Since we all receive numerous invitations to join a variety of organizations, committees and groups, you may wonder why you should join The Woman Advocate Committee. There are many tangible and intangible benefits you can obtain from membership in this Committee; for example:

1. The Committee sponsors programs which feature talented, effective women trial lawyers demonstrating trial and advocacy skills and styles;
2. The Committee offers programs on rainmaking for women, emphasizing how women can effectively attract and retain clients;
3. The Committee offers the opportunity to network with other women trial lawyers and exchange information, questions or ideas on a wide variety of professional and personal issues confronting women lawyers, particularly those in a litigation practice; including alternative work styles, balancing trial work and motherhood, mentoring and perceptions of women advocates.
4. The Committee publishes a newsletter four times a year on a variety of topics that are of interest to women advocates.

We encourage you to join the Committee and benefit from all of the advantages the Committee has to offer. Through an active participating membership, we can create an even stronger Committee that will help all of us.

The Fall 2009 edition of the Woman Advocate newsletter is now available.

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Minnesota's Diana Murphy is the only woman ever to have served on the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Eleven judges sit on this St. Louis, Mo.-based court. Nine of these judges were appointed after Murphy, and all of them are men. Read more.

A Hamas-appointed chief justice in the Gaza Strip has ordered female lawyers to wear a head scarf in court, drawing criticism from human rights groups in the territory controlled by the Islamist group.  Read more.

Women lawyers with masculine-sounding first names have better odds of becoming a judge than their counterparts with feminine names, at least in South Carolina, according to a study by two economics researchers.

We’ve all been taught to avoid the first person pronoun. It’s been said that “I” is a word that causes all sorts of difficulties. It’s the letter in the middle of “pride”; it’s the letter in the middle of “sin.” “I” is often deemed selfish, egotistical, self-serving, and even disrespectful. But these much-maligned “I” questions and statements can be an important tool for effective communication, because they empower the speaker, enhance trust, and facilitate learning between colleagues.

"Too many women lawyers are like Dorothy, asking for no credit, reward or recognition," Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe employment law partner Patricia Gillette writes, “And thus, no one knows what she has done and no one thinks of her as a leader.”