Joan C. Williams is 1066 Foundation Chair, Distinguished Professor of Law and Founding Director of the Center for WorkLife Law at University of California, Hastings College of the Law. A prize-winning author and expert on work/family issues, she is author of Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It (Oxford University Press, 2000), which won the 2000 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award. She has authored or co-authored four books and over fifty law review articles. Her article “Beyond the Maternal Wall: Relief for Family Caregivers Who Are Discriminated Against on the Job,” 26 Harvard Women’s Law Review 77 (2003), (co-authored with Nancy Segal), was prominently cited in Back v. Hastings on Hudson Union Free School District, 2004 U.S. App. Lexis 6684 (2d Cir. April 7, 2004). She also has played a central role in organizing social scientists to document maternal wall bias, notably in a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues (2004), co-edited with Monica Biernat and Faye Crosby, which was awarded the Distinguished Publication Award by the Association for Women in Psychology. Her current work focuses on social psychology and on how work/family conflict affects families across the social spectrum. In 2006, she received the American Bar Association’s Margaret Brent Award for Women Lawyers of Achievement. In 2008, she is scheduled to give the Massey Lectures on American Civilization at Harvard University.

Cynthia Thomas Calvert is an attorney and co-director of the Project for Attorney Retention, www.pardc.org, which studies work/life balance in the legal profession and the advancement and retention of women lawyers. PAR is an initiative of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, www.worklifelaw.org. Ms. Calvert and her co-director, Joan Williams, authored Solving the Part-Time Puzzle: The Law Firm’s Guide to Balanced Hours (NALP 2004). They are now writing a book for lawyers about how to succeed professionally on a flexible work schedule. She worked full-time, part-time and flex-time as both a partner and an associate at D.C.’s Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, L.L.P. (now part of Baker Botts LLP). She now has her own employment law practice (employer counseling). Ms. Calvert received her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center, cum laude, in 1985 and clerked for the Honorable Thomas Penfield Jackson (D.D.C.). She is married and has two children.

Linda Marks is Director of Training and Special Projects at the Center for WorkLife Law (WLL). She has over 25 years experience in corporate consulting and training and specific expertise in flexible work arrangements and work-life balance. She previously directed the Work Time Options in the Legal Profession project for New Ways to Work (NWW), a nonprofit organization founded in 1972 to promote workplace flexibility, and is co-author of Negotiating Time: New Scheduling Options in the Legal Profession. Linda also worked for WFD (Work Family Directions), a Boston-based consulting firm, and for Rupert & Company as part of their flexibility consulting and training practices, working remotely from her home in San Francisco.

At WLL Linda co-leads the Opting Back In program for attorneys who have left law for a year or more and want to return to legal practice, oversees member relations for the Project for Attorney Retention (PAR) law firm membership program and coordinates the Hastings Leadership Academy for Women, an executive education program for women law firm partners. She also organizes Work/Life conferences for bar associations (WLL's "Work/Life Conference in a Box") and has worked with the Bar Association of San Francisco, Lawyers Club of San Diego and the Dallas, Beverly Hills and Cleveland Bar Associations on their conferences. She is a frequent presenter and has spoken to meetings of the American Bar Association, Association of Legal Administrators, NALP and numerous state and local bars.

Linda Bray Chanow, Esq. is the Director of Research for the Project for Attorney Retention and Senior Counsel at the Center for WorkLife Law (WLL), a nonprofit research and advocacy center at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. Since 1997, Ms. Chanow has worked to advance women lawyers and promote greater workplace flexibility in law firms. She is a frequent speaker and author on topics relating to women lawyers and flexible work arrangements. Ms. Chanow serves as Co-Chair of the D.C. Women’s Bar Association Initiative on Advancement and Retention of Women and was instrumental in the WBA Initiative’s groundbreaking final report, Creating Pathways to Success. She is the author of the nationally-referenced work, Results of Lawyers, Work & Family: A Study of Alternative Schedule Programs at Law Firms in the District of Columbia. In addition to her local bar association work, Ms. Chanow recently designed and implemented, Ready to On-Ramp?, for the National Association of Women Lawyers to help women lawyers develop their own personal strategy for re-entering the legal workplace.

