Introducing Ms. JD's National Women Law Students' Organization (NWLSO)

This past weekend, Ms. JD celebrated its first birthday by bringing together over 90 law students from 70 law schools in 33 states to create the Ms. JD National Women Law Students' Organization (NWLSO), a group that will bring together and represent the interests of women law students. Delegates elected regional leadership to establish a NWLSO presence at every law school campus in the country and to connect with practitioners and professional leaders in legal markets nationwide.

Sponsored by Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and made possible by all of the founding sponsors who have supported Ms. JD through a year of quick growth, the summit kicked off with a cocktail reception on Friday night in New York City. At the opening reception, Chief Judge Judith Kaye, of the New York Court of Appeals, inspired the student delegates with reflections on the advancement of women in the legal profession and the challenges female lawyers still face. Lynn Hecht Schafran, the Director of the National Judicial Education Program, offered her perspective on the current professional climate for women in the courtroom. On Saturday, Kate Frucher of Axiom offered advice on how women attorneys could maximize networking potential. The summit ended with a banquet featuring remarks by Dahlia Lithwick, senior editor and legal correspondent for Slate.com, and Barbara Babcock, the first female professor at Stanford Law School, who recounted the history of women in the legal profession and offered advice to young women lawyers. The banquet also recognized the accomplishments of several guests of honor, including Judge Denise Cote, Judge Betty Ellerin, Janice Goodman, Joan Krey, and Cathy Ruckelshaus.

If your school was not represented at the conference, and you would like to join NWLSO, please email the student liaisons at nwlso@ms-jd.org. Video from these speakers and more information about the four regions of NWLSO will be available on the website soon. Congratulations to all the participants!

Profile & interview with Michelle Obama, lawyer and "super juggler" [Clippings]

Yesterday the Wall Street Journal profiled and interviewed Michelle Obama (J.D., Harvard Law School, 1988). Hat tip to John J. Edwards III at the WSJ Juggle Blog, who suggests reading the pieces for the perspective of a "super juggling" two-lawyer family with kids.

Interviews with Fatima Goss Graves and Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel at the National Women's Law Center

The National Women's Law Center has started a weekly series interviewing bloggers at Womenstake, their blog. Most recently they interviewed Fatima Goss Graves, Senior Counsel with NWLC. She works for greater gender equality in education, through litigation, drafting legislative policy, and public education. Highlights...

I come from a long legacy of civil rights activists. My father and aunt were the named plaintiffs in a significant post-Brown Supreme Court ruling that desegregated schools in Knoxville, Tennessee, during the height of the civil rights movement.

...

Q: Over the years, the civil rights movement and the women’s rights movement have coincided and sometimes clashed. As a woman of color, do you ever feel torn between your loyalties as an African-American and as a feminist?

[T]hese are movements that have benefited from and fostered each other. And these movements continue to work in strong coalitions together; I work with many civil rights organizations on a regular basis and our work often overlaps.

That said ... feminists have to ensure that their advocacy takes the needs of all women into account, not just white women.

Previously Womenstake interviewed Jill Morrison, another Senior Counsel at NWLC. She litigates and drafts policy to ensure access to health care. If you are interested in nonprofit, public interest legal careers or looking for a dose of inspiration, the series looks like something to check on Fridays!

Video of Judges Ikuta and Fletcher

Click here to watch video of 9th Circuit judges Ikuta and Fletcher

This post is cross-listed here

Video of Judges Fletcher and Ikuta

Click here to watch video of 9th Circuit judges Ikuta and Fletcher

This post is cross-listed here.

Be Open to Change

By Deborah R. Schwarzer, Of Counsel, GCA Law Partners LLP I’m reluctantly realizing that I’m ancient. But with age comes history, experience and, with luck, perspective. When I attended the University of Chicago Law School in the early 80’s, women made up about 30% of the class. We weren’t pioneers; those in earlier classes served in that role. We weren’t all alike. And we didn’t have to wear those horrible blouses with the gigantic self-bows that women just a few years back had had to wear (I have incriminating pictures of my sister, also a J.D., in one of those). But we still weren’t the same as the guys, especially when it came to employment. I fled West, fearing that my gender would stand in my way (I had clerked in Cincinnati one summer and was appalled by attitudes there, particularly outside the legal community. I didn’t like being called “a lady lawyer.” I did not wish to be regarded as a novelty, like a talking dog).

Profile: Judge Kim Wardlaw

Wardlaw Cut a Fast Track to Center of 9th Circuit
By Amelia Hansen
Daily Journal Staff Writer

February 08, 2007

PASADENA - A turn of turtles inhabits Kim Wardlaw's chambers.

Sparkling and vibrant, the small figurines appear on the judge's bookshelf and desk. They are unlikely visitors in a world filled with legal documents and books.

"They remind me to slow down, to be thoughtful," Wardlaw said. "They remind me that everything doesn't have to be done today."

Impressive Progress Alongside Persistent Problems

In April the New York Committee on Women in the Courts celebrated twenty years of working to implement the recommendations of the New York Task Force on Women in the Courts. New York’s Chief Judge Judith Kaye encapsulated these two decades with a perfect aphorism, “Impressive Progress Alongside Persistent Problems” – an aphorism that captures the work not only of the New York Committee, but of every effort to achieve equality for women in the courts and the legal profession.