (YWRC), a local nonprofit organization that provides pregnancy, health, and self-esteem programming and support to young women ages 10 to 21 in central Iowa. The YWRC describes itself as “a place for girls and young women to come to be together, to come to be alone, to come to be themselves. It is a safe place that reinforces the beauty, resiliency and strength that these girls and young women already possess.” Members, supporters, law firms, and local businesses donate baskets that are auctioned off at this annual gala. PCWA is proud to provide ongoing support to YWRC and the outstanding work they do with girls and young women in central Iowa. The Seasons of Change Basket Auction raised more than $25,000 for YWRC in 2018.

Every year, PCWA hosts an annual half-day continuing legal education seminar free to members, a professional development panel and networking event, and regular lunch-and-learns, in addition to other seminars and events. One of our most popular seminars is “So You Want to Become a Judge Boot Camp.” This boot camp provides practical advice from those who have been through the judicial selection process, including sitting judges, on best practices and pathways for aspiring judges to build their confidence and competence in the selection process. Other presentations have included “Gender Bias, Discrimination, and Harassment in the Iowa Legal Profession,” “Getting Involved on Boards and Community Organizations,” “Negotiating for Your Value,” “Stopping Human Trafficking,” “Trauma Informed Practice: Developing a Case with a Victim of Domestic Violence or Sexual Assault,” “Achieving Work-Life Balance in the Legal Profession,” and an annual legislative update for members.

For the last several years, PCWA has co-hosted an UnHappy Hour with the Iowa Women of Architecture to commemorate Equal Pay Day, the day in April on which women have earned as much as their male counterparts did the previous year. This event provides members with an opportunity to connect (and commiserate) over the ongoing challenges facing women in the workforce and to discuss strategies to promote pay equity and career advancement for women both individually and collectively.

PCWA also awards the prestigious Willie Stevenson Glanton Award at a luncheon held every March. Glanton was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. By age 11, she knew she wanted to be a lawyer and “free up people.” She was the second African-American woman admitted to practice law in the state of Iowa. (Gertrude Rush was the first African-American woman admitted to practice law in Iowa in 1918. Rush was one of the founders of the National Bar Association.) Glanton became the first African-American woman to be appointed a city clerk (1953), assistant county attorney (1955), to serve in the state legislature (1964), and to serve on the City Council (1980). She “wanted to make an impact for black and women’s rights, which are historically intertwined,” and “felt that our black children needed more black images in politics to stir their interests.” She practiced law with her husband in the 1960s when women attorneys were still rare. She then worked in the Des Moines office of the Small Business Administration for 22 years. She was an advocate and an activist, stating that when she was young, “[w]e learned that no matter how much education we had, we must help others, reach back and help our community. If we don’t do that, we have accomplished nothing. The goal is always to improve our community, wherever we happen to be.” Glanton was a 2010 recipient of the Margaret Brent Award presented by the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession.

Each year, PCWA recognizes a lawyer who exemplifies Glanton’s spirit to help others, reach back, and help his or her community. Past Willie Stevenson Glanton Award winners include: Judge Romonda D. Belcher, Roxanne Conlin, Judge Ruth Klotz, Judge Celeste Bremer, Lori Chesser, Rep. Helen Miller, Judge Donna Paulsen, Anjela Shutts, and Judge Eliza Ovrom.

With such role models as Belle Babb Mansfield, Gertrude Rush, and Willie Stevenson Glanton, PCWA is ever mindful of the challenges its members face trying to balance work, family, and life. The organization takes a hard look at these issues and tries to help members balance professional success with overall wellness. As the legal profession and the needs and expectations of our members change, PCWA works to ensure that we are always fulfilling our mission of empowering women in law and life.

PCWA is a nonprofit organization led by a board made up of dedicated volunteers representing different areas of practice within the legal profession. The officers of the 2019 PCWA Board are President Miriam Van Heukelem; President-Elect Jesse Johnston; Secretary Margaret Hibbs; and Treasurer Katherine Beenken. Additional information about PCWA can be found at: https://pcwa.wildapricot.org/.

Reprinted courtesy of the Wichita Bar Association Submitted by the Wichita Women Attorneys Association

The participation of women in the Wichita Bar Association (WBA) has changed radically over its 100- year existence. The Wichita Bar Association did not have any women members until 1938. It elected its first female member of the executive committee in 1950. In 1953,

only five of WBA’s 363 members were women. By 1973, only eight of 632 members were women. That’s less than 1.5 percent for 40 years. But by 1980, things started to change when, of the nearly 900 lawyers in the WBA, 42 were women – almost 5 percent.

Some of those women lawyers got together and formed the Wichita Women Attorneys Association (WWAA), which has been an active and growing organization ever since. WWAA has also played a key role in developing WBA leaders.

In 1990, the WBA elected its first female president. There have been nine more women elected as president since then. In 2015, for the third year in a row, all four members of the executive committee, elected by the members of the WBA, were women. In the 2019-2020 board year, WBA’s president is once again a woman, as are two members of its board of governors. Currently, of the WBA’s 1,326 members, 315 are women – 23 percent – a significant change that has happened mostly within the last decade.

Bernice Burket Lygrisse (1897-1980) – Burket Lygrisse was the first woman to join the WBA in the 1930s. Burket, who would go on to take cases to the Kansas Supreme Court, would also become the WBA’s first elected female officer in 1943. She was known as the “darling at the bar,” and, according to Barney Barnett, who wrote a column for the magazine of the Kansas Bar, “when something had to be done in the way of work, the [Wichita] bar, under the guise of bestowing her an honor, always wished the job on Bernice.”

Louise Mattox (1902-1995) – Mattox was the first woman to practice law in Wichita. She passed the Kansas Bar in 1932 without having attended law school – one of the last individuals permitted to do so. In 1971, she was the first woman in Wichita to be certified to lead a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. The Louise Mattox Lawyer of Achievement award was developed in her honor by WWAA in 1991 to recognize an individual of professional excellence who has influenced women to pursue legal careers or advanced opportunities for women within the practice of law.

Judge Kay Arvin (1922-2014) – Blinded shortly after marriage in 1945, Arvin got her law degree and began practicing law while raising two sons. She was the first female lawyer to argue a case before the state Supreme Court and win. In 1978, Arvin was appointed the first female District Court judge in the 18th Judicial District, to fill a vacancy created by the death of Judge Howard Kline, making her one of the first women judges in the state of Kansas. She specialized in the areas of adoption, divorce, and mediation, and was a strong advocate for battered women. She continued to practice law until she was nearly 80 years old.

Judge Mary Kay Royse (1950-1999) – Judge M. Kay Royse was appointed District Court judge in March 1986. That November, she was elected to the position for the first of three terms, making her the first elected female District Court judge in the 18th Judicial District. In 1993, Gov. Joan Finney appointed her to the Kansas Court of Appeals. She died from cancer at age 49.

Judge Karen Humphreys – In September 1987, Humphreys became the second elected woman judge in the 18th Judicial District. She was appointed U.S. magistrate judge for the District of Kansas on Nov. 1, 1993. The U.S. District Court judges designated her as chief U.S. magistrate judge in 2003. Humphreys retired in July 2015.

Gloria Farha Flentje – Flentje was voted the first female president of the Wichita Bar Association in 1991. Since that time, eight other women have served as president of the WBA.

Nola Foulston – Foulston was elected as the first female district attorney of Sedgwick County, Kansas, in November 1988. She served six consecutive terms – 24 years – until her retirement from the position in January 2013; that makes her the longest-serving district attorney in Sedgwick County history. Foulston’s prominent profile cases include: the 1990 murder of Nancy Shoemaker; the Reginald and Jonathan Carr brothers’ murder spree of 2000; the BTK serial killer Dennis Rader in 2005; prosecution of Scott Roeder for the killing of Dr. George Tiller in 2009; and serving as co-counsel in 2006 before the U.S. Supreme Court in the Michael Marsh v. State of Kansas case that upheld the constitutionality of Kansas’s death penalty law.

Judge Jennifer Lynn Jones – Elected as a Sedgwick County District Court judge in 1992, Jones holds the distinction of being the first African-American woman to serve as a judge in Kansas. In January 2001, Jones was appointed to the City of Wichita Municipal Court.

The Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County is an organization proud to represent and promote the interests of women in the legal community in Louisville, Kentucky. It was founded in 1961 by 15 female attorneys. Among these 15 women was Edith Stanley, who acted as a driving force in establishing this organization. Stanley served as first assistant county attorney, and then was appointed county attorney in 1969. In March 1969, she was nominated as a candidate for a Circuit Court judgeship, making her the first woman in Jefferson County to be nominated for this position by a major party. Stanley and the 14 other women founded the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County for the purpose of promoting the general welfare and interests of women lawyers, to aid women lawyers in achieving status among the general bar, to further public relations, and to apply knowledge and experience in the field of law to promote the public good.

The organization was originally open to female members only, as a way to promote women lawyers and foster relationships to further the work of women lawyers in Jefferson County. In 1985, leadership of the organization chose to open membership to women and men interested in joining and furthering the goals of the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County. Currently, there are approximately 110 active members consisting of female and male attorneys, members of the judiciary, and law students.

Over the years, the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County has had a number of trailblazing members. Judge Denise Clayton was the first African- American woman to serve on the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Clayton began her legal career as an attorney with the Internal Revenue Service. She then maintained a private practice until she was elected to serve as a Circuit Court judge in Jefferson County. Clayton was also the first African-American woman to serve as Circuit Court judge. She served as chief circuit judge, and remained on the bench for nearly seven years prior to her appointment and election to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in October 2007. Clayton is still an active member of the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County.

Each month, the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County hosts a meeting, allowing its members a time to gather, connect, and network with each other and other members of the community. It has become an important focus point of each meeting to host or highlight a different speaker who represents a cause that mirrors the principles of the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County. These speakers have ranged from esteemed members of the judiciary, both state and federal, members of the Police Commissioner’s Office, and state and federal congressmen and women to leaders of various nonprofit organizations aimed at creating positive change for the citizens of Jefferson County.