Until recently, Ms. Chanow was head of the Women’s Career Development practice at Shannon & Manch, L.L.P. Ms. Chanow began her legal career as a commercial litigator and bankruptcy lawyer at WilmerHale. In addition to her legal work representing clients before federal, state, and administrative courts, Ms. Chanow played a leadership role in assessing and developing policies and programs related to work-life balance and the advancement and retention of women lawyers at WilmerHale. Ms. Chanow graduated magna cum laude from American University’s Washington College of Law in 1999. While in law school, Ms. Chanow focused on employment law and worked with Distinguished Professor of Law Joan Williams on the development of Professor Williams’ book, UnBending Gender. Ms. Chanow also served as a Legislative Fellow to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions and as an Equal Employment Opportunity Law Clerk at the National Partnership for Women & Families.

Natalie M. Hiott-Levine is the Assistant Director of the Project for Attorney Retention (PAR). Her current projects include identifying and recommending best practices for the advancement and retention of women and other attorneys seeking work/life balance, identifying and exploring new models of legal practice, coordinating aspects of PAR’s Law Student Project, and getting the inside scoop on what practice is really like at law firms. She is also working with Rutgers Center for Women & Work to evaluate the responses of New Jersey attorneys surveyed regarding work/life balance issues and will be assisting in drafting a report for the New Jersey Commission on Gender Parity regarding the results.

Together with PAR Co-Director Cynthia Thomas Calvert, Ms. Hiott-Levine recently co-authored the essay, “A New Path to Excellence: Balanced Hours 101,” which appears as a chapter in the ABA’s new book, Raising the Bar: Real World Solutions for a Troubled Profession (ABA 2007). With Kirsten Scheurer Branigan, the President of New Jersey Women Lawyers’ Association (NJWLA), she also co-authored the article, “Women in the Legal Profession: The Quest to Overcome Barriers to Advancement Continues,” which appeared in Commerce Magazine (Summer 2006).

Prior to joining PAR’s staff, Ms. Hiott-Levine spent the better part of ten years litigating complex commercial matters in both federal and state courts. She began practicing in New Jersey at Wilentz Goldman & Spitzer PA, first as a school board attorney and later in commercial litigation and employment law. She joined the New York office of Mayer Brown LLP (then Mayer Brown & Platt) as a third year attorney and practiced complex commercial litigation there for eight years, first full-time and later on a reduced schedule.

Over the years, Ms. Hiott-Levine has been extremely active in numerous women’s and diversity initiatives and organizations. Between 2004 and 2006, she co-chaired the programming subcommittee of the New York State Bar Association’s Committee on Women in the Law and chaired two of its annual programs: “The Value of Diversity: Creating a Win-Win Environment for Women and Minority Attorneys AND Their Employers,” (2005) and “Family Responsibilities: Legal Issues & Trends, Rights & Remedies” (2007). She is a member of the New York County Lawyers’ Association (NYCLA) Women’s Rights Committee and is currently co-chairs its “Women in the Law: Strategies for Success” programming series. Since 2006, she has also served as Co-Director of Best Practices on the NJWLA’s Board of Trustees.

Ms. Hiott-Levine is a 1995 graduate of New York University School of Law and served on the executive board of its Black, Latino, Asian Pacific American Law Alumni Association (BLAPA) as a class representative and co-chair of its Membership and Outreach Committee between 2004 and 2006. She is married and has three sons, ages 6, 2, and 1.

Manar Sweillam Morales serves as the Director of Strategic Alliances for the Project for Attorney Retention (“PAR”), an initiative of the Center for WorkLife Law that examines work/life balance and reduced-hours work for lawyers. Ms. Morales counsels law firms on the development and implementation of balanced hours programs.

Ms. Morales is also the Director of Strategic Alliances for WorkLife Law. The Center for WorkLife Law is a nonprofit based at the University of California Hastings College of the Law that works to eliminate employment discrimination against parents and other caregivers.

Morales practices law in the District of Columbia and Maryland. She is Of Counsel with the firm of Barr & Camens. Prior to joining Barr & Camens, she was an associate with the firm of Woodley & McGillivary. She has represented labor unions and employees in all aspects of labor relations and employment law. She also represents and advises employee benefit plans in all areas of employee benefit law. Morales has litigation experience in federal court, before federal administrative agencies, and in arbitration. In addition, Morales is an adjunct faculty member of Georgetown University. She teaches labor and employment law in Georgetown’s Paralegal Studies Program.

Morales is a 1997 graduate of the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University. She is a member of the Maryland and District of Columbia Bar. Morales is also a member of the Women’s Bar Association and on the Steering Committee for the Lawyers at Home Forum. She is married and has three children.