Panel Descriptions
Concurrent Sessions: What Does It
Mean to Be Ms. JD?
A Struggle Within the Struggle: Women Lawyers of Color in the Legal Profession
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This panel will explore the unique challenges faced by women of color in the legal profession given their status both as women and racial minorities. It is our hope that the panelists and audience members will brain-storm collectively and strategically to identify some of the ways in which women of color, and all women more broadly, can respond to this systematic double marginalization. The panelists will combine the first-hand perspectives of female lawyers of color as well as the insights of individuals who have engaged in empirical research on the issue. The session will also draw on findings in a soon-to-be-released report from the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, Visible Invisibility: Women of Color in Law Firms (executive summary available at http://www.abanet.org/women/VisibleInvisibility-ExecSummary.pdf). The panel is designed to engage professionals, academics and students, in a debate that has implications for us all.
Panelists: Paulette Brown, Jeneba Ghatt, Margaret Montoya
Reflections on the Miers Nomination: What Does It Say About Us?
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After nomination to the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers was excoriated by conservative commentators and received little support from liberals. Attacks on Miers ranged from criticism of her credentials and intelligence to quips about her marital status and volunteer work. Questions linger: To what extent did gender cloud assessment of Miers as a nominee? Does emphasis on elite credentials and federal government experience confer an advantage on male nominees? Was the O’Connor nomination an aberration? Will the failed Miers nomination make things harder for future female judicial nominees? At all levels of government, how might our expectations of judicial nominees be more stringent for women than men?
Panelists: Judge Nancy Gertner, Linda Meyer, Barbara Perry, Sarah Wilson
Women in the Broader Legal Landscape: The Promise and Challenges of Global Engagement
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Women face challenges in every country in the world. Some are shockingly familiar, while others are unique to women in particular regions. This panel will identify and discuss strategies and best practices for women working internationally. The discussion will range from the challenges of working as a female lawyer in other countries to the theoretical and ethical underpinnings of forging transnational alliances and using the law to promote women’s rights. What are the unique difficulties women lawyers face when we choose an international career? How does one act globally while respecting the uniqueness of each cultural scenario? Are women's rights really global or must they be reconceived depending on the particular society at issue? How should women working in international law contend with culturally-derived gender stereotyping in the international workplace? What are concrete strategies of connecting internationally and working collaboratively across cultures and far distances?
Panelists: Asli Bali, Luisa Cabal, Amy Chua, Andrea Friedman
Concurrent Sessions: Is the Law a
Gendered Profession?
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As future attorneys, we have a myriad of career options from which to choose, and law school encourages us to single-mindedly pursue our professional opportunities. Too often, however, we forget that securing a coveted position is not the sole or even the most significant measure of success. We need to think carefully both about potential problems within the office (discrimination, promotion) as well as those outside (work-life balance). This panel is oriented toward career-starters or career-changers searching for an answer to the question: what are the key factors in choosing, acquiring and being successful and satisfied in our “dream job” and in having a meaningful life in the legal field?
Panelists: Deb Cantrell, Brande Stellings, Marissa Wesely, Joan Williams
Is Legal Academia a Gendered Environment?
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Women compose 50% of law students but only 25% of tenured faculty and even fewer are law school administrators. This panel will look at the reasons behind these statistics by inviting women from all levels of legal academia to discuss their experiences. Panelists will explore structural and cultural aspects of the legal academy that may contribute to a gender imbalance. Finally, the panel will suggest different approaches that young aspiring legal academics can take to overcome these challenges.
Panelists: Louise Melling, Judith Resnik, Deborah Rhode, Vicki Schultz
Is It A Man’s World? Women Practitioners in the Legal Profession
We're very sorry. Due to technical difficulties the tape of this session could not be streamed online.
This panel will bring together women who
have chosen legal careers in the public or private sectors, such as in the
government, law firms, and as in-house counsel, to discuss the obstacles they
have faced in what was historically a man's world. Topics will include:
How can women succeed in such an environment? If so, what is the price of
that success? What does the glass ceiling look like for women lawyers in
private industry? What can women within private industry do to improve
opportunities for other women?
Panelists: Alais L. M. Griffin, Victoria Shin, Stuart Warner, Maureen Weaver
Concurrent Sessions: Ms. JD at Work
Beyond “Queen Bee” and "Mommy Wars": Women Working Together
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Much activism on behalf of women in the workplace has (justifiably) emphasized men’s role in creating and perpetuating the “glass ceiling” in legal and other workplaces. However, recent scholarship in this area has noted that women may also perpetuate the workplace’s gendered system through informal social phenomena, such as “queen bee syndrome”—the idea that women who have been individually successful in male-dominated environments are more likely to be critical of younger, upcoming women—and “mommy wars”—the idea that a rift exists between full-time mothering lawyers and flex- or part-time mothering lawyers. This panel will explore and critique these ideas and present strategies for building productive relationships between women in legal workplaces.
Panelists: Deborah Epstein Henry, Lauren Stiller Rikleen, Pamela Roberts
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This panel will focus on the practical implications of the technology revolution for the lives and careers of women in the legal profession. Panelists will discuss how women can harness technology to achieve their goals, including a special look at blogging as a mobilization and empowerment tool. Panelists will also discuss some of the downsides of the Internet and its anonymity, and offer advice on how to avoid some potential pitfalls and deal with these issues when they arise.
Panelists: Ann Bartow, Catherine Kirkman, Katherine McDaniel
The Importance of Alliances: The Place of Men in a 21st Century “Women’s Movement”
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This panel will use real-life hypotheticals from the workplace and the classroom to demonstrate and raise questions about the current challenges of gender-integrated environments, and how we react (or should react) to those challenges. Dramatic reenactments by the panelists will spark discussion on strategies to help advance gender equality and address issues common to men and women in modern legal workplaces. It will consider questions such as how to deal with “family friendly” policies and the resulting division of labor; whether and how to explicitly address the divergent experiences of women and men in law school classrooms or other environments that can be characterized by inequitable evaluations, and ways to build mentoring relationships with “well-meaning but clueless” men and women in positions of seniority.
Panelists: Douglas Kysar, Bernadette Meyler, Lynn Neuner, Rob Verchick