An Annual Meeting is held each year to commemorate all of the efforts and achievements of the members of the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County in the past year. One member is recognized as the Member of the Year, and a guest speaker presents on a topic relevant to the times. In 1999, Judge Ellen B. Ewing was asked to attend as the guest speaker due to her meaningful impact on the Louisville legal community. Ewing began her legal career in 1972 as a staff attorney with the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. She served three years as a trial commissioner in Juvenile Court, six years as a District Court judge, and 14 years as a Circuit Court judge. Outside of her professional duties, Ewing served on many boards and was involved in a number of community organizations within Jefferson County. She served on the Judicial Advisory Committee of the Governor’s Office of Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence Services, as well as the board of directors of Women 4 Women. Ewing passed away in 2004, and the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County has continued to remember her legacy by helping to fund the Ellen B. Ewing Foundation at the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. This foundation was established in 2005 and provides summer fellowships for law students to work in the areas of family law, domestic violence and spouse abuse, and HIV/AIDS at the Legal Aid Society. These were areas of law important to Ewing, and the Women Lawyers Association is proud to be able to facilitate continued efforts to improve the lives of these individuals, as was the mission of Ewing for so many years.

In 2007, the Annual Meeting hosted a panel to salute women in leadership. The panel was made up of Justice Mary C. Noble, a presiding member of the Supreme Court of Kentucky; Crit Luallen, Kentucky’s Auditor of Public Accounts; Patricia Cooksey, a jockey and awarded member of the horse racing industry; Julie Hermann, senior associate athletic director at the University of Louisville; and Dawne Gee, a highly regarded local news anchor. The panel of women each shared a bit about their personal history, telling stories of how they came to be leaders in their field, the obstacles they overcame, and how others influenced and helped them along the way. They further discussed trends through professions with regard to the advancement of women, and shared their ideas of what women could do to achieve more individually, inspire, mentor, and lift up women in the community. The Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County has long made it a priority to do just that: inspire, mentor, and lift up women.

Most recently, the Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County hosted Professor Diane Rosenfeld, lecturer on law and director of the Gender Violence Program at Harvard University, as its guest speaker at the 2018 Annual Meeting. Rosenfeld spoke on the current issues surrounding the #MeToo Movement, and how we as attorneys can provide legal assistance to those affected. She also addressed the topic from a policy standpoint through the lens of Title IX, and discussed ways to effectuate longlasting change by developing beneficial policies for all genders in an effort to avoid future harm.

The Women Lawyers Association of Jefferson County has had a long and meaningful history in helping to promote women in the legal community and assisting them in achieving their professional and personal goals. The future is bright for the organization, and those who have come before us helped to shape the strong organization we are proud to have become.

Caroline Duby Glassman served as Maine’s first female state supreme court justice. She was born on Sept. 13, 1922, on a cattle ranch near Baker (now Baker City), Oregon, a town in eastern Oregon with a population of less than 8,000, but which served as an important regional center. She graduated from Eastern Oregon College of Education and Willamette University College of Law, where she was one of two women in the class of 1944. She graduated summa cum laude. The experience of seeing the families of some of her Japanese-American classmates being forced to sell their property at short notice during the wartime internment had a profound influence on the young law student. “I wanted to use my skills to help others and to influence the changing of laws inconsistent with justice and enact laws in furtherance of justice.” 1

Opportunities for women lawyers in Salem, Oregon, were limited, but she found a position at the Title Insurance & Trust Company, where she worked from 1944 to 1946. After she moved to San Francisco, she was an associate from 1952 to 1958 in the firm of the flamboyant lawyer Melvin Belli. During this time, she met and married attorney Harry Paul Glassman. Their son, Max, was born in 1959. In the early 1960s, they moved to Maine as Harry, who had taught part time at the University of Virginia Law School while studying for his graduate law degree, had been recruited to serve as a faculty member at the newly formed University of Maine School of Law. 2 Caroline also found work there as a lecturer. She sat for her third bar exam in 1969 and was in private practice in Portland throughout the 1970s and the early 1980s. Harry was appointed to the Maine Superior Court in January 1972 and to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in 1979. Harry died at age 53 in 1981. Caroline continued her active work in the legal community. She was president of the Cumberland Bar Association and served on the Maine State Board of Bar Governors from 1982 to 1983.

On Aug. 30, 1983, Caroline Glassman became the 93rd justice and the first woman justice of the State of Maine Supreme Judicial Court. At the time, there were just three female trial court judges. She served two seven-year terms on the bench, retiring in 1997. In retirement, she was an active volunteer, working with the Russian American Rule of Law Consortium and the Iris Network, which serves the visually impaired. She visited a gym three times a week until a few months before her death. 3 She died on July 10, 2013, at age 90 due to complications from a fall.

The Women’s Law Section of the Maine State Bar Association presents the Caroline Duby Glassman Award on a biennial basis to a member of the Maine Bar who has demonstrated excellence in one or more of the following areas:

• has worked to remove barriers and to advance the position of women in the profession or in the community;

• has worked to educate the bench, the bar, or the public on the status of women in the profession; and/or

• has acted as a role model for younger or less experienced women lawyers.

Endnotes 1. Willamette Lawyer, Spring 2007, Vol. VII, No. 1, Women of Willamette: Early Legal Pioneers to Today’s Trailblazers 2. Maine Law Review, Volume 42, Number 2 January 1995 The University of Maine School of Law: An Archival History of its Founding and Accreditation. 3. Portland Press Herald, July 11, 2013, Caroline Glassman, Maine Women’s Legal Pioneer, dies at 90.

By Nicole M. Smithson and Kristina Bilowus

Women in Michigan have been graduating from law school and becoming licensed attorneys since the 1870s, but they lacked a professional organization of their own for nearly 50 years. This essay discusses the inception of that organization – the Women Lawyers Association of Michigan (WLAM) – and attempts to provide a glimpse into its 100-year history.

On March 24, 1919, five self-described “ardent Portias of Detroit” met at a downtown office. 1 Within two hours, these Portias had organized WLAM and elected its first officers. 2 They then turned their attention to growing their tiny organization by recruiting licensed attorneys of “good moral character” for membership from Michigan’s marginally larger population of female attorneys.

WLAM’s founders considered it a personal obligation to lend assistance to new female lawyers endeavoring to establish a practice. They also welcomed female attorneys licensed in other states as honorary members and attempted to become acquainted with every woman lawyer in Michigan.

1920s: The BeginningThe legal profession was an unfair battleground for female attorneys in the 1920s. WLAM’s first fight against discrimination in the profession came in 1922, when the Detroit College of Law’s trustees proposed to stop admitting female students because the school purportedly lacked facilities for taking care of women students. In response, WLAM adopted and widely circulated a formal resolution condemning this proposal. 3 And Theresa Doland, WLAM’s first president, garnered much publicity when she threatened that WLAM would open its own law school if women were unable to attend law courses locally. 4

WLAM did not limit its involvement with contemporary societal issues to just those affecting women lawyers. In 1921, for example, WLAM publicly voiced opposition to capital punishment. To be sure, activism would become an essential part of WLAM’s ethos throughout most of its history.

Much of WLAM’s focus in the 1930s was on helping its members get through the Great Depression. This sometimes meant providing financial assistance to older members. 5 In addition, the organization created opportunities for fellowship with and support of women law students. This collaboration would become a defining feature of the organization through the present day.

Also during the 1930s, WLAM advocated for the appointment of women to the bench. WLAM attempted to persuade Michigan’s governor to appoint several suggested women to openings at the Wayne County Circuit Court. 6 Later in the decade, WLAM unsuccessfully petitioned President Franklin D. Roosevelt to appoint Judge Florence Allen of Ohio to the U.S. Supreme Court. 7

The “Arsenal of Democracy” was not just forged by Michigan’s Rosie the Riveters; its female attorneys also contributed to Michigan’s war efforts. WLAM members raised $144,000 for the war effort selling bonds ($2,090,137.80 in 2018 dollars 8 ). In addition, WLAM held several programs exploring the role of women during and after the war.

Following the war, WLAM successfully urged the Michigan Supreme Court to overturn the doctrine of imputed negligence that barred an auto passenger from recovering from the other driver if its driver was negligent, and drafted a plan for improving Michigan’s treatment of “delinquent girls.”

After a very dynamic decade, WLAM seems to have entered a bit of a slump during the 1950s and 1960s. Aside from joining the efforts of several local bar associations to assemble a panel of pro bono attorneys who would accept federal indigent defense cases in 1961, WLAM’s activity during this time primarily involved meetings and social events.

WLAM’s decline did not go unnoticed. In the late 1950s, WLAM President Dorothy Comstock Riley argued that WLAM should dissolve during her farewell address: “We really did not do anything except have banquets once a year and roast male judges and lawyers around town.” 9 The suggestion that WLAM should dissolve resurfaced again during the installation of the 1963-64 officers.

Thankfully, WLAM rebounded in the 1970s. Its prestige had significantly increased as numerous judicial candidates – both male and female – actively sought its endorsement. WLAM also resumed being involved in issues of societal importance. For example, it teamed with Planned Parenthood to lobby for Medicaid funding for therapeutic abortions, and it advocated for legislation to require employers to include pregnancy in sick-pay plans.

During the 1970s, WLAM also divided its membership into chapters based on geographic location. Regionalizing allowed members to engage in networking and educational events locally. It also created more leadership opportunities within the organization.

At first glance, the 1980s seemed to be all about advocacy for WLAM. It joined several legal organizations in appealing a trial court’s ruling that Michigan’s civil rights act was unconstitutional. It backed a legislative resolution supporting the Equal Rights Amendment. It railed against a proposed change to Michigan’s child support formula that would potentially decrease payments. It joined a coalition fighting to integrate the Detroit Athletic Club, a private club in Detroit. It worked on tackling discrimination in the legal profession by releasing a survey showing that women lawyers were not promoted as quickly as their male counterparts. It advocated for changes to how one police department handled domestic violence complaints. It filed a persuasive amicus brief with the Michigan Court of Appeals that prompted the court to overturn a trial court’s issuance of an injunction preventing a woman from providing child care services in her home due to a restrictive covenant in her deed. 10 And it persuaded the Michigan Supreme Court to use gender-neutral language in the oath of admission for new attorneys. 11

But the 1980s also brought some exciting organizational changes to WLAM. The WLAM Foundation was created to provide scholarships to women who demonstrate leadership in advancing the position of women in society. In addition, WLAM created a committee on gender bias that encouraged the Michigan Supreme Court to create a task force to study gender and racial bias in Michigan courts.

WLAM’s regional chapters increased the organization’s relevance and visibility throughout the 1990s as they expanded WLAM’s ability to provide programming and other opportunities to members around the state.

