Message from the Chairs

Comfortable shoes or spike heels? This is the burning issue the Wall Street Journal Law Blog has focused on recently, asking whether women courtroom lawyers do their clients a disservice if they wear sensible shoes. Your co-chairs straddle the middle on this issue. We both think shoes can be practical and pretty (two-inch heels, for example) and believe that skirt suits with appropriate jewelry and make-up are the safest choices for court. And we don’t confine ourselves to dark suits. We don’t see anything wrong with red, green or electric blue. A red suit can put a spark in any opening.

Indeed, you may see us in our finery during the ABA Annual Meeting in New York from August 7–10. Our committee has organized the plenary session for the Day of Equality, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession. Entitled Leadership: The Last Frontier, the program from 8:30–10:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 7 will feature Mary B. Cranston, Senior Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman; Mary Jo White, Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP; the Honorable Judith S. Kaye, Chief Judge, State of New York, Court of Appeals; Patricia M. Hynes, Senior Counsel, Allen & Overy LLP; and Michele Coleman Mayes, Vice President and General Counsel, Allstate Insurance Company. Professor Deborah L. Rhode, E. W. McFarland Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and a renowned expert on leadership, will moderate.

The committee will host a breakfast meeting on Friday, August 8 from 7:00–8:15 a.m. entitled, Shattering the Glass Ceiling—Are Women’s Initiatives the Hammer? The committee also is sponsoring, A Partner is a Partner is a Partner, a panel on today’s trends towards tiered law firm partnership structures on Saturday, August 9 from 8:30–10:00 a.m. That panel features Woman Advocate Web Editor Teresa R. Bult, an employment lawyer with Constangy, Brooks & Smith LLC in Nashville; Michael L. Rodburg, managing partner of Lowenstein Sandler PC in Roseland, New Jersey; and Ed Wesemann, a law firm consultant with Kerma Partners in Savannah, Georgia. Woman Advocate Co-Chair Abbe Fletman will moderate.

Finally, as always, the committee will host a Dutch treat dinner on Thursday, August 7 following the Day of Equality and the Litigation Section Welcome Reception. Details will be forthcoming, so please check back soon.

Please join us for any or all of the above. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your views on appropriate courtroom dress for women lawyers. Please email us and let us know if it’s ok to share your comments in our next web column.

Abbe F. Fletman
Nan Joesten
Kelly Johnson
Co-Chairs, The Woman Advocate Committee