Message from the Chairs

Welcome to the new 2009­10 ABA bar year. The Woman Advocate Committee is the premier organization of women litigators in the United States. On behalf of all of the leaders of the Woman Advocate Committee, we look forward to providing valuable benefits to you as the new year unfolds. We are the networking group of choice for women litigators throughout the country. We seek to shape policy and advocate for change on key issues affecting women lawyers (e.g., pay equity, partnership tracks, retention, etc.). Another primary purpose of the committee is to foster the development of women litigators’ careers and mentor the next generation of women litigators. In short, we strive to be the leading resource for business and professional development for women litigators practicing law today.

We recognize that many of our members use the committee and its resources as a valuable educational tool; members take advantage of our publications, this website, and our continuing legal education programs, to better inform themselves of new and developing issues that shape and impact their careers. Our newsletter, headed up by our editor-in-chief, Haley Maple, is consistently recognized by the ABA as one of the top-notch publications offered by the ABA. Our website editor, Lizanne Hackett, is responsible for the invaluable and up-to-the-moment postings you see on this website.

We want you to know, however, that the Woman Advocate Committee is also an invaluable networking opportunity, if you choose to engage more directly in the group. It’s easy to get involved: We host a monthly conference call of our subcommittee chairs and interested members. Never more than an hour long, we review the status of our ongoing projects, plan for upcoming events, and brainstorm creative ways that we can deliver value to our members and expand our reach. The minutes of our recent calls are on this website and will give you a feel for what we’re doing. Send us an email and let us know you’d like to participate, and we’ll make sure you receive the next conference call invitation.

This past year was a great year for the Woman Advocate Committee. We had record growth in membership during the past 12 months, increasing our membership by over 35 percent. Our increased in numbers is attributable to the efforts of last year’s hard working Membership Subcommittee cochairs, Beattie O’Donnell and Anne Marie Seibel, who worked tirelessly throughout the year to add new members. Beattie and Ann Marie are once again serving the committee in leadership positions this year, as our new Rainmaking Subcommittee cochairs.

A recent survey of our members revealed that, in these challenging economic times, one of the most valuable services the Woman Advocate Committee can provide is the opportunity to network, connect, and encourage one another. In particular, you’ve shared that you would like to see networking opportunities available on a regional basis. Therefore, we’re rolling out a new program this year, headed up by Effie Silva, our State Membership Liaison cochair. Regional brown bag lunch meetings will provide Woman Advocate Committee members the opportunity to meet and network in the cities and communities in which we practice. Our first round of regional meetings will be taking place in October. Hope you can make it.

Our next meeting will be at the Corporate Counsel Committee’s annual CLE seminar in Rancho Mirage, California, on February 11–14, 2009. Our Woman Advocate Committee liaisons for the Corporate Counsel meeting this year are Paula Hinton and Evelyn Storch. The Corporate Counsel seminar usually draws a group of about 200 lawyers, which provides our members the opportunity to get acquainted and renew friendships in a more relaxed and manageable setting than some of the larger ABA meetings. A Woman Advocate Committee tradition at each ABA meeting is for members to meet for a Dutch Treat dinner, which provides us the opportunity to network on a more intimate scale. We also plan on having another networking spa event for Woman Advocate Committee attendees and their guests at this year’s Corporate Counsel meeting. Interested in participating in these events? Contact one of our Membership Subcommittee cochairs, Dolly Hernandez or Gilda Turitz.

The committee is sponsoring a provocative CLE program in Rancho Mirage on the “Diversity Dilemma,” which will examine whether corporations and law firms are sacrificing diversity because of the challenging economy, and what we can do to ensure that diversity continues to be a key focus of our law firms and the corporations which we represent. Our Diversity Subcommittee cochairs this year are Jean Lee and Michelle Watts.

There’s more to come this year. Have you heard of “speed dating?” Well, another networking program that we are launching is our “speed interviewing” program, which will provide opportunities for our members to introduce themselves on a one-on-one basis to in-house counsel at next year’s Section Annual Conference in New York City on April 21–23, 2010. We’ve modeled our “Opening Doors” program based on the California Minority Corporate Counsel’s successful “Corporate Connections” program, which is designed to help open that business development door that so many of us are focused on passing through. The program is being headed up by Paula Hinton and Teresa Rider Bult, who are our Corporate Interview Program Subcommittee cochairs this year. Mark your calendar now to be in the Big Apple in April 2010, and stay tuned for more details in our newsletter, our monthly calls, and of course, this website.

Are you concerned that you will go to one of the ABA meetings but not know anyone? Thanks to the enthusiasm of our members and the dedicated efforts of Belinda Vega, last year we initiated the popular Meeting Mentors program. Woman Advocate Committee members who are coming to an ABA meeting for the first time can request assignment of a meeting mentor. Your meeting mentor will connect with you in advance of the meeting, answer any questions about the meeting process, and introduce you to other WAC members at the meeting. It’s a great way to break into a group of people who might, on the surface, seem to already know one another and an easy step to be more involved in the committee. Our Young Lawyer Outreach Subcommittee cochairs, Bronwyn Roberts and Belinda Vega, will be organizing Meeting Mentors for this year’s meetings. We are committed to developing our membership ranks among young women litigators, and we encourage you to contact Bronwyn or Belinda if you’d like to become more involved.

We are also proud that our Mentoring Subcommittee, last year led by Daria Diaz, Effie Silva, and LuAnn White, launched the first online mentoring program in the Section of Litigation this past year. In the upcoming year, Daria Diaz and LuAnn White (who will be continuing on as our Mentoring Subcommittee cochairs) will be rolling out the mentoring program that they developed for the Woman Advocate Committee, and we are eager to see the program in action.

We’re delighted to announce that the second edition of The Woman Advocate book is being published this fall. We had more than 35 contributing authors, and the sharp editing of Abbe Fletman and Evelyn Storch, who worked hard to update the original edition of The Woman Advocate, which was initially published in 1993. The new book covers the gamut of experiences of women attorneys in all areas of practice, both in and out of the office, and will be arriving just in time for holiday gift-giving to your network contacts.

We are always looking for new and creative programming ideas that would be of interest and value to our members. Do you have an idea of a program you’d like to see? Contact our Programming Subcommittee chairs, Jennifer Hoekel and Cynthia Burnside, who are hard at work putting together programming proposals for next year’s ABA Annual Meeting.

Finally, congratulations to our outgoing cochairs Abbe Fletman and Kelly Overstreet Johnson, who helped lead us through 2008­–09. After two years as a committee cochair, Abbe has been appointed as a division director for the Section of Litigation, where she will be responsible for coordinating the work of several of the Section’s committees. Kelly is moving on to become a cochair of the Section Annual Conference in 2011, which will be held in Miami, Florida. We are excited to see our leaders gaining positions of increasing responsibility within the Section, and wish them every success in their new roles.

Welcome to the Woman Advocate Committee for 2009-10. We hope to see you at a Woman Advocate Committee event sometime this year!

• Lucia Coyoca
• Nan Joesten