We Want To Hear From You!

On June 18th we hosted the Philadelphia Bar Association’s First Women in the Profession Summit.  We had a great turnout with about 150 attendees.  If you were unable to attend, the Legal covered the event (sent 3 reporters!), and you can read about it on the front page of the June 19th issue.  If you attended, we’d love to hear from you.  Did you enjoy the Summit?  What did you think about the CLE’s offered, and the faculty?Should we do it again next year?  What did you enjoy most/least about the programs?  What else would you like us to know?    As always, if you don’t feel comfortable posting publicly, you can email me directly at feeleym@pepperlaw.com.

You Don’t Want To Miss This!!!!

First Women in the Profession Summit
June 18, 2008
PBI CLE Conference Center, Wanamaker Building, Suite 1010, 100 Penn Square East

11:30 – 12:00 Registration and Lunch

12:00 – 12:15 Welcoming Remarks
A. Michal Pratt, Chancellor, Philadelphia Bar Association
Maria Feeley, Chair, 1st WIP Summit

12:15 -12:35 Key Note Address by Charisse Lillie, Vice President of Human Resources for Comcast Corporation and Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Comcast Cable

12:35 – 12:45 Break

12:45 – 1:45 Women in the Courtroom – Communication Across the Gender Gap
Moderator: Lynn Marks, Executive Director, Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts
Faculty: The Honorable Frederica A. Massiah-Jackson, Philadelphia
County Court of Common Pleas
The Honorable Norma L. Shapiro, EDPA
The Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter, U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Third Circuit
The Honorable Petrese B. Tucker, EDPA
The Honorable Diane M. Welsh (ret.), JAMS

1:45 – 2:45 Hot Topics for Women
Moderators: Kimberly Ruch-Alegant, Brett, Tessler & Associates, P.C.
Kelly Dobbs Bunting, Greenberg Traurig
Faculty: Danielle Banks, Stradley Ronan Stevens & Young, LLP
Nancy O’Mara Ezold, Nancy O’Mara Ezold, P.C.
Natalie Klyashtorny, Nochumson P.C.

2:45-3:00 Break

3:00 – 4:00 Best Practices for the Retention and Promotion of Women Lawyers
LAW FIRM EXECUTIVE PARTNERS
Moderator: Maria Feeley, Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP
Faculty: J. Gordon Cooney, Jr., Philadelphia Managing Partner, Morgan
Lewis
Thomas A. (Tad) Decker, President and CEO, Cozen O’Connor
Patrick Dunican, Chairman and Managing Director, Gibbons P.C.
Nina Gussak, Chairwoman, Pepper Hamilton LLP
John J. Soroko, Chairman and CEO, Duane Morris

4:00 – 5:00 Best Practices for the Retention and Promotion of Women Lawyers
CORPORATE COUNSEL
Moderator: Roberta D. Liebenberg, Partner, Fine, Kaplan & Black, R.P.C.
Faculty: Kamil Ali-Jackson, General Counsel, Ception Therapeutics
Teresa Ciccotelli, Divisional Counsel, Saint Gobain Corp.
Wanda Flowers, Chief Counsel, Sunoco, Inc.
Lorraine Koc, General Counsel, Deb Shops, Inc.

5:00 – 6:30 Cocktail reception

Jan. 29th Meeting – “How To Have It All – The Career And The Family”

We are pleased to present the following panel for this month’s meeting to be held at noon, on January 29th, in the 10th Floor Board Room of the Bar Association’s Headquarters:

Jeniemae Almquist
Raynes, McCarty

Sharon L. Caffrey
Partner, Duane Morris LLP

Karen Detamore
Executive Director, Friends of Farmworkers, Inc.

Deborah Epstein Henry
Founder and President, Flex-Time Lawyers LLC

Moderators: 

Maria Feeley and Danielle Banks

Also, save the date for our next meeting – February 26, 2008.To register for the January 29, 2008 – Luncheon Program, go to www.philadelphiabar.org.  The cost of lunch is $7.50 per person and will only be prepared for those that have made reservations and paid in advance.  Checks should be made payable to the Philadelphia Bar Association.  All reservations that are not canceled 24 hours prior to the event will be subject to a cancellation fee of $7.50.  To cancel, please contact Dawn Burger at 215-238-6367 or dburger@philabar.org. 

