Like all the great women who have led the Women Trial Lawyers Caucus before me, I am excited and honored to serve as this year’s Chair. At the annual convention in New York City, we had a record number of women attend our membership meeting and sign up to participate in our many programs and activities.
Women who have been active and assumed leadership roles in the Women’s Caucus have gone on to become leaders in the broader AAJ organization. For the first time in the association’s history, this year we have three women who are AAJ officers—Mary Alice McClarty, Julie Braman Kane, and Lisa Blue Baron. I am so proud of them and of the other past AAJ leaders with strong roots in the Women’s Caucus--Roxanne Conlin, Mary Alexander, Kathleen Flynn Peterson, and Rhonda Hill Wilson.
Participation on the AAJ Board of Governors among women has also increased dramatically. The Women’s Caucus is very well represented not only on the Board but also on the Executive Committee. A 2009 report published by Ernst & Young showed that when female leadership reaches a critical mass in an organization, specifically one-third of the highest level leaders, bottom line performance increases significantly. This bodes well indeed for the future of AAJ!
I truly appreciate the commitment, talent, enthusiasm, and energy of the women who are involved in the Women’s Caucus. I am fortunate to be working with an amazing group of women on our Executive Committee: Lauren Barnes, Chair-Elect; Lori Andrus, First Vice-Chair; Rebecca Langston, Second Vice-Chair and Representative to the Board of Governors; Vicki Slater, Secretary; Marianne LeBlanc, Immediate Past Chair and Representative to the Board of Governors; Melissa Smith, Past Chair and Representative to the Executive Committee and Board of Governors; and Adrianne Wolvoord, Representative to the Board of Governors.
This year the Women’s Caucus will focus on connectivity. We have even adopted a new tagline reflecting this focus: Connections Count. There are many of us—over 3,200 worldwide—and it is important that we be engaged in the larger group.
The WTLC will be working to improve connections between Women’s Caucus members, between Women’s Caucus members and women in state trial lawyer associations, between Women’s Caucus members and women who are not (yet) AAJ members, and between the Women’s Caucus and Congressional representatives. Our committee work directed to these separate yet related connectivity goals will strengthen AAJ, the Women’s Caucus, and our individual Caucus members in their own practices.
If you have never been involved in the Women’s Caucus, I encourage you to do so now. There are opportunities to suit all interests and talents. This year we have 11 committees, including some new ones.
Under the energetic leadership of Lori Andrus, Lauren Barnes, and A.J. De Bartolomeo, we will continue to boost our membership activation and outreach efforts. Last year Adrianne Wolvoord spearheaded our first ever “Table of 8” Program, bringing together tables of eight women lawyers in cities across the country. This successful and fun membership recruitment effort will continue this year. We will continue to provide both formal and informal networking opportunities for Caucus members. We will hold our biennial leadership summit in Chicago to kick off AAJ’s annual convention. The summit is designed to advance and support women in their practices. We will continue to provide an education program at the annual convention, featuring a few of our many talented women trial lawyers. Vicki Slater and Kristina Kastl are co-chairing our state outreach committee, which will continue efforts to help women around the country establish or reactivate women’s caucuses in their states. We will work to grow our Mike Eidson Scholarship fund, from which we award an annual scholarship to a rising 3L female student committed to a career as a trial lawyer. We have a new mentoring committee that will work to develop a mentoring program for our Caucus members. We have a new political outreach committee co-chaired by Alison Mynick and Yvonne Flaherty that will work on developing Women’s Caucus outreach with Congress to supplement our biennial Lobby Day event. In an effort to improve governance and transparency, under the leadership of Rebecca Langston we are working to revise our long outdated by-laws and election rules. Finally, we hope to adopt a long-term strategic plan to guide us in future planning to achieve our ambitious goals.
If you have ideas or want to help out with any of our committees, or if you have suggestions about how the Women’s Caucus can better serve our members’ needs, we would love to hear from you. Our first membership meeting of the year will take place on Friday, November 4th, in Washington, D.C.
Please join us on our Women’s Caucus list server or on the LinkedIn Group we have formed. Be an active participant on the list server and share your inquiries, ideas, and advice.
I leave you with this thought from the great poet and author Maya Angelou:
"If you’re born a girl, grow up and live long enough, you can become an old female. But to become a woman is a serious matter. A woman takes responsibility for the time she takes up and the space she occupies."
I am constantly impressed by the women of AAJ. I look forward to getting to know you and working with you this year.
Maria Diamond
Chair, 2011-2012
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