Mission

The Woman Advocate Committee is open to all members of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation. Joining the committee entitles a member to a number of benefits (see list below). The committee’s leadership is made up of experienced women litigators from all over the country working to provide support and useful information to all women who litigate.

To accomplish this goal, the committee provides its members with these benefits:

• The Woman Advocate, a quarterly publication
• programs that feature talented, effective women trial lawyers demonstrating trial and advocacy skills and styles
• programs on rainmaking for women, emphasizing how women can effectively attract and retain clients
• opportunities to network with other women trial lawyers and exchange information, questions, or ideas on a wide variety of professional and personal issues confronting women lawyers, particularly those in a litigation practice, including alternative work styles, balancing trial work and motherhood, mentoring, and perceptions of women advocates

Whether you want to receive The Woman Advocate, learn from and network with top women litigators, contribute to our programs and publications, or all of the above, join us. Section of Litigation members may join up to three committees at no charge.

To join, you must first be a member of the ABA and also a member of the ABA Section of Litigation.

Announcements

Success at This Year's Section of Litigation Annual CLE Conference

In April, WAC had very successful events at this year’s Section of Litigation Annual CLE Conference. The Woman Advocate Committee hosted two well-attended Dutch Treat dinners on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 and Thursday, April 25. In addition, we had a networking luncheon at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, April 26, and an exciting booth at the Committee Expo.

In addition, this year’s SAC featured a Woman Advocate track with the following programming involving many of our members:

Sabrina Beavens, WAC’s website editor, received an award for Outstanding Subcommittee chair––thank you Sabrina for all of your contributions!

2013 Corporate Counsel CLE Seminar a Resounding Success

From the Woman Advocate Committee Cochairs:

The Woman Advocate Committee began the 2013 bar year with a bang at the ABA Section of Litigation’s Corporate Counsel CLE Seminar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, February 14–17, 2013. As usual, the event was well attended by Woman Advocate members and we had more events than ever thanks in part to the contributions of Lisa Garrison who was our liaison in the planning process. WAC is a cosponsor of the Corporate Counsel seminar and our presence and contribution to the meeting was felt and recognized by both the Corporate Counsel Committee and the Section leadership. WAC Cochair Paula Hinton presented a highly successful program at the seminar entitled, “The ABCs of Social Media for Corporate Counsel.” Programming Subcommittee Cochair Cynthia Burnside prepared excellent materials for this program, which are available on our website. In addition, longstanding WAC leaders Anne Kershaw and Beatty O’Donnell moderated panels titled “Sex, Lies & Backup Tape: Litigating a Spoliation Claim American Idol Style!” and “Courageous Counsel: Advice & Insights from Diverse Counsel About Paths to Legal and Business Leadership”, respectively.

 In addition, a number of our members assisted in organizing terrific networking events. First, we had our traditional Dutch treat dinner, organized by Danielle Gibbs and Anne Kershaw. Next, our spa networking event, organized by Christine Mayle, was well attended and enjoyed by all. Third, Keely Rankin organized a very sporty kayaking trip that provided a nice alternative networking event to the golf events. Last but not least, Lucia Coyoca and Gail Gottehrer organized a very unique networking event that provided an entertaining and icebreaking time for the attendees. We also had a number of “meeting mentors” for those who had not previously attended an ABA meeting thanks to coordination by our Young Lawyer Outreach Subcommittee Cochair, Windy Bitzer. The event was terrifically successful in general and particularly for us as a committee with the diversity of programming and networking events that we were able to contribute thanks to all of you.

For more information on how to get involved in WAC, please view the Message from the Chairs.

Mentoring Subcommittee Announces New Mentoring Circles Program

The Woman Advocate Committee's Mentoring Subcommittee is revamping its mentoring program with creation of mentoring circles connecting 8–10 women attorneys at varying professional levels per circle. The circles will offer opportunity to network and grow in professional development. Current mentors and mentees need not reapply and may continue with their current mentoring match and also be in a circle. A "facilitator" will contact circle members to initiate conference calls and discussions. Questions? Interested in being a facilitator? Contact Cochairs Daria Diaz or Lu Ann White. To sign up, complete the form.

Get Involved in the Work-Life Balance Subcommittee

The Woman Advocate Committee's Work-Life Balance Subcommittee is currently planning its projects for the upcoming year. Our goal is to develop programming to share experiences and practical tips on how our members balance work-life demands. If you are interested in participating in the subcommittee or have ideas for the upcoming year, please contact subcommittee cochairs Danielle Kays and Teresa Beck.

Join the Woman Advocate Committee on Facebook and LinkedIn

Visit the Woman Advocate Committee Group on LinkedIn and click on the yellow "Join" button. An email will be sent to the administrator for approval. Once approved, you will receive an email stating that the "ABA Woman Advocate Committee welcomes you," and you are now officially a member. When you join any group, you will receive a daily digest email with all group activity for that day. This is the default setting and can be changed by clicking the "Change Your Settings" tab found in the ABA Woman Advocate welcoming email.

To join the Woman Advocate Facebook page, click on the "Like" button at the top of the page. When articles and other links are posted on the Woman Advocate page, they should show up on your Facebook News Feed. Note that Facebook doesn't always post everything in your News Feed, so if you are interested in seeing what has recently been posted, visit the Facebook Woman Advocate page from time to time. You can get there by typing in "ABA Section of Litigation: Woman Advocate" in the search bar at the top of the page.  If you want everything to show up in your Facebook News Feed from all of your friends, pages, and groups, scroll to the bottom of your News Feed (the home page) and click the "Edit Options" link. A box will pop up titled "Edit Your News Feed Settings." Click the blue down arrow across from "Show posts from:" You can now select "All of your friends and pages." This means every post by a friend or page will show up in your News Feed.

