Best Friends at the Bar: It All Begins in Pre-Law

Best Friends at the Bar has added a focus---pre-law programs in colleges and universities.  After all, it is in these undergraduate programs that most students decide whether or not to attend law school.  That decision should be a very informed one, and programs like Best Friends at the Bar can provide the information that the students need to make good choices for their futures.  In fact, the first book, Best Friends at the Bar:  What Women Need to Know about a Career in the Law, was written with pre-law students specifically in mind.

The benefit of Best Friends at the Bar to these pre-law programs was demonstrated so well when I visited Holy Cross College earlier this week to speak to the pre-law students.  My remarks focused on the law school decision, the important aspects of a successful and satisfying law career, and the special challenges to women lawyers and how to overcome them.  The event was a great success, and I thoroughly enjoyed becoming familiar with the college, the pre-law program and the students.

The Practice of Law in the Twenty-first Century: The Intersection of Law and Technology

Editor's note: What follows is a press release regarding the South Carolina Law Review's upcoming sympsoium on the intersection between law and technology. Technology and e-discovery are major topics in business, law and the public sector. Six U.S. judges as well as Google's head of e-discovery will participate in the SC Law Review symposium, offering media excellent reporting opportunities. 

 The rate of technological innovation is accelerating, with each advance presenting new legal challenges. So why is the law often playing catch-up, and what can be done about it?

The South Carolina Law Review will explore this gap during its upcoming symposium “The Practice of Law in the 21st Century: The Intersection of Law & Technology.”  The event will take place Thursday and Friday, Feb. 28 and March 1, at the University of South Carolina School of Law auditorium.

Call for Symposium Papers! Gender Matters: Women, Social Policy and the 2012 Election

Editor's Note:  Ms. JD is passing along this reminder that abstracts for the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law’s upcoming symposium are due on Monday, January 7th!

April 2, 2013 at American University Washington College of Law, Washington, DC

The American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law and Women and the Law Program invite papers for a symposium on gender, social policy and the election of 2012. The organizers welcome papers that explore how current or proposed social polices affect the lives of women and their families, and/or that analyze what role, if any, rhetoric about those polices may have played in the recent election.

Abstracts from professors or practitioners (sorry, no student pieces) addressing gender and health care, labor and employment, taxation, fiscal policy and social welfare or other relevant social policy are due by midnight January 7, 2013.  Papers selected will be presented at a symposium on April 2, 2013 at American University Washington College of Law, and strongly considered for publication.

Congratulations to the Newly Appointed Women Law School Deans

The National Law Journal reports that women are making 'remarkable' gains in law school deanships, accounting for about 40 percent of the deans named in recent months. Ms. JD would like to congratulate the following newly appointed Deans:

Darby Dickerson, Stetson University College of Law

Margaret Raymond, University of Wisconsin Law School

Stacy Leeds, University of Arkansas School of Law

Annette Clark, Saint Louis University School of Law

Jane Korn, Gonzaga University School of Law

Maria Pabon Lopez, Loyola University New Orleans School of Law

Deanell Tacha, Pepperdine University School of Law

Wendy Perdue, University of Richmond School of Law

Read more here.

Have Your Been to the Library Lately?

I am talking about Ms. JD's Library.  Two years after Ms. JD launched the Library, the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law partnered with Ms. JD to expand the database.

Today the Library includes more than 500 resource abstracts for books, articles, reports, and best practice recommendations on topics ranging from work/life balance and retention issues to stereotyping and gender bias in evaluation and compensation systems.  We have categorized these resources by topic. You can search all the resources or search within a topic area. You can limit your search to only one type of resource, e.g. "Academic Publication." 

For students thinking about writing a paper on the legal profession, gender bias, or an area of feminist legal theory this is a great place to start - it's the most comprehensive collection of its kind. That said, we're always looking to add more items to our collection. If you see something missing please email it to me!

Oldie But Goodie: Western Legal History Vol. 7, No. 2

Last weekend I had the pleasure of presenting, alongside Pat Gillette from the No Glass Ceiling Initiative and Linda Chanow from UT's Center for Women in Law, at the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations.  I do not mean to detract at all from the programming - it was a great event and I was flattered to be included - but the highlight might just be the goodie bags.

When you go to these conferences you get a tote full of useless items: brochures from sponsors, pens from the hotel, etc.  Well the NCWBA tote bag was in a class by itself. Not only did we get Ghiradelli chocolates, but we got an issue of Western Legal History, a publication of the 9th Circuit's Historical Society (who knew they had one?).  This issue of the publication is from Summer/Fall 1994 - no sping chicken - but well worth a read: it's dedicated to the women in western legal history and the stories are unbeatable.  There's a picture of a pioneer woman holding a revolver on the cover.  How many legal publications can top that?

The articles include Ann Butler's "Women's Work in Prisons of the American West, 1865 - 1920," Margaret Holden's "Gender and Protest Ideology: Sue Ross Keenan and the Oregon Anti-Chinese Movement," Donna Schuele's "Community Property Law and the Politics of Married Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century California," and James Muhn's fascinating piece "Women and the Homestead Act: Land Department Administration of a Legal Imbroglio, 1863 - 1934."  I highly recommend all four.  Unfortunately you may have to trek down to a local library to find them ...

A Plum Opportunity in a Down Economy: ED's Post Open at UT's CWIL

The recently launched Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin is looking for a new Executive Director. The Center seems like a pretty amazing place to work. Not only are they the first of their kind, the job is a straight path to academia through a non-traditional route, not to mention an opportunity to work with a group of alumnae founders that's hard to beat.

Ms. JD is partnering with the Center on a number of initiatives including their Law School Task Force anda revampedonline library. So I know from personal experience that the outgoing ED, Hannah Brenner is pretty stellar. I'm guessing that in this down economy the Center will be able to find someone amazing to replace her. 

After the jump, a position description and information on who to contact should you or someone you know be interested in the opportunity:

How to Become a Law Professor -- The Move from Big Law to Academia

Professor William B. Rubenstein of Harvard Law School will be conducting a half-day seminar on June 20, 2009 in New York City to help those who are interested in making the transition from private practice to legal academia. Visit http://billrubenstein.com/seminar.html for more details!

Harvard Gender and the Law Conference -- Registration Required by March 2, 2009

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University will be hosting a conference entitled Gender and the Law: Unintended Consequences, Unsettled Questions" from Thursday, March 12, 2009, to Friday, March 13, 2009. Registration for the event is required by Monday, March 2, 2009. Click here to register for the conference.

Dean Search Committee Names Finalists: Four out of Five are Women

Four out five of finalists to serve as the next Dean of the University of Maryland School of Law are women. The finalists include Wendy Collins Perdue, Phoebe A. Haddon, Linda S. Mullenix, Leah Ward Sears, and Mark A. Sargent.

After 10 years of service, the Law School's current dean, Karen H. Rothenberg, will step down at the end of the current academic year.

Click here for more information on these remarkable finalists.