During the 1990s, WLAM appeared as amici on briefs concerning domestic violence and the constitutionality of anti-stalking laws. WLAM teamed up with other civil rights organizations to intervene in an appeal of a court’s determination that a mother’s need to use a private child care provider justified awarding custody to the child’s father, who would have a relative assist him with child care. WLAM surveyed mediation practices to obtain data on gender bias. And WLAM supported the Campaign for Human Dignity to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation.

WLAM’s tradition of activism continues in the 21st century. It is a member of the Michigan Equal Pay Coalition – a collective that organizes events for Equal Pay Day and lobbies for legislation designed to eliminate the wage gap. It petitioned Michigan’s former governor to appoint more women to the judiciary. It partnered with the ACLU in protesting legislation limiting inmates’ rights under Michigan’s civil rights act and in calling for an end to the practice of allowing immigration enforcement in and around courthouses. It encouraged the adoption of legislation requiring public schools to provide instruction on the need to obtain consent for sexual activity. It continued fighting to end discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation by participating in briefs supporting health care benefits for the samesex partners of public employees and marriage equality. And, along with the Michigan State Court Administrative Office and the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, WLAM developed a model policy for creating courthouse space for lactating mothers and persons with a disability.

WLAM celebrated its 100th annual meeting by holding a gala on April 27, 2018. The Centennial Gala featured a keynote address by author Irin Carmon, an extended preview of a documentary on WLAM, and an exhibit hall, and earned WLAM an honorable mention for NCWBA's Outstanding Member Program Award in 2019.

WLAM currently has seven active regions and hundreds of members. The WLAM Foundation has awarded more than $500,000 in scholarships to outstanding female law students. WLAM continues to provide its members with comradery and a plethora of opportunities for personal growth and professional development each year.

When forming WLAM, the five ardent Portias of Detroit were attempting to create an organization that would give women lawyers the opportunity to bond with others “who spoke their language and could get their viewpoint.” 12 Fortunately, however, WLAM has evolved into much more.

Endnotes 1. Doland, Detroit Women Lawyers, Vol. I Bench and Bar No. 2 (February 1921), p. 8. 2. Id.; Detroit Free Press (March 29, 1919), p. 5. 3. Women Lawyers Hit College Ban on Sex, Detroit Free Press (July 14, 1922), p. 8. 4. Women May Conduct Own Legal College, The Windsor Star (June 27, 1922), p. 6. 5. Rosenthal, Women Lawyers’ Association of Michigan, 16 Mich. St. B.J. 206 (1937), pp. 206-07. 6. Frost & Weiner, Women Lawyers Association of Michigan - Who, How, Why, 63 Mich. St. B.J. 465 (1984), p. 467. 7. Maury, I Wish to Report, Detroit Free Press (March 10, 1938), p. 14. 8. www.in2013dollars.com/1943-dollars-in-2018?amount=144000 (accessed March 23, 2019). 9. Dolezal, Dorothy Comstock Riley: The Precision Jurist, Detroit Free Press (December 13, 1984), p. 6B. 10. Beverly Island Ass’n v. Zinger, 113 Mich. App. 322, 317 N.W.2d 611 (1982). 11. Van Hoek, WLAM’s 75th Anniversary Celebration: Honored Past, Inspired Future, 73 Mich B.J. 760 (1994), p. 762. 12. Rosenthal, 16 Mich. St. B.J. 206, p. 206.

In the early 2000s, Mary Reding had a thriving legal career. After graduating from the University of San Diego School of Law, she accepted a job as in-house counsel for Pebble Beach Company. Then she met John Smith, a fighter pilot in the Air Force, and soon found herself living overseas with her servicemember husband. While living abroad, Reding was able to maintain her career by working as a management consultant for an international Fortune 100 company. Then the Smith family relocated to Dayton, Ohio, later followed by moves to Arizona and Washington, D.C.

Upon returning to the United States, Reding was confronted with the fact that maintaining her legal career could mean taking bar exam after bar exam if she and her children wanted to remain united with her husband as he continued to relocate for his military obligations. In addition to the daunting task of taking repeated bar exams, there was the issue of timing – Reding recalls that she narrowly missed the deadline for the Ohio bar exam and would have had to wait until the next summer to take it. Frustrated, Reding found herself venting to her husband, who (fortunately for military spouse attorneys around the world!) told her to “do something about it.” And so she did.

In 2009, Reding wrote a brief that was supported by the Ohio Women’s Bar Association suggesting a change to the rules governing admission to benefit military spouse attorneys. She found help and support in the Ohio legal community, but when asked how many people the proposed rule change would affect, she had to answer: “Just me. It affects me.” Reding had never met another military spouse attorney, although she reasoned that there must be others out there in the same position.

Then in 2011, Reding received a phone call from Erin Wirth, an administrative law judge in D.C. married to a Coast Guard officer and looking for other people like her. Wirth had discovered the 2009 report and recommendation from the Ohio Women’s Bar Association and reached out to Reding. Thus, in the summer of 2011, the Military Spouse JD Network (MSJDN) was born as the first specialty bar association designed to connect and support military spouse legal professionals and their allies, wherever they find themselves.

Since 2011, MSJDN has grown from its two co-founders to identify more than 1,000 military spouse attorneys around the world. What started as an informal group advocating for support is now an official bar association with approximately 700 dues-paying members and thousands of supporters around the globe. (While the membership is not all women, MSJDN’s 2018 annual survey of military spouse attorneys shows that more than 93 percent of respondents identify as female.)

Regrettably, Reding and Wirth’s experiences are far from unique, and MSJDN quickly joined a growing movement to address employment issues facing professional military spouses and their families. To put things in perspective, the president’s Council of Economic Advisors reported in May 2018 1 that military spouses are far less likely to work than their civilian peers. 92 percent of working age military spouses are female and only 57 percent of spouses participate in the labor market, compared with 76 percent of civilians. What’s more, accounting for differences in age, sex, race, ethnicity, and the higher rates of education among military spouses only widens the labor force participation gap. Compounding these data is the observation that military spouses can be expected to earn 26.8 percent less than civilian counterparts, largely due to employment gaps and fewer hours worked; but even year-round full-time military spouse workers face an “earnings penalty” of 3.4 percent. As military spouse lawyers know all too well, military spouses are disproportionally affected by this country’s patchwork of professional licensing regulations, because they cross state lines frequently and because they work disproportionately in fields that require an occupational license (35 percent of military spouses compared to 22 percent of non-military spouse peers, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics). Military spouse attorneys face the prospect of multiple bar exams, fees for repeated character and fitness investigations, juggling dues and continuing legal education (CLE) for multiple jurisdictions, and repeated job searches.

For these reasons, MSJDN was initially “laser-focused” on rule changes at the state level to accommodate military spouse attorneys, and success on that front has been remarkable, starting with Idaho in 2012. In its short history, MSJDN’s tireless advocacy has led to licensing accommodations in an incredible 36 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 2017, MSJDN was proud to celebrate the passage of Ohio’s military spouse admissions rule, the culmination of Mary Reding Smith’s first rule change campaign that started in 2009.

MSJDN has also received widespread support from the greater legal community. Within a year of its founding, MSJDN saw the American Bar Association (ABA) adopt Resolution 108 encouraging admission authorities to adopt rules that accommodate the unique needs of military spouse attorneys. Also in 2012, the Conference of Chief Justices adopted Resolution 15 encouraging the adoption of rules regarding admission of attorneys who are dependents of servicemembers. With each state rule change initiative, MSJDNers have been joined by passionate judges, practitioners, and bar associations who support the military families in their community.

When the state of Georgia denied military spouse Harriet O’Neal a license in 2018, despite her eligibility under its military spouse waiver process, MSJDN and its allies rallied to support her appeal, and win, in the Georgia Supreme Court. The ABA (plus its Commission on Women and Past President Linda Klein), the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and many others spoke out, filed amicus briefs, and sent letters of support. O’Neal’s application was remanded and approved in November 2018. 2

MSJDN’s diverse membership includes military spouse attorneys with ties to every branch of service, every state, and every practice area imaginable. Due to frequent moves, they have a talent for jumping right in to serve a new community, learn new skills, and support other military families along the way.

As the success and membership of MSJDN has rapidly grown, so has MSJDN as an organization. In the early years of the organization, Reding and other leaders traveled the country at their own expense, spending tens of thousands of their own dollars to advocate for rule changes, educate the public, and grow the network of military spouse attorneys. Since then, MSJDN has developed into a formal organization with 501(c)(6) status run by an all-volunteer working board of directors. In 2013, MSJDN formed the Military Spouse JD Network Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization. Funding for the network now comes from numerous sources, including membership dues, grants, and donations to the 501(c)(3), rather than solely from the pockets of the leadership.

MSJDN has also developed a robust committee structure, allowing and encouraging members around the world to get involved and take on leadership roles in all aspects of the organization. Committee directors serve on the board to facilitate communication and collaboration across the leadership. Through these committees and the tireless work of MSJDN and Foundation volunteers, the focus of the organization has expanded beyond licensing to include:

Homefront to Hired – a hiring initiative launched in 2013 to forge partnerships with organizations and companies committed to hiring military spouse attorneys. Groups such as the U.S. Army JAG Corps, Prudential, and Virginia Circuit Court judges work with MSJDN to share job listings and match military spouse attorneys with available positions.

Justice For Military Families – a pro bono legal clinic established in 2014 to connect servicemembers and military families with legal help while also providing opportunities for military spouse attorneys to build their skills and experience. MSJDN has partnered with the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors through Justice For Military Families (JMF) to meet the legal needs of families who have paid the ultimate price of freedom, regardless of their geographic location or financial means. In just a few years, JMF has served more than 150 Gold Star Families and published a comprehensive 50-state legal guide on custody and visitation rights of Gold Star grandparents.

Member programs – The MSJDN website houses forums for networking, a jobs board, member discounts, resource libraries, and much more. The Membership Committee works to partner with organizations for discounts and hosts free monthly webinars for members. MSJDN’s active social media groups provide instant support, references, and advice, drawing on members’ wealth of experience when it comes to law school success, bar study, career progress, and specific practice questions, not to mention navigating life as a military family.

The Military Spouse JD Network will continue to forge partnerships to improve career prospects for a growing number of professional military spouses. State, local, and specialty bar associations are crucial allies in this effort to recognize the sacrifices of military families by passing military spouse licensing rules. Encouragingly, employers are also increasingly engaged with issues surrounding military spouse employment, women in the profession, and working parents. Military spouse attorneys are exceptional women and men who merge professional drive and personal resilience in service to a greater mission – an unbeatable combination that ensures a bright future for the Military Spouse JD Network, its members, and all the communities they serve.