Nominations Sought For Alice Stoke Paul Award

Do you know a woman who is a leader in business, academics, public service, the law or her community?  If so, consider nominating her to be recognized with The Alice Paul Equality Award.   

The awards are named in memory of Alice Stokes Paul (1885-1977). Born in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, Alice Paul dedicated her life to the single cause of securing equal rights for all women by:

• Leading the final campaign for women’s right to vote
• Authoring the Equal Rights Amendment
• Initiating gender equality principles in both the United Nations Charter and the 1964 Civil Rights Act

 This year, the Alice Paul Institute, which educates and empowers women and girls to take leadership roles in their communities, will again honor several outstanding women who have contributed significantly to the goal Alice pursued throughout her life:  equality for women in all areas of our lives.   WIP his co-sponsoring the event this year.  

The awards dinner will be held on April 30, 2008 at the Princeton Hyatt.  Nominations are being sought  from WIP, as well as several other groups including lawyers, business people, academics, legislators, and community leaders. The deadline for nominations is February 15, 2008.   For more information, visit www.alicepaul.org. 

Article about Work/Life Choices for Law Firm Lawyers

One of our upcoming speakers, Deborah Epstein Henry wrote an article last month introducing a new work/life methodology called FACTS aimed at enabling law firm lawyers to meet firms’ demands while also giving them new work/life balance choices within the billable hour structure.  The article, entitled “Facing the FACTS: Introducing Work/Life Choices for All Firm Lawyers Within the Billable Hour Model,” which can be viewed at http://www.flextimelawyers.com/pdf/art10.pdf, was featured in Friday’s Shifting Careers New York Times online column by Marci Alboher and has generated some interesting commentary.  See http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/fridays-links-redefining-success/. Legal Blog Watch also did a post on Friday, which can be viewed at http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2007/12/just-the-facts.html.  Debbie will introduce FACTS this Thursday at a Flex-Time Lawyers LLC meeting in Philadelphia and further presentations are scheduled in 2008.

Gender Pay Gap Continues

The November 19th issue if the National Law Journal reported that
“[t]he income gap between men and women grows as attorneys move up the partnership ranks at the nation’s 200 largest firms, according to the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL).” NAWL published its second annual survey on the retention and promotion of women lawyers, and reported that at each level of promotion, women earn less than men. On average, firms pay male non-equity partners about $27,000 more per year than women non-equity partners, and male equity partners approximately $90,000 more than women equity partners. NAWL reported a similar gap in pay for in-house counsel. Law departments pay men about $20,000 more than women.

Networking

Is there an event you would like our members to know about?  Are you  invovled in an organization or project our members might be interested in?  Tell us about!

We Want To Hear From You – What Topics Would You Like Addressed At Our Monthly Meetings?

We are always looking for new ideas for upcoming meetings.  What topics are you interested in?  What types of speakers would you like to hear from?  What types of programs do you want us to plan?

Nov. 27th meeting – How to Become a Law Professor

 “How to Become a Law Professor” – November 27, 2007, noon - Luncheon Program at the Philadelphia Bar Association, 1101 Market Street.

 We are pleased to present the following panel for a joint meeting at noon on November 27^th, of the Women in the Profession Committee and the Minorities in the Profession Committee: 

Theresa Glennon, Esquire, Professor, Temple University, Beasley School of Law;

Jaya Ramji – Nogales, Esquire, Assistant Professor, Temple University, Beasley School of Law;

N. Jeremi Duru, Esquire, Assistant Professor, Temple University, Beasley School of Law;

Moderators: Maria Feeley, Roberta D. Liebenberg and May Mon Post 

The panel will discuss how you can best position yourself to become a law professor.

You can register for the luncheon online at www.philadelphiabar.org.