About the Women's Bar Association of Illinois
President's Message
I am so privileged and honored to serve as President of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois. Our organization has successfully supported women in the legal profession for almost a century and I look forward to continuing this mission during my Presidency.
The WBAI bar year began with the Annual Installation Dinner on June 9, 2011, attended by over 800 people at the Chicago Hilton. This year’s Dinner featured Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan giving the keynote address and receiving the Myra Bradwell Award. The Attorney General was introduced by Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Kilbride and I was honored to be installed by Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke. Also at the Dinner, United States Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky received a Women With Vision Award from the WBAI, and the WBAI’s Officers and Directors were installed by Chief Judge Timothy Evans of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Significantly, this year’s Annual Dinner broke all previous attendance and profit records, thanks to the hard work of the Annual Dinner Co-Chairs, Sarah Breitlander, Karina Zabicki DeHayes and Karen Enright, along with the fabulous Annual Dinner Committee. Congratulations to all who contributed to this record-setting success, which bodes well for a wonderful new bar year.
One of the great privileges afforded to the President of the WBAI is selecting a theme for her Bar year. I thought long and hard about this because I believe our organization has a compelling obligation to help as many women as possible to succeed in the legal profession. To that end, the theme for this year is “Promoting Women Leaders In The Legal Community.” Applying this theme, the Women’s Bar Association will feature programming in a Leadership Development Series, designed to help give women attorneys in both the public and private sector the skills they need not only to stay in the profession but to become leaders in the profession. Whether it is becoming a supervisor in the Attorney General’s Office, a partner in a law firm, a general counsel for a corporation, or a judge in the state or federal courts, all of these positions share one thing in common: they are positions of leadership.
The Leadership Development Series will strive to address the perennial challenge which confronts the legal field: the retention and advancement of women lawyers. Although the number of women graduating from law school has, within the past decade or so, been equal to or greater than the number of male graduates, if you check back ten years later, the number of women still practicing law will have decreased dramatically. Unfortunately, many of us know women who have left the profession for various reasons. Perhaps they wanted a better work-life balance. Or for those in private practice, maybe they didn't have their own book of business, which can often be the key to partnership. Or maybe they there were no women serving as role models and mentors to them. Whatever the reason for this pervasive problem of women dropping out of the legal profession, it remains a persistent issue that cannot be ignored. Through the Leadership Development Series, the WBAI will step up to the plate and offer ways to solve this problem.
The goal here is not further discussion, but rather, a call to action. I hope that everyone who attends our programming this year will learn concrete and identifiable strategies for use in their career development and promotion. Our Leadership Development Series will benefit practicing attorneys as well as law students. The WBAI is proud to offer law students free membership in our organization and we will continue to offer our Mentorship Program, where we match up law students with practicing attorneys and judges for a mutually beneficial experience. The Mentorship Program was begun by my predecessor, Kathy Gallanis Matern, and I congratulate her on such a successful initiative. We encourage our law student members to attend these Leadership Development programs, since it is never too early to start thinking about career advancement.
Our first program will focus on effective networking. Most leaders in the legal community will tell you that they are strong networkers. The universally important ability to network is as critical to those in the public sector as it is to those in private practice. In this challenging economy, being an effective networker can help you find a job, enhance your reputation, and develop a book of business. Yet many of us struggle with how to network. This is not a skill taught in law school or on the job. To help foster this crucial skill, the WBAI will present a program on the evening of September 8th hosted by Winston & Strawn, which will feature Tracy LaLonde, a partner with Akina Corporation, on how to network effectively. Ms. LaLonde has helped numerous attorneys develop sustainable skills in the areas of leadership, communication and rainmaking.
Our second Leadership Development program will feature a panel of three female managing partners of large law firms: Nancy Gerrie, Partner In Charge of McDermott Will & Emery in Chicago; Jennifer Kenedy, Managing Partner of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell's Chicago Office; and Susan Levy, Managing Partner of Jenner & Block. These powerful and inspiring women leaders - - all of whom happen to be working mothers - - will speak about how they rose to the top of their respective law firms; how they have achieved a work-life balance; what they look for when promoting an associate to partner; and how women can succeed in a law firm environment. This program will be presented on the evening of October 20th and will be hosted by Jenner & Block.
The third program in our Series will focus on the importance of leadership in bar organizations to career development. We will hear from Laurel Bellows of the American Bar Association, Aurora Austriaco of the Chicago Bar Association and Paula Holderman of the Illinois State Bar Association. Each of these incredible women will soon become President of their respective bar organizations and will share with you the benefits that may be derived both personally and professionally from involvement and leadership in Bar associations. This program will take place on the evening of November 16th, and will be hosted by McDermott Will & Emery.
The WBAI has many more exciting leadership and business development programs in the works for 2012.
We expect to present a program with dynamic women leaders in the public sector, such as Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez, along with other elected female leaders.
We are also planning a panel discussion of female judges in state and federal courts in Illinois, who will discuss their career paths to the judiciary.
The WBAI will be presenting a program on rainmaking, which will stress the importance of building authentic relationships and asking for business. It is a hard truth, and not a criticism, that many women have a difficult time “making the ask.”
We will also feature a program in our Leadership Development Series on the importance of body language and word choice in expressing yourself and how their effective use can help you advance in your career path. Often times we forget that in addition to being strong advocates for our clients, we must be strong advocates for ourselves in the workplace. To promote greater gender equality in the law, I encourage male attorneys to attend our programming this year and otherwise take the time to learn why women are a valuable asset to the legal profession. By doing so, I believe that male lawyers will see that the unique skill set, approach and attitude that many women bring to the practice is extremely valuable, and that it is important for our male colleagues to appreciate what we bring to the table so that they can be supportive of our advancement in the profession.
In addition to the Leadership Development Series, the WBAI will be partnering with a number of other organizations, including The Legal Balance, to foster the retention and advancement of women in the profession. Also, in the interest of networking, the Women’s Bar will be partnering with the Illinois Judges Association and the Illinois State Bar Association to form a team to run or walk together at Race Judicata on July 21. And a fabulous CLE program is in the works for 2012, which will be taught by the many judges before whom members of the Women’s Bar and the ISBA practice. Finally, because we believe it is important for the Women’s Bar Association to be inclusive in order to encourage as many people as possible to network together, we will be forming a Hospitality Committee whose goal will be to make newcomers to our organization feel welcome at our many events planned for this bar year.
Through our Leadership Development Series and the many other events that we will be sponsoring, the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois hopes to eliminate the number of female attorneys leaving the law so that women lawyers can become as strong a presence in the legal profession ten years from now as they were when they graduated from law school.
Although women attorneys have certainly come a long way since the founding of the Women's Bar Association of Illinois in 1914, we still have a long way to go. It is my fervent hope that the programming to be offered by the WBAI throughout the next year will offer female lawyers the inspiration, motivation and skills they need not only to continue practicing law but to advance to positions of leadership in the legal profession.
Sincerely,
Deane B. Brown
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