Learn More About the Committee

Cochairs Paula Hinton, Patricia O'Prey, and Anne Marie Seibel welcome you to the Woman Advocate Committee. Read the new Message from the Chairs to learn more about the noteworthy, and fun, activities that we have planned for the year.

WAC Monthly Conference Calls

The first Thursday of every month, the Woman Advocate Committee holds an hour-long conference call to discuss committee issues and planning. If you would like to join our calls, contact us.

Message from the Chairs

Welcome to the ABA Section of Litigation Woman Advocate Committee! The Woman Advocate Committee (WAC) serves as a welcoming portal to the ABA. Our mission is to help shape policy and advocate for change on issues affecting women lawyers. We provide opportunities for our members to network with other women litigators and sponsor educational and networking opportunities for our members, designed to aid their efforts to develop business. Our programming focuses on managing the professional and personal challenges specific to women litigators. We strive to be the leading resource for business and professional development for women litigators practicing law today.

Section Annual Meeting

In April, WAC had very successful events at this year’s Section of Litigation Annual CLE Conference. The Woman Advocate Committee hosted two well-attended Dutch Treat dinners on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 and Thursday, April 25. In addition, we had a networking luncheon at 12:15 p.m. on Friday, April 26, and an exciting booth at the Committee Expo.

In addition, this year’s SAC featured a Woman Advocate track with the following programming involving many of our members:

Sabrina Beavens, WAC’s website editor, received an award for Outstanding Subcommittee chair—thank you Sabrina for all of your contributions!

ABA Annual Meeting
We are looking forward to the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco, August 8–13, 2013. We will have our traditional Dutch Treat dinner on the first night of the conference, August 8. In addition, WAC’s ongoing relationship with the Women in Dispute Resolution, a group in the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, has resulted in a combined effort in a panel titled Woman Advocates and Dispute Resolvers – Challenges and Strategies, with WAC’s cochair Paula Hinton participating on a panel along with Myra Selby, former Supreme Court Justice from Indiana and Ruth Glick, mediator and arbitrator.

As always, we encourage woman advocates who are relatively new to the ABA to avail yourselves of our “meeting mentor” program, which will pair you up with a veteran WAC member to help introduce you around at your first meeting. If you are interested, please reach out to our Young Lawyer Outreach Subcommittee cochair, Windy Bitzer.

Our strength comes from our members who time and again step up with enthusiasm and energy to organize events and programs for the benefit of our committee. We look forward to having you involved.

Ways to Get Involved

Regional Lunches

We hope that you will participate either by attending a regional lunch in your area or by hosting a lunch, which is a great way to meet new women lawyers in your area and involves nothing more than providing space in which to gather. If you are interested in hosting a lunch in your city, please contact Heather White and Evelyn Storch, our Regional Meeting Sub-committee chairs

E-Newsletter and Website
Our newsletter editor-in-chief Christine Mayle is always interested in ideas for newsletter themes or soliciting articles for publication in our award-winning newsletter. Contact Christine if you have an idea or would like to write an article.

Another way to publish is through our website. We keep members abreast of new developments of interest to women litigators and update those postings frequently. If you would like to write a new-development update or article and have it posted on our website, please contact our website editors, Sabrina Beavens or Sara Dionne.

Monthly Conference Calls
Another way to get involved is to participate in our monthly conference call of subcommittee chairs and interested members. This call is usually held on the first Thursday of each month, at 10 a.m. Pacific, 12 p.m. Central, and 1 p.m. Eastern. Never taking more than an hour, 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. Email Anne Marie Seibel to be included on the next conference-call invitation. The ABA call-in line will be available to the first 250 participants.

Work-Life Management
The Work-Life Management subcommittee is working on some very exciting projects. First, we are producing short Sound Advice pieces (audio) to be posted on the ABA website addressing various work-life management issues. Second, we recently submitted a book proposal. The book as originally conceived will be a collection of vignettes by a variety of well-known and lesser-known women attorneys about how they have managed their work-life issues to succeed in their careers. We believe that stories like this will help motivate and inspire other women attorneys. We welcome all ideas and hope you will consider getting involved. Please contact Danielle Kays or Teresa Beck for more information about these projects and to participate in their monthly conference calls.

Programming
Are you interested in helping out with programming? Please contact Jen Hoekel or Cynthia Burnside; we know they would welcome your ideas.

Sound Advice

Sound Advice is another benefit we plan to deliver. Sound Advice is a 5–10 minute speech that you can produce on your iPhone, iPad, Android, or any digital recording device. The final product gets posted on the Section of Litigation website and the WAC webpage. We can also attach it to a listserv sent to all of our committee members. To get started, all we need is the presenter and her topic so please let us know if you are interested in contributing a Sound Advice submission.

Mentoring
Our Mentoring Subcommittee, led by Daria Diaz and Lu Ann White, has recently launched a new mentoring program with the creation of mentoring circles connecting 8–10 women attorneys at varying professional levels per circle. The circles will offer the opportunity for women litigators of all levels of experience to network and grow in professional development. The circles will allow more flexibility in participation by the members, and will also provide structure to promote communication and discussion. If you are interested in participating in a mentoring circle please contact Daria or LuAnn

.

Facebook and LinkedIn
In the meantime, please stay connected with the committee through our Facebook and LinkedIn pages. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Paula Hinton, Anne Marie Seibel, and Patricia O’Prey

Cochairs, Section of Litigation Woman Advocate Committee