Endnotes 1. The Council of Economic Advisors, “Military Spouses in the Labor Market,” https://www. whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Military-Spouses-in-the-Labor-Market.pdf 2. In the Matter of O’Neal, S18Z0774 (2018).

By FY18-19 MWL President Shannon Harmon

When Minnesota Women Lawyers (MWL) was founded in 1972, the organization of 18 members, led by its first president, Irene Scott, wasted no time getting started with two major projects: ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) and identifying all women enrolled in law school or licensed to practice law in Minnesota. Since 1927, women lawyers in Minnesota had been joining the national Phi Delta Delta legal sorority. However, when that organization joined the male fraternity Phi Alpha Delta in 1972, the women of the Minnesota chapter unanimously decided to create their own organization, and MWL was born.

MWL’s initial count identified 120 women, including 50 law students, which certainly showed some progress since Martha Angle Dorsett became the first woman lawyer in Minnesota’s history in 1878. It wasn’t until 1921, however, that Lena Olive Smith was admitted as Minnesota’s first black woman attorney. More than half of the women attorneys originally identified joined MWL in the first few years. By 1984, MWL had grown to more than 700 members. Today, MWL has nearly 1,300 members, including attorneys, judges, and allies throughout Minnesota’s legal community. In addition to its main office in Minneapolis, MWL also encompasses four regional chapters throughout Minnesota, including the Central Chapter in St. Cloud, the Northeastern Chapter in Duluth, the South Central Chapter in the Mankato/New Ulm area, and the St. Croix Valley Chapter in Washington and Chisago counties. MWL’s chapters hold regular meetings and conduct activities and programs in their geographic regions to best serve the needs of women attorneys in their areas.

Since its inception, MWL’s work seeks to further its mission to “advance the success of women in the profession and strive for a just society,” and its values of equality, leadership, and community guide the organization’s direction and priorities. Although this article cannot capture the full extent of MWL’s accomplishments in its nearly 50-year existence, we believe it tells the story of a robust and welcoming organization making meaningful and measurable progress as it engages in advancing the success of women attorneys.

In 1981, during the presidency of Sheryl Ramstad Hvass, MWL announced a Task Force on the Status of Women in the Legal Profession. The task force’s report, published during the presidency of Marsha Freeman in 1984, was the first statewide effort of its kind and brought national attention to MWL.

As part of the adoption of its 2009-2012 Strategic Plan, MWL sought to “be a resource for baseline information and research on the current position of women in the profession as well as the state of the legal profession for women” and to “use the information to advocate for positive change.” Out of this goal evolved the MWL Compendium, an online database of resources related to women in the legal profession. MWL continues to add materials to create an ongoing resource of information on women in the profession, and the compendium has grown to include more than 1,700 articles and research items.

During her 2010-2011 term, then-MWL President Elizabeth Cutter established the Parity Taskforce to determine the status of women lawyers in Minnesota, the barriers to parity, the most effective methods to overcome those barriers, and the time needed to overcome the barriers. In the effort to establish a baseline on the status of women lawyers in Minnesota, the task force quickly learned that the number of women practicing law in Minnesota was unknown. Demographic data, including gender, was not collected for lawyers practicing in the state. After MWL brought this to the attention of Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea, the Minnesota Supreme Court authorized a change to the Minnesota Registration form, allowing attorneys to voluntarily indicate their gender classification, beginning in fall 2011.

When MWL realized that the number of people completing the gender information was not enough to conduct a statistically significant analysis, MWL launched its “I Want To Be Counted” campaign in 2013 to encourage attorneys to complete the question on their form. In the meantime, MWL contracted with the University of Minnesota to conduct a gender classification project, utilizing U.S. Census data to decide whether a name was gendered male or female to determine a baseline number of attorneys practicing in the state of Minnesota. Using this information, MWL released its first report of the Gender Data Project in May 2015, which showed that, as of October 2014, 37 percent (10,669) of Minnesota’s lawyers were female. To mark the report’s release, the task force offered a continuing legal education (CLE) presentation at MWL’s 2016 Conference for Women in the Law, and the report has been regularly cited. In February 2019, MWL released the Gender Data Project: 2019 Follow-Up Report, which similarly found that 39 percent (12,874) of the attorneys registered in Minnesota as of 2018 were female. These reports were exciting milestones for MWL and the Minnesota legal community. However, MWL also recognizes that more comprehensive and long-term data collection is vital to advancing the success of women attorneys. Therefore, the organization continues to advocate for additional data on practice type, employment titles or positions, employment status, compensation, disability, and LGBTQ+ status.

One of the primary issues that led to the formation of MWL was an effort to get more women appointed to Minnesota’s state and federal benches, and both have provided some particular milestones for women in Minnesota’s legal community. In 1977, Rosalie Wahl became the first woman on the Minnesota Supreme Court, following her appointment by Gov. Rudy Perpich. She was later joined by Justices Mary Jeanne Coyne, Esther Tomljanovich, and Sandra Gardebring, making Minnesota the first state in the country with a majority of women on its highest court in 1990. Three of the four justices – Coyne, Tomljanovich, and Wahl – were MWL Founding Mothers, who were present at MWL’s first meeting on Sept. 21, 1972. In 1998, Kathleen Blatz was appointed as the first woman chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

In 2012, Wilhelmina Wright – who had been the first African-American woman on Ramsey County’s District Court bench in St. Paul – became the first African-American woman on the Minnesota Supreme Court, where she served until her appointment to the U.S. District Court of Minnesota in 2016. She was joined on the Supreme Court in 2015 by Justice Natalie Hudson, who had been appointed the first African-American woman on the Minnesota Court of Appeals in 2002. In 2016, Margaret Chutich became the first openly gay member of the Minnesota Supreme Court, and Anne McKeig became the first American Indian to the serve on the Court. With Justices Hudson, Chutich, McKeig, and Chief Justice Gildea (appointed in 2006), Minnesota’s Supreme Court again has a majority of women justices.

Minnesota saw two women on its Supreme Court before it had even one woman on its federal bench. In 1978, MWL held a press conference to publicly urge the appointment of a woman to the U.S. District Court for Minnesota. In 1980, Diana E. Murphy became the first woman to be appointed to Minnesota’s federal bench. In 1994, Murphy became the first woman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, and remained the sole woman until April 2013, when Judge Jane Kelly from Iowa joined her.

As demonstrated by the 1978 press conference, MWL took an active role in getting more women on the bench. In 1980, the MWL Judicial Appointments Committee first endorsed seven candidates for 4th Judicial District court vacancies, the district in which Minneapolis resides, and two candidates in the 10th Judicial District. Over the years, MWL played a major role in educating voters about judicial candidates, the role of the judiciary, and judicial independence issues. Although MWL previously screened and endorsed candidates for judicial positions through appointment and contested elections, MWL now focuses its efforts on providing resources and support to members who are considering seeking appointment to the judiciary. MWL’s Judicial Initiative assists in preparing MWL members for the judicial appointment process and encourages more women applicants to seek judicial appointment through its “You Can Be a Judge” seminars, which have been held throughout the state.

Appreciating that women are often in the best position to recognize the achievements and talents of other women in the legal community, MWL has established several awards throughout the years to honor women and supporters of MWL’s mission in Minnesota’s legal community. In 1984, MWL awarded the first Myra Bradwell Award to Judge Suzanne Sedgewick of the Minnesota Court of Appeals. Since that first award, MWL has continued to present the Myra Bradwell Award annually to an MWL member who expresses the highest ideals of the legal profession and who possesses the qualities exemplified by Myra Bradwell – a pioneering woman lawyer – such as courage, perseverance, and leadership on issues of concern to women.

In 1993, MWL recognized General Mills’ law department as the first recipient of the Leadership Award, which was established to recognize legal employers throughout the state that strive to enhance the status, influence, and effectiveness of women lawyers in their employ. In 2001, MWL awarded the first Service to MWL Award to MWL’s Endorsements Committee. The purpose of this award is to recognize the MWL member, group of members, or 100% Club winner whose efforts during the past program year have contributed substantially to advance MWL’s mission. In 2019, MWL launched the Awards & Recognition Committee, which will select the recipient of the Myra Bradwell and Leadership awards, and nominate women in Minnesota’s legal community for external awards.

MWL also strives to acknowledge law students who support and exemplify MWL’s mission. The Equal Justice Award awards a cash prize based on an article written by a law student on a topic involving law and social justice, whether or not related to women’s rights or feminist theory. MWL’s Foundation also offers an annual Law Student Scholarship to aid students attending a Minnesota law school who demonstrate an interest in furthering the mission of Minnesota Women Lawyers. The MWL Foundation also awards the Leslie Altman Memorial Scholarship, which honors MWL Past-President Leslie Altman, who achieved outstanding recognition as a lawyer and served as an unconditional advocate for women and for a just society until her passing in the fall of 2012. In addition to her service to MWL, Altman also served with numerous other bar organizations to champion women and diversity, including as a board member officer of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations from 1996 until 2006.

Upon Wahl’s retirement from the Supreme Court in 1994, MWL hosted a retirement dinner and celebration in her honor with nearly 800 in attendance. The Rosalie Wahl Leadership Lecture Fund was thereafter established, and MWL began holding the annual Rosalie Wahl Leadership Lecture. The series continues to feature women whose decisions and abilities inspire the leaders of tomorrow just as Wahl has inspired so many of us. Over the years, the Wahl Lecture has drawn prominent women attorneys from around the nation as keynote speakers.

During its 2010-2011 fiscal year, MWL launched the “MWL Leadership Project: A Core Development Program for Women in the Law,” an intensive leadership development program for women attorneys. During five full-day sessions over the course of eight months, participants identified and developed leadership competencies that supported them in contributing to their organizations and communities, managing change, and advancing their career goals. In 2019, MWL’s board approved the development and implementation of a new core leadership development program for women attorneys that demonstrates effectiveness through measured goals, incorporates MWL’s diversity and inclusion goals, and is accessible across MWL’s leadership.

In 2019, MWL will hold its fourth annual MWL Conference for Women in the Law, a full-day event with the goal of collaborating across MWL’s statewide community, providing high-value programming of interest to MWL’s diverse membership, and creating meaningful networking opportunities, all in an effort to advance MWL’s mission.

