SAVE THE DATE!

International Women’s Day and Commission on the Status of Women – 2020 Program Planning Underway

I am proud to report that the FBA SDNY Chapter has been awarded a very generous FBA Chapter Activity Grant in the amount of $2,500 to fund our Third Annual International Women’s Day and Commission on the Status of Women Parallel Events scheduled for March and April 2020.

This year, we’re expanding our national leadership role within the Federal Bar Association’s ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ agenda by taking the FBA’s International Women’s Day (IWD) and Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) celebrations global.

As you’ll recall, last year’s program hosted by Fordham Law School welcomed a distinguished series of speakers from UN Women, the American Bar Association, the National Association of Immigration Judges, Fordham Law School, and the National Association of Women Judges, and was sponsored by multiple groups including the Women’s Bar of the State of New York. That award-winning program was reported on in The Federal Lawyer Magazine and most recently in the National Association of Women Judges’ Counterbalance Magazine.

This year, we are going to be holding three new and exciting programs examining two reports:

The Law Society of England and Wales’ June 2019 Report, Advocating for Change: Transforming the Future of the Legal Profession through greater Gender Equality: and

The Women’s Bar of the State of New York’s report entitled If Not Now, When? Achieving Equality for Women Attorneys in the Courtroom and in ADR.

Due to overwhelming enthusiasm, we’re expanding our programming to include three distinct events, this time on two continents:

(1) March 13, 2020, Continuing Legal Education Program and Reception with two panels over four hours at Fordham University School of Law, in New York;

(2) March 2020, (exact date TBD) CSW64 Official Parallel event – 90-minute panel presentation at one of the UN adjacent buildings in New York; and

(3) April 2020, (exact date TBD) 90-minute program presented in conjunction with the Law Society of England and Wales in London, U.K.

LLM student-organized and international in reach, these three programs seek to highlight how far we’ve come and where we still need to go in order to ensure that women lawyers around the globe are able to achieve their professional goals.

We want to train the next generation of lawyers on gender equality in the legal profession, in cross-cultural contexts. To make our programming more responsive to the realities of practice on multiple continents, this year we’ve engaged the Law Society of England and Wales to provide the U.K. perspective, and the International Bar Association as a program sponsor to round out our South American and African perspectives.

Moreover, since networking and conference planning are such key components of creating one’s place in the larger legal community, we’re going to film the process, from beginning to end, and share the video widely, thereby casting an even wider net as we work to lift up a whole legion of young lawyers.

Get ready to make these celebrations a priority in your yearly programming agenda. Check back periodically for updates. We’ll be sharing organizational information as it becomes available.

Sponsors:
Federal Bar Association
Fordham Law School
National Association of Women Judges
International Association of Women Judges
International Bar Association
Speakers:
Hon. Tamila Ipema, Immediate Past President, National Association of Women Judges
Hon. Karen Donahue, President-Elect, National Association of Women Judges
Donna Frosco, Esq., Past President, Federal Bar Association, Southern District of New York Chapter, Past President, Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York
Lizzette Robleto de Howarth, Law Society of England and Wales
Isabel Bueno, Esq., Chair, International Bar Association, Women Lawyers Interest Group, Advisory Board
Program Chairs: Mimi Tsankov, Federal Bar Association (New York Programs) and Donna Frosco, Federal Bar Association (London Program)