Through its Community Action & Advocacy Committee (CAAC), MWL seeks to further the part of its mission aimed at striving for a just society by facilitation of greater community service and public policy activities as defined by MWL’s mission and values and approved by the board. Current focus areas include: (1) violence against women, (2) pay equity, (3) access to justice, and (4) girl empowerment. For several years, the CAAC has presented Girl Scout Law Day, a morning program that helps local Girl Scouts earn their Government Badge while learning about the legal system, how a bill becomes a law, and careers in law. They even get to put on a mock trial and serve as jury members! Over the decades, the CAAC has also fostered community engagement among MWL’s members through the Holiday Benefit for area battered women’s shelters, the Professional Women’s Clothing Drive, work with the Sexual Violence Center, and now the Domestic Abuse Legal Advocacy Center to train volunteer lawyers to assist with orders for protection. The committee also presents an ongoing CLE series about public policy issues, particularly related to women.

As MWL nears its 50th anniversary in 2022, we are beginning to take a look back at the organization’s overall impact in the Minnesota legal community. We know we can be grateful to those who paved the way and reached behind them to pull us forward, while still wanting more progress for women in the law. As an MWL Founding Mother stated in starting the organization: “It became apparent to me that if I was going to practice law … that I wouldn’t survive without changing the system.” Through its 50th anniversary and beyond, MWL will continue making progress to change the practice of law in Minnesota with its mission and values of leadership, equality, and community at the center of its work.

Mississippi Women Lawyers Association (MWLA) comprises women representing all facets of the legal profession including private, corporate, and government practice, judiciary, academia, and law students. MWLA was founded in 1976 by a group of 30 women attorneys from throughout the state of Mississippi to enhance and develop the image of lawyers in Mississippi, promote fellowship among the members of the legal community, and advance women in the legal profession. Today, there are approximately 1,500 women lawyers practicing in Mississippi in all sectors of the profession, many of whom are members of MWLA. Community involvement and philanthropy are significant parts of MWLA’s involvements. The association emphasizes the importance of the attorney’s role in giving back to the community through projects that benefit charitable organizations, the provision of scholarships to outstanding law students, and pro bono work. The association also awards the Martha Gerald/MWLA scholarship in honor of MWLA’s first president, Martha Gerald, to female law students at the University of Mississippi School of Law and the Mississippi College School of Law.

MWLA is proud of its Outstanding Woman Lawyer Award, given annually to honor the Mississippi female lawyer who has demonstrated the greatest accomplishments during the previous year. Prior recipients include Dr. Carolyn Ellis Staton (1995), Pat Flynn (1996), Dr. Mary Ann Connell (1997), Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Lenore Prather (1998), Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Mary Libby Payne (1999), Amy Whitten (2000), Constance Slaughter-Harvey (2001), Professor Patricia Bennett (2002), Margaret Williams (2003), Colette Oldmixon (2004), Professor Deborah Bell (2005), Joy Lambert-Phillips (2006), Sharon D. Bridges (2007), Christy D. Jones (2008), Patti Gandy (2009), Judy Guice (2010), La’Verne Edney (2011), Lynn Fitch (2012), Tiffany Graves (2013), Justice Ann Lamar (2014), Amanda Green Alexander (2015), Rebecca Wiggs (2016), Judge Latrice Westbrooks (2017), and Tiffany Grove (2018).

In 2007, MWLA began the tradition of bestowing a Lifetime Achievement Award, given annually to honor a Mississippi female lawyer who has served as a trailblazer for women in the profession. Prior recipients include Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Kay Cobb (2007), U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander (2008), U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda R. Anderson (2009), Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Mary Libby Payne (2010), retired Professor Shirley Norwood Jones (2011), Professor Carol West (posthumously, 2012), Constance Slaughter-Harvey (2013), Vicki Slater (2014), Cynthia “Cindy” Mitchell (2015), Margaret Ellis (posthumously, 2016), Pshon Barrett (2017), and Patricia Bennett (2018).

Membership in MWLA also provides a unique means for fellowship and networking with other members, including bimonthly lunch meetings from September to May with speakers on various topics, and gathering for socials. MWLA has also sponsored networking events with other women professionals, including a joint luncheon meeting with Mississippi women legislators. The association actively seeks opportunities to network with women in other professions. MWLA is proud of its accomplishments over the years, its renewed vitality and growth in the past several years, and the goals that it can achieve in the years to come.

The stated purpose for the Association for Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City (AWL) is “to promote the equality of women and others within society in general and within the legal profession in particular.”

We are committed to helping women thrive in the law, and we fulfill our mission by providing:

• Opportunities: We support women who seek appointments and leadership positions in the bar, governmental entities, civic groups, and the judiciary.

• Education: We provide continuing legal education (CLE) and other programming to foster our members’ professional development.

• Networking: We bring together attorneys, judges, and other legal professionals across a variety of practices and specialties.

• Philanthropy: We unite to be a force for good in our community. We work together to make a difference, and we dedicate our time and talents to help those in need.

• Camaraderie: We support each other’s success. We recognize that our profession is challenging, so we provide mentors, scholarships, and even some recreation.

AWL is not an organization exclusive to women but instead opens its membership to all who are committed to its purpose. AWL is proud to include members from all walks of the profession and it actively seeks diversity in its membership, as it is beneficial to the entire association.

In 1917, Tiera Farrow formed the Women’s Bar Association of Kansas City and became president. This was the first women’s legal organization in Kansas City and also in Missouri. It was one of the few in the nation. The primary purpose for the organization was to “give free legal advice and assistance to women and girls who are financially unable to engage in services of attorneys, especially the wives, daughters, and sweethearts of men enlisted in the services of their country, and to assist in procuring legislation more favorable to women and children in Missouri.” The next year, the Women’s Bar Association of Missouri was formed.

The Kansas City Women’s Bar Association dissolved in approximately 1967.

AWL was founded in 1976. Women attorneys were seeking avenues to network, communicate with each other, and promote women in the legal community. In the early 1970s, law schools saw a significant increase in women students, resulting in more and more women attorneys passing the bar. With this increase in women law school graduates, women slowly began making inroads as associates in private law firms, in addition to the more common solo practices and government positions.

When our founders first gathered, the status of women in the legal community was quite different than it is today. There were roadblocks to women becoming integrated into the legal profession. The nation was in the midst of an effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Women attorneys were excluded from bar associations. Male attorneys had private clubs where they could meet and network and women were excluded from these clubs. There were no female judges and no female attorneys in bar leadership positions. Female attorneys were largely isolated from each other.

AWL was established as a resource for networking, sharing information, and camaraderie. At the beginning, AWL members gathered in other members’ homes to share experiences, frustrations, and give each other moral support. AWL was instrumental for women attorneys to learn how to navigate the legal system and get things done.

During AWL’s first 10 years, the focus of the association was to promote women in the judiciary. There was a belief that having women judges would make the court experience fairer for women attorneys and clients. There were no female judges, in part because a lawyer had to have at least five years of experience to apply. As more women gained the required experience, AWL focused on nominating qualified women and supporting them in the appointment process.

Some AWL members reached out to Missouri Supreme Court judges to adopt uniform processes for the judicial appointment commission to follow that would be fair and equal for all applicants. Armed with their research, they recommended training for the commissions and a handbook so that commissioners would follow the same rules and process. Not long after that, the Court adopted a handbook and created training for the commissions. The Missouri Bar continues its commitment to these goals through its Joint Commission on Women in the Profession. Some AWL members met with the governor of Missouri to gain his attention and commitment to appointing qualified women to the bench if presented to him. Through these groundbreaking efforts, AWL has seen the number of female judges increase throughout the years.

In the 1980s, the focus of AWL expanded to other practice issues for women in the law. AWL also had an interest in seeing that women attorneys were recognized in the mainstream, in leadership positions both in firms and in bar associations, and its members sought to do whatever was needed to promote and support women for such recognition. These efforts continue to the present.

In 2008, the AWL Foundation (AWLF) was formed as a charitable arm of the association. AWL Past President Denise Henning conceived the idea in 2007, with other board members, to increase past board member involvement with AWL. Their discussions morphed into the idea of supporting the creation of a foundation to further AWL’s charitable mission. The AWLF has a two-pronged mission: to help women in law develop and advance and to help improve the lives of women and girls in the Kansas City community. AWLF is led by AWL past presidents and board members who want to continue to be involved after their terms of service. They provide leadership and energy for charitable activities and relationship-building. One of the organization’s primary activities is the AWL Foundation Scholarship Program, which helps women cover the cost of educational and professional opportunities. The AWLF also hosts an annual 5K called Women on the Move to benefit the AWLF Denise Henning Connections program.

The Denise Henning Connections program is a mentoring program that pairs five older members with five younger members every year in “classes.” Each class is committed to five years, allowing each mentor and mentee to rotate within the class. With the goals to help each other and lift each other up in the profession, Connections has been a very successful and popular program. Deep friendships and career support have been established among the participants. Beginning with the class of 2009, the program just celebrated its 10th anniversary. The program’s goals are to develop meaningful relationships among women in the law; bridge the gap between women in leadership positions and new women attorneys; enhance and extend each woman’s professional network; foster the success of program members; and cultivate leaders for our community, bar associations, and profession.

In 2007, AWL sponsored the Step Up program for women who were victims of domestic abuse, living in shelters, and had outstanding warrants or infractions. Step Up was held in Missouri’s Kansas City Municipal Court. The court would close for a day to hear only these matters. Prior to handling the various cases, those volunteering with Step Up took a training class to learn how to represent these women, what to do once they were in court, and then they represented the women in court. This was collaboration between the court and prosecutors to give the women a chance for diversion, probation, and performing community service to pay their debts.

AWL, in sponsorship with Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association (KCMBA), presents the women-only Trial Institute, which takes place over two days in Kansas City every other year. The Women’s Trial Institute (WTI) is open to female litigators who want to develop and practice trial litigation skills in a safe, women-only environment, with seasoned litigators providing tips, tricks, war stories, and hands-on pointers on critical components of trial and trial prep.

AWL is constantly working toward meeting its goals in new ways. Through its nearly 45-year history, AWL has had signature CLE events over the years, such as “CLE in the City.” AWL honors its past presidents every fall with the AWL Past Presidents’ Reception. Recently, AWL has teamed up with the Women’s Foundation to encourage women to participate in the Women’s Foundation Appointments Project ® “to empower women and strengthen communities by increasing the gender diversity of public boards and commissions.”

Now, AWL members represent all facets of the legal profession: private firms, corporate, government, judiciary, academia, and law students. We started out with fewer than 20 members and are proud that we have grown to more than 500 members.

AWL members have held leadership positions in mainstream bar associations and have been recognized as recipients of significant awards in the legal community.

And recently, we have embarked on an ongoing effort to document our history to preserve it as well as enable members to grow from our experiences. Stay tuned …

By Michaila Oliveira

The New Hampshire Bar’s first members, Henry Dow and John Pickering, were sworn in on Oct. 8, 1686, but New Hampshire would have to wait more than 200 years before its first female became eligible to be admitted. Marilla Marks Ricker, a widowed teacher turned lawyer from New Durham, New Hampshire, practiced criminal law in Washington, D.C. Ricker began the study of law with two male attorneys and was admitted to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia in 1882, taking the exam with 18 men, all of whom she outperformed. She opened the New Hampshire Bar to women with her 1890 petition to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, after she was denied the right to take the state bar exam. Leila Robinson, Massachusetts’ first female attorney (admitted in 1882), appeared for Ricker, although Ricker prepared her own brief. In a unanimous decision, Chief Justice Charles Cogswell Doe held that gaining admission to the bar was not the same as gaining admission to a public office and that women were not prevented from being attorneys at common law in New Hampshire. Although Ricker never sought admission to the New Hampshire Bar after winning that right, her efforts paved the way for others.

In 1917, 27 years after Ricker obtained the right, the first female attorney was admitted to practice law in New Hampshire. Agnes Winifred McLaughlin, born in 1882 in Northumberland, New Hampshire, was a graduate of Lancaster Academy. She later attended Burdette Business College in Boston for secretarial training, worked as a secretary and court stenographer, and, as was the custom at that time, studied law with local attorneys with a short stint at the University of Maine before taking the New Hampshire bar exam. McLaughlin began work after her admission at the Equitable Life Insurance Society in the estate planning division, where she worked for 25 years until her retirement. She resided in Shelburne, New Hampshire, for many years and then Gorham, where she lived until her death in 1964.

Jennie Blanche Newhall was the second woman admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1920 after taking correspondence courses and studying under New Hampshire attorneys. She served for many years in the attorney general’s office, arguing many cases before the New Hampshire Supreme Court. In 1929, she became the first woman in New Hampshire to become a justice of the peace.

By 1930, eight additional female attorneys had been added to the bar.

For many of these early admittees, it was common to study under practicing New Hampshire attorneys as apprentices, as law school was not yet a prerequisite for taking the bar exam. However, by 1960, graduation from an American Bar Association (ABA)-approved law school was required in New Hampshire, and studying in a law office or taking correspondence courses were no longer acceptable.

During the early periods of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, only a few law schools would admit women as students. New Hampshire nonetheless continued to admit women to the bar; by 1933, the number had increased to five, and by 1941 to 10. During the 1940s and 1950s, several more women were admitted to the New Hampshire Bar.

The turbulent social changes that produced the feminist movement of the 1960s focused on achieving equality for women by challenging discrimination and unfair labor practices. In 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was passed, giving a boost to women’s causes by prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. Throughout the 1960s, the New Hampshire Bar very gradually added female members, and at the conclusion of that decade, after 80 years of female eligibility for the bar, a total of 40 women had been admitted. As of July 1, 1973, there were 17 current “lady” members of the bar.

The years of 1970 through 1977 saw a marked increase in women gaining admittance to practice law in New Hampshire. In just those eight years, 61 women were admitted, bringing the total number of women admitted to the New Hampshire Bar to 100. Other states reached this level much earlier. For example, Wisconsin had its first 150 women lawyers by 1943.

Every year since 1977, when the 100th woman was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar (and a total group of 23 women were sworn in), more and more women came into the bar. The 40 years from 1978 to the present have seen great change and progress for women attorneys in New Hampshire. For instance, in 1975, Patricia McKee was the only female attorney practicing in Rockingham County, and in 1977, Carolyn W. Baldwin was the only female practicing in Belknap County. It was not until 1978 that we had our first female judges, when Gov. Hugh Gallen nominated two women to the district court bench: first, Jean Burling to sit as a special justice on the Claremont District Court and then McKee as a special justice on the Exeter District Court.

The establishment of Franklin Pierce Law Center (now the University of New Hampshire School of Law, or UNH Law) as New Hampshire’s first law school, graduating its first class in 1976, made a significant impact on women going to law school and staying in New Hampshire to practice law. Stephanie Nute, from that first class, became the first woman graduate of Franklin Pierce Law Center to become a New Hampshire attorney. She later became a marital master. The following year, five Franklin Pierce women graduates were sworn into the New Hampshire Bar: Carolyn W. Baldwin, Cathy Green, Jane Lawrence, Ellen Arnold, and Marilyn McNamara.

The New Hampshire Bar Association became a unified bar in 1969, requiring all attorneys practicing in New Hampshire to become members. Patti Blanchette was elected in 1987 as the first female member of the Board of Governors. The following year, Linda Johnson was elected as the association’s treasurer, becoming the first female officer.

New Hampshire has since had 10 women serve as president of the New Hampshire Bar Association.

In 1991, three attorneys, Maureen Raiche Manning, Patricia Quigley, and Cynthia Noyes, put into motion the formation of the Hillsborough County Women’s Bar Association, New Hampshire’s first formal women’s bar. In February 1998, the Hillsborough County Women’s Bar Association held a program entitled, “Why Have a Statewide Women’s Bar Association in New Hampshire?” presented by Ellen Kearns of the Women’s Bar Association of Massachusetts, then an NCWBA board member. Women attorneys throughout New Hampshire were invited to voice their opinions on whether the women county bar groups should band together to establish a statewide women’s bar association. The consensus was overwhelming and the New Hampshire Women’s Bar Association (NHWBA) was soon incorporated. The original founding mothers of the organization were: Maureen Raiche Manning, Jennifer L. Parent, Joy V. Riddell, Claudia C. Damon, and (now Judge) Julie Introcaso.

On Oct. 1, 1998, the NHWBA held its inaugural Fall Reception in Concord, New Hampshire, inviting attorneys throughout the state to an open house. A Fall Reception has been held in Concord every October thereafter. During its first year, the NHWBA signed up more than 200 members.

In 1987, the New Hampshire Bar established a task force to study women in the profession. At that time, women comprised 19 percent of the bar membership, 10 percent of partners, and only 3 percent of judges. Male partners, on average, earned $10,000 more than female partners, and the majority of male attorneys had spouses who did not work outside the home, while the opposite was true for female attorneys.

Jennie Blanche Newhall became the first female attorney to work in the New Hampshire attorney general’s office in 1920. Kelly Ayotte served as the first female New Hampshire attorney general in 2004 and was later the first female attorney elected to serve in the U.S. Senate in 2010. Anne McLane Kuster became New Hampshire’s first female attorney to be elected to a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012, where she is presently serving her third term.

In 1963, Caroline R. Gray from Canaan became the first female attorney to be elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, followed by Ida V. C. Milligan in 1965. The first female attorney to be elected to the New Hampshire Senate was Maggie Hassan in 2004. She was also the first female attorney governor elected in 2012 and 2014; she was later elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.

In spring 2008, the NHWBA celebrated its 10th anniversary with a gala dinner celebrating women trailblazers in the law. Our five trailblazer award recipients were: Maureen Raiche Manning, the first president of the NHWBA and a leader on the issues of gender equality in the legal profession; Jean Burling, the first female judge in New Hampshire; former Chief Justice Linda S. Dalianis, the first female justice to sit on the New Hampshire Supreme Court; Ayotte, the first female attorney general; and Jennifer L. Parent, the second president of the NHWBA, a highly visible member of the state bar, and a mentor to many young attorneys in this state.

In May 2013, the NHWBA held its 15th Anniversary Celebration at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire. Pamela E. Berman, president of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations, and Jennifer L. Parent were our featured guests and speakers.

As of early 2018, there were approximately 1,900 active women attorneys practicing law in New Hampshire, comprising 34.5 percent of the bar. There are now times we see all women in a courtroom – the judge, the attorneys, the clerk, and the security officer. Women attorneys are no longer a novelty, but the norm.

In 2018, the NHWBA celebrated its 20th anniversary with a full-day event celebrating the mark that women attorneys have made on the legal profession in New Hampshire. The NHWBA continues to hold events and trainings geared toward advancing the role of women in the law and hopes to do so indefinitely with the support of its members.

Submitted by Karen M. Uplinger

The Central New York Women’s Bar Association (CNYWBA) is one of the founding chapters of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York. Currently we have 221 members. However, in the late ’70s, a small group convened by Karen DeCrow, a lawyer in Syracuse who previously had been president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), met with the idea of forming a women in law group. At that time, there were very few women practicing in Syracuse and the group was to include not only lawyers but paralegals. During this time, DeCrow was approached by Joan Ellenbogen of the New York (City) Women’s Bar Association, who wanted to establish a statewide women’s bar association. Ellenbogen came to Syracuse in the fall of 1979 and we were convinced that it was important for us to be a part of her vision.

DeCrow was nothing if not selfless in her nurturing of the Central New York group. She refused a leading role, encouraging the newer lawyers to take the lead but always giving her full support.

Thereafter, approximately 20 women met at the Dinkler Motor Inn restaurant in Syracuse, formed our organization, and elected Bea Krupkin as our first president. We then informed the New York City organization that we were in. Karen Uplinger, vice president of the newly formed group, made numerous trips to New York City that winter to help write the bylaws for what would become the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY), and a number of us went to the initial organization meeting at Grossingers in the Catskills in the spring of 1980, where we became one of the five founding chapters. Beverly Michaels, Esq., from Syracuse was elected secretary to the board of WBASNY, and Uplinger and Minna Buck served as board members.

Early on there was struggle to maintain and grow our membership. No large law firm in Syracuse had a woman partner and few hired many women. Many of our members wanted to participate in the Onondaga County Bar Association activities and committees. The county bar had no women officers or board members. This came to a crisis point at the same time we were looking to form the women’s bar and became a catalyst when one of our members was excluded from a committee meeting for the county bar association, which was being held in a private club. The county bar leaders refused to address this issue. On a Saturday morning, at a meeting hosted by DeCrow, five members of the CNYWBA met to see what action should be taken. DeCrow, Buck, Uplinger, Lois Kriesberg, and Chris Scofield determined that the best thing we could do would be to run a slate against the proposed officer and board slate for the county bar association. We got enough signatures to contest the election, and the meeting drew more members to vote than any meeting ever held by the bar. We lost the election but received more votes than there were women members of the association, which meant there was crossover voting among the men. The next year, Catherine Richardson became the first woman officer, and eventually the first woman president of the county bar and later the second woman president of the New York State Bar Association. Uplinger was appointed to the board to serve an unexpired term. Many years later, DeCrow was elected to a term on the bar association board. More importantly, the board left the private club, and began to include women in all aspects of the association. The “Onondaga Five” received the Founders Award from WBASNY in 2003 for their efforts.

CNYWBA was instrumental in electing Buck as the first woman Family Court judge in Onondaga County as well as the Hon. Rosemary Pooler as the first New York State Supreme Court judge in Onondaga County. Pooler was later appointed to the federal bench and today sits on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, the Hon. Deborah Karalunas, a past president of CNYWBA, currently serves on the New York State Supreme Court, and past president the Hon. Therese Wiley Dancks serves as a Federal Court magistrate for the Northern District of New York. Uplinger recently retired as a City Court judge in Syracuse. The Hon. Kate Rosenthal, a founding member, currently serves on the Syracuse City Court bench and previously served as president of the New York State Association of City Court Judges.

Over the years, CNYWBA has continued to advance the role of women in the practice of law and provide services to women in the Syracuse area. It was the first chapter of WBASNY to set up and staff a clinic to advise victims of domestic violence through the local VERA House. It provides a scholarship for a woman law student each year in memory of its first president, Bea Krupkin. CNYWBA has provided support for breast cancer awareness and continuing legal education for attorneys. Most recently, it sponsored a Women in Law Summit at the Syracuse University College of Law on gender bias in the law, where the Hon. Janet DiFiore, chief judge of the Court of Appeals and chief administrative judge of the state of New York, gave the keynote address.

In 2009, DeCrow was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York, for her lifetime support and actions on behalf of women’s rights and civil rights.

In the late 1970s, a group of women lawyers from throughout New York state decided to unite with one voice to address their professional concerns and confront gender bias. These lawyers, led by Joan Ellenbogen and the Manhattan-based New York Women’s Bar Association, reached out to other regional women’s bar associations in an effort to gain a statewide presence. The women formalized their efforts at a convention held at Grossinger’s Catskill Resort Hotel in Liberty, New York, during the weekend of April 18, 1980. After significant discussion and compromise, they formed the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY). The initial five women’s bar association chapters that made up WBASNY were Capital District, Central New York, New York (Manhattan), Staten Island, and Westchester.

The purposes of the new association were specified in its Certification of Incorporation, filed on July 19, 1980. The mission was clear:

• to establish and direct policies and issue policy statements on issues of statewide, national, or international significance, especially those relating to women lawyers and women generally, including but not limited to state or national legislation, international compacts, statewide judicial office, and state or national judicial policy;

• to cooperate with, aid, and support organizations and causes that advance the status and progress of women in society;

• to facilitate the administration of justice;

• to elevate the standards of integrity, honor, and courtesy in the legal profession; and

• to cultivate the science of jurisprudence.

Ellenbogen, WBASNY’s driving force, became its first president. During her two-year term, Ellenbogen solidified WBASNY’s position among other state bar associations by representing WBASNY at joint meetings attended by these bar associations. She strengthened WBASNY’s internal network by continuously contacting WBASNY’s chapter organizations to obtain consensus on various issues affecting women generally and WBASNY in particular. In 1981, recognizing Ellenbogen’s accomplishments in promoting women, the Hon. Lawrence H. Cooke, chief judge of the Court of Appeals, appointed Ellenbogen to the judicial selection committee for the Court of Appeals.

WBASNY’s next president, Marjorie E. Karowe, continued WBASNY’s mission by conducting a campaign to recruit more local women’s bar chapters into WBASNY. By 1985, due in large part to Karowe’s organizational skills and efforts, WBASNY had grown from its original five chapters to include the following additional chapters: Bronx, Brooklyn, Mid-Hudson, Nassau-Suffolk, Orange-Sullivan, Queens, Rochester, Rockland, and Western New York.

WBASNY’s Legislation Committee brought WBASNY its greatest visibility during the early years and continues to do so today. The Legislation Committee reviews bills and issues reports and recommendations to the New York State Legislature. Accordingly, over the years, WBASNY has achieved significant progress for women throughout New York state. In 1992, WBASNY’s then-vice president, Rachel Kretser, testified as follows before the Legislature with reference to WBASNY’s position on proposed legislation concerning the merit selection of judges:

Our goal must be a judiciary where the number of women and minority judges fairly reflects the number of women and minorities in the bar. More women and minority judges at all levels of our complex court system will not only contribute to the vital work of our legal system, it will also help eradicate the continuing discrimination against women and minority litigators and litigants. The way we can achieve that goal is to develop a system of judicial selection, whether appointive or elective, which is based upon merit rather than political expediency. Increasingly, legislators have called upon WBASNY’s expertise when drafting bills on matrimonial reform, domestic violence, the practice of law, and numerous other legal issues. By 1998, WBASNY’s legislative activity had expanded so much that WBASNY hired Barbara Shack to work parttime as its professional liaison with the State Legislature, thereby increasing WBASNY’s accessibility to bill sponsors. (You may visit https://www.wbasny.org/legislation/ to see a list of proposed legislation that WBASNY has reviewed.)

The Legislature and various task forces and commissions have also solicited WBASNY’s opinion on numerous occasions. For example, in 1986, WBASNY was acknowledged in the preface to The Task Force Report on Women in the Courts for distributing the task force’s attorney survey. The task force identified gender bias in courts throughout the state and made specific suggestions for its elimination. In its report, the task force concluded that “gender bias against women litigants, attorneys, and court employees is a pervasive problem with grave consequences. Women are often denied equal justice, equal treatment, and equal opportunity.”

WBASNY also states its position on key issues before the courts. In this regard, WBASNY has signed onto and written numerous, significant amicus briefs, expressing its view on points of law affecting its members. Among these many amicus briefs are Ezold v. Wolf, Block, Schor and Solis- Cohen, concerning a woman attorney’s denial of partnership; Elaine W. v. Joint Diseases North General Hospital, Inc., on sex discrimination in reproductive health care; Thoreson v. Penthouse International Ltd., involving sexual harassment; Clark v. K-Mart Corp., on health coverage for breast cancer treatment; Hope v. Perales, on funding medically required abortions for needy women; United States v. Windsor, in which the U.S. Supreme Court held that restricting the federal interpretation of “marriage” and “spouse” to apply only to opposite-sex unions is unconstitutional; and Matter of Brooke S.D. vs. Elizabeth A.C.C., in support of the plaintiff who sought custody and visitation of the son of the respondent after a same-sex partnership ended.

WBASNY has actively encouraged its members to support organizations and endeavors that advance the interests of women. WBASNY is a charter member of Judges and Lawyers’ Breast Cancer Alert (JALBCA). Founded in March 1992, JALBCA is an organized effort inspired by the death of the Hon. Sybil Hart Kooper from breast cancer and dedicated to the elimination of this common cancer among American women. In October 1992, WBASNY, as a member of JALBCA, organized the first “Courthouse Alert.” The “Alert,” which operated out of courthouses throughout the state, involved volunteers distributing literature, scheduling mammograms, and informing the public about breast cancer screening facilities and services.

To ease the economic impact of cutbacks in legalservices funding for the indigent, the majority of whom are women and children, WBASNY organized a Pro Bono Domestic Violence Project in 1996. The project was inspired by a private, independent, not-for-profit legal services organization started by the Capital District chapter in 1995. The program received the NCWBA Public Service Award in 2011. Thirty volunteers and a group of experienced attorney mentors participated in establishing the project and providing pro bono representation to victims of domestic violence at every stage of the legal process. In 2016, Jacqueline Flug and Claire P. Gutekunst, the respective presidents of WBASNY and the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA), embarked on a joint Domestic Violence Initiative to enhance access to legal services by victims of domestic violence. The initiative produced a five-credit continuing legal education (CLE) program that was presented by a faculty of experts in domestic violence, videotaped at NYSBA’s headquarters in Albany, publicized by both NYSBA and WBASNY, and offered at no charge to members and non-members of NYSBA and WBASNY.

Members from chapters across the state contribute their time and expertise on such substantive law committees as Criminal Law, Domestic Violence, Elder Law/Trusts & Estates, Environmental Law, Equal Opportunity in the Profession, Family and Matrimonial Law, Health Law & Reproductive Rights, Intellectual Property, Labor and Employment Law, and International Women’s Rights. For example, in 2017, WBASNY’s Committee on Equal Opportunity in the Profession provided written testimony to New York State Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon on wage equality. WBASNY publishes articles on substantive law, sponsors U.S. Supreme Court bar admissions for its members, and offers substantive CLE seminars throughout the year.

WBASNY’s numerous awards acknowledge the significant contributions of women lawyers to the profession, WBASNY, and the community. In 1985, the annual Joan Ellenbogen Award, later renamed at Ellenbogen’s insistence as the Founders’ Award, was established. This award honors women of outstanding achievement who have made significant contributions to the profession. The first recipient was the Hon. Betty Weinberg Ellerin, a past president of the National Association of Women Judges, WBASNY, and the New York chapter, and the first woman to serve on the Appellate Division in New York state. In 1988, WBASNY created an annual service award to honor a WBASNY member who made significant contributions to WBASNY. The award was named after Marilyn Menge, from the Capital District chapter. Menge chaired the WBASNY Legislation Committee for two years and served as WBASNY’s secretary and vice president. During her term as secretary, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Despite receiving frequent chemotherapy treatments, she never missed completing a set of minutes. Menge was remarkable, not only for her tireless work, but also for her exceptional diplomacy and consensus-building skills. The first recipient of the Marilyn Menge Award was Marjorie Karowe in 1988. In 1996, WBASNY gave its first Pro Bono Award to Hannah S. Cohn of Rochester. The award acknowledges a WBASNY member who makes significant contributions to the provision of pro bono legal services to the community in which she practices. And in 1995, the Hon. Marie Santagata from Nassau received WBASNY’s first Lifetime Achievement Award.

WBASNY recognizes the successes of women who have been appointed or elected to public office. On May 4, 1993, WBASNY joined Gov. Mario Cuomo to celebrate the appointment of the state’s first woman chief judge, the Hon. Judith S. Kaye. The event was also the first WBASNY reception to recognize the many contributions by the elected women of the New York State Senate and Assembly. A second WBASNY reception for the women in the Legislature was held on June 7, 1994, also co-sponsored with the governor. The honorees included the Hon. Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, who was newly appointed to the Court of Appeals, and the Hon. Karen Peters, who was newly appointed as the first woman judge to the Appellate Division, Third Department. Similarly, WBASNY’s nominee, the Hon. Betty Weinberg Ellerin, received the American Bar Association’s 1993 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. Ellerin, a WBASNY founder, has worked relentlessly for the equality of women in the profession and has actively assisted many women in their quest to attain judicial office. WBASNY established the Betty Weinberg Ellerin Mentor Award in her honor, and on April 4, 2019, WBASNY sponsored a gala celebration of Ellerin’s 90th birthday. The event drew judges, attorneys, and public officials from throughout the state.

Today, decades after the publication of The Task Force Report on Women in the Courts, women have advanced to the highest echelons of the profession. Four women have been appointed to the highest court in the country, the U.S. Supreme Court: the Hon. Sandra Day O’Connor, the Hon. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Hon. Elena Kagan, and the Hon. Sonia Sotomayor. Several women have also been appointed to the highest court in New York state, the New York State Court of Appeals: the Hon. Judith Kaye, former chief judge; the Hon. Janet DiFiore, current chief judge; the Hon. Carmen Ciparick; the Hon. Jenny Rivera; and the Hon. Leslie Stein. Women have served as presidents of the New York State Bar Association and American Bar Association. Women comprise almost half of the nation’s law school classes and a quarter of the profession. Yet, law school faculty, judges, partners, and general counsels remain overwhelmingly male. So, decades later, WBASNY’s mission is not complete.

Promoting women and their accomplishments remain among WBASNY’s core objectives. After her installation in May 2018, WBASNY President Greta Kolcon announced a “Promotion Project,” to encourage each member to nominate at least one qualified woman for recognition or an award. The goal: to promote 5,000 women in the legal profession. “Cultural barriers persist, interfering with the promotion of women commensurate with their skills and accomplishments,” Kolcon explained. “WBASNY’s mission of advancing women is advanced if our members are promoted within the profession.” The Promotion Project garnered WBASNY a 2019 Outstanding Member Program Award from the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations.

WBASNY continues to expand its efforts to advance the skills and status of women lawyers and to further the rights of all women. In the face of continued resistance, success comes to the persevering. It is through the collective efforts of the members of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York that laws guaranteeing women equal opportunity and equal treatment will be enacted and manifestations of gender bias will be eradicated. As philosopher and early feminist Simone de Beauvoir stated: “[In] mass action women can have power. The more women become conscious of the need for mass action, the more progress will be achieved.”

WBASNY thanks Barbara H. Grcevic, an active WBASNY member since 1986 and past president of the Brooklyn chapter, for her significant contributions in researching and drafting WBASNY’s history, and WBASNY Officer Joy A. Thompson for updating and editing the article.

With the goal of creating an organization for women attorneys that would promote the rights of women under the law and support the advancement of women in the legal profession, Sharon Thompson, Carolyn McAllaster, Anne Slifkin, and Kathy Schneberk-King set about contacting each of the women attorneys in North Carolina (375 total) to attend an organizational meeting at the University of North Carolina Law School. On March 11, 1978, more than 100 of the contacted women attorneys in the words of Diane Linn, then chair of the Multnomah County Council, “We were on the right side of history.”

Vernellia Randall was a relatively new attorney during the early years of OWLS, but she already had a wealth of experience in public health, having served as a family nurse practitioner and administrator for a statewide health program in Alaska. Randall’s experiences as a single mother of two sons and the only black lawyer in a prominent Portland law firm helped to highlight the special challenges faced by parents and lawyers of color. Randall organized OWLS’ first conference, and ensured that child care was provided for it. Randall’s experience as a law firm associate was an uncomfortable one, and she soon left Oregon to teach at the University of Dayton School of Law, where she is now professor emerita.

The founders had ambitious goals to transform the practice of law, many of which were realized through innovative programs and services, recognition and publicity regarding members’ achievements, and quiet – and not so quiet – advocacy. O’Neil, who was then serving as a board member of NCWBA, volunteered OWLS to organize a panel on behalf of the NCWBA at the February 1991 ABA midyear meeting in Seattle entitled “Practice in the ’90s,” with a focus on alternative work schedules for lawyers. The idea of a lawyer working less than full time was then considered by many to be somewhat radical and unworkable. In the words of panel member Vicki Hopman Yates, writing about flexible work schedules in the OWLS Spring 1990 newsletter: “These are trying, yet exciting, times for women lawyers. Today’s part-time lawyers are pioneers. How we fare will impact lawyers who enter the profession in years to come. If we are successful, lawyers 10 years from now will expect to be able to work part time when their children are small. Ideally, law firm, corporate, and government recruiters will offer parttime employment as part of a job package.” A Working Parents Forum, inspired in part by the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, was established and continued for several years. One innovative program that was established in the early days of OWLS and that continues today is the Contract Lawyer Referral Service. The idea behind the service is to match lawyers, many of whom want a more flexible work schedule, with hiring attorneys who need additional help for a limited period of time or for a particular purpose.

At the fall 1990 bar breakfast, the following goals for the

1990s were set:

• a four-day work week;

• more flexibility in the expectations firms have about their employees’ work arrangements;

• greater recognition of employees’ nonprofessional goals;

• greater promotion opportunities for women;

• greater ethnic participation in the profession;

• reforms in the criminal justice system;

• greater attention to child-abuse prevention programs;

• greater respect within the profession for public interest law;

• more emphasis on “poor people’s law” in law schools;

• more willingness to exploit women’s perceived advantages (such as compassion and the capacity for hard work);

• a greater number of women judges; and

• available and affordable child care within the profession.

Although we can now look back ruefully at these goals, incremental change did happen. Through active collaboration with other local, state, and affinity bars, OWLS continues to respond to the changing needs and interests of its members and the wider community. Programs this year include themes such as Times Up Oregon: Reckoning with Sexual Harassment in Oregon’s Legal Community; Skills and Strategies for Emerging Political Leaders; and Legal Research on a Shoestring Budget. Other topics addressed by special programs include Diversity on the Bench, Pay Equity, and Annual Reviews. In response to the policy of separating families at our southern border, in 2018 OWLS formed a committee called “OWLS Unites Families” to educate members about separation and detention policies, publicize pro bono opportunities, encourage donations dedicated to the care of detained children and parents, and advocate for the end of family separation and detention of children.

An important service of OWLS and of any women’s bar association is facilitating opportunities for members to get to know one another better – to network for professional reasons and to deepen personal connections. Local chapters help in this regard with luncheon and evening programs, sometimes with a continuing legal education program and sometimes purely social. One innovative program, which received the NCWBA 2012 Outstanding Member Program Award, is the First Generation Professionals Discussion Group. This informal lunch-hour gathering, hosted by judges in the Multnomah County Courthouse, is a supportive and welcoming place where lawyers who are the first in their families to enter the legal profession, or who may be the first in their family to graduate from college, can discuss the unique challenges they face.

As OWLS celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2019, it will continue its ambitious mission to transform the practice of law and ensure justice and equality by advancing women and minorities in the legal profession by setting what may seem to some to be unattainable goals but which may just make a world of difference.

By Trudy Allen, Historian, March 27, 2019

The Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation (OWLS Foundation or “the Foundation”), a 501(c)(3) foundation, was the brainchild of Oregon Women Lawyers (OWLS). The OWLS Foundation’s mission is “To educate and support women and minorities in accessing and participating in the justice system.” The Foundation was incorporated about seven years after OWLS was formed (which was in 1989) and began making grants in 1998 to support this mission. As of the spring of 2019, the OWLS Foundation had made 167 grants, totaling more than $238,500.

The OWLS Foundation provides several grants for law students and OWLS members:

In 2003, the Foundation was inspired to create this grant by Vernellia Randall, one of the founding board members of OWLS and since 1990 a professor at the University of Dayton Law School. Randall was named one of the “Top 10 Most Influential African-Americans” on the 2001 Black Equal Opportunity Employment Journal list. The grant was originally designed for single parents taking the Oregon bar exam but was expanded to include any parents taking the exam, and each award, in the amount of $5,000, is designed to assist with their costs during their exam preparation. Usually, two such grants are awarded each year, one for the February exam and one for the July exam.

In 2007, the Foundation instituted this program, which provides a $1,000 textbook grant each year to one or two third-year students at each of the three law schools in Oregon and matches each recipient with a female judge or lawyer who serves as the student’s mentor for a year. Those who identify as women and/or as members of other historically disadvantaged groups are especially encouraged to apply. The grant program was founded in memory of Armonica Gilford, the first African-American female attorney in the Oregon Department of Justice, who had served on the boards of both OWLS and the OWLS Foundation.

In 2013, the Foundation created this grant to help people who identify as women and/or as members of other historically disadvantaged groups and are members of executive committees of bar organizations attend national leadership conferences if they would not otherwise have the funds to attend. This grant was created as a memorial to retired Oregon Supreme Court Justice Betty Roberts, a 2006 recipient of the American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Women in the Profession’s Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award and a former president of the OWLS Foundation.

Over the years, the Foundation has made grants to OWLS for such things as scholarships for students and low-income attorneys to attend continuing legal education programs and for co-sponsorships of community efforts such as the Oregon Minority Lawyers Association’s Inspiring Minority Attorneys Toward Growth and Excellence (IMAGE) retention program, designed to build skills, networking, and leadership for racial and ethnic minority attorneys as they begin their legal careers in Oregon.

In addition to the above grants, the OWLS Foundation has supported several new programs in recent years.

In 2017, the OWLS Foundation made a founding grant of $10,000 to be the first sponsor of the Mid-Valley CourtCare program (MVCC), which was organized by the OWLS Mary Leonard Chapter to provide child care for children of litigants at the Marion and Polk county courthouses. The Foundation has since made grants totaling $2,500 to MVCC. As a partner in the Multnomah Bar Association’s “Bar Fellows” fellowship program, which was founded in 2018, the Foundation made an initial grant of $10,000