Hybrid Event: Women in the Judiciary
2025-03-14 10:30 - 12:00 (America/New_York)
**Program hosted in (ET) Time Zone**
Please join us for the FBA’s Award-Winning Official Parallel Program at the 69th Annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Entitled Women in the Judiciary, this event explores the role that women play in the judiciary and how equality strengthens accountability across and within governmental bodies. We’ll enjoy opening remarks by FBA President-Elect Hon. Karoline Mehalchick, and presentations by federal and state judges in the U.S., and around the world, including FBA Judiciary Division Immediate Past Chair, Hon. Beth Bloom.
Attendance is free for anyone interested, and we encourage you to invite your networks to participate. The program is in-person for those local to New York City, and virtual for those unable to join in-person on March 14, 2025, from 10:30 – 12:00 ET.
To participate in-person: This event is an official Parallel Event being held at the NGO CSW Site across the street from the United Nations. In-person attendees must register directly with the NGO CSW Forum here on their website. Note: Participation in this event will not enable you to attend events within the United Nations Building itself. Here is the address for this event:
Church Center for the United Nations (CCUN)
777 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
11th Floor – Assigned room is TBD

Virtual registration is closed.
Sponsored by the Federal Bar Association’s Judiciary Division.
Co-sponsors:

FBA International Law Section
FBA Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Fordham Law School’s International Law and Justice LLM Program
American Bar Association, National Conference of Administrative Law Judges
Association of European Administrative Judges
Association of Administrative Law Judges
National Association of Women Judges
International Association of Women Judges
International Federal of Professional and Technical Engineers

OPENING REMARKS
Hon. Karoline Mehalchick, FBA President-Elect
Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick, United States District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania
Hon. Karoline Mehalchick is a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. She was appointed to the bench on July 15, 2013. She is a graduate of the Schreyer Honors College of the Pennsylvania State University and Tulane University School of Law. Prior to joining the court, Judge Mehalchick clerked for the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania and was a partner with a small law firm in Northeast Pennsylvania, where she represented a broad range of clients in both state and federal trial and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Mehalchick has been active in the FBA for over 10 years, and is a past president of the Middle District of Pennsylvania Chapter, previously serving as its secretary, vice president, and president-elect, and a former Third Circuit Vice President. She currently serves as a Director on the Board of the FBA, is a judicial profiles editor for The Federal Lawyer, and serves as Secretary to the Judiciary Division. She also serves as her local chapter’s ECF coordinator and civics liaison, and works closely with the chapter’s community outreach chair to implement programs with local schools and the court.
SPEAKERS
Hon. Bernadette D’Souza
Orleans Parish Civil District Court
Participation Capacity – International Association of Women Judges, North America Regional Directors
Bernadette D’Souza is a judge on the Orleans Parish Civil District Court in Louisana. She took office in 2012, with her current term expiring in 2026. After graduation, she pursued a legal career dedicated to public interest law, taking on cases regarding family law, housing and domestic violence. D’Souza has served over 18 years as a practicing attorney, many of which were spent as managing attorney for the family law unit at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Tulane Law School, teaching courses on domestic violence laws. D’Souza received her J.D. from Tulane University School of Law in 1992.

Camille Vinet
Secretary General, Association of European Administrative Judges
Participation Capacity – Association of European Administrative Judges
Camille Vinet is a French administrative judge who graduated from the universities Paris Nanterre (2000) and Sciences Po Paris (2002). After working as a judicial assistant at the Administrative Court of Appeal of Paris, she became an administrative judge in 2004. She seconded three years as a judge at the Regional Audit Court of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in 2014. She currently works at the Administrative Court of Appeals of Lyon, where she started her career. She became presiding judge in 2022.
Camille Vinet was appointed AEAJ representative for equity, diversity and inclusion in 2021, and is AEAJ secretary general since 2023. She is also a member of the board of directors of the “Justice Administrative Alter Egale” (JAAE) association, which promotes gender equality within French administrative jurisdictions.

Hon. Beth Bloom
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
Participation Capacity – Immediate Past Chair, Federal Bar Association, Judiciary Division
Judge Beth Bloom has served as a United States District Judge in the Southern District of Florida since 2014. She was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate (95-0) on June 24, 2014 (her birthday). Before her appointment to the federal bench, she served on the Florida state court bench in Miami-Dade County for nearly 20 years. She was appointed by former Governor Charlie Crist to the Circuit Court in 2010 after serving 15 years as a County Court Judge. She has served in the Circuit Court’s criminal and civil divisions and all divisions of the County Court, serving as the Associate Administrative Judge.
Judge Bloom received her Bachelor of Science degree in public relations from the University of Florida in 1984 and her Juris Doctor degree (cum laude) from the University of Miami School of Law. She practiced commercial litigation with the law firm of Floyd Pearson Richman Greer Weil Zack & Brumbaugh from 1988-1994 and served as a Traffic Court Magistrate from 1993-1994 before her election to the state court bench.
Judge Bloom currently serves as a member of the Judiciary Division Board of the Federal Bar Association and is a Board Member of the South Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. In 2015, she established and coordinates the Southern District of Florida’s annual Summer Intern Ethics and Orientation Program and oversees its annual Law Day and Constitution Day Programs. She is the co-creator of the Civil Discourse & Difficult Decisions Program, now a national initiative, presented to high school students in the federal court.
Judge Bloom is a frequent lecturer for the Florida Bar, other bar associations and FBA chapters. She has presented at the 2018 New Judges College and the 2017 District Judges Conference. She served on the faculty of the Florida Judicial College for 19 years, teaching newly elected and appointed judges. She has served on the faculty of the National Judicial College, the College of Advanced Judicial Studies, the Florida Conference of County Court Judges and an adjunct faculty member of the Litigation Skills Program at the University of Miami School of Law. She is a frequent lecturer with the Florida Bar and several local bar associations.
While serving as a state court judge, Judge Bloom was elected as the first woman president of the Florida Conference of County Court Judges, a member of the Executive Committee of the Florida Conference of Circuit Court Judges and was a founding member of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Historical Society. She coordinated the University of Miami School of Law’s Judicial Internship Program for 17 years. In Miami- Dade County, she created the “Lawyers Join Hands for Students” Program, the DUI In-Jail Treatment Program, the Smoking Tobacco Offender Program (S.T.O.P.), the “It’s Your Life” Skills Program for foster youth aging out of the foster care system, and the “I’m Ready” Program for youthful offenders sentenced in adult criminal court. She coordinated the Artist in Residence Program with artist Romero Britto and students from Miami-Dade’s Visual and Performing Arts Academies and implemented the Eleventh Circuit’s Centennial Celebration’s county-wide poster, essay and speech contests with the Miami-Dade County schools. She led the effort to establish “Friends of Caleb,” and spearheaded the creation and construction of a now-permanent mural commemorating Joseph Caleb. She is the co-founder of the Children’s Craniofacial Association at Miami Children’s Hospital and Oliver’s Fund at the University of Miami’s Debbie School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Judge Bloom has received numerous honors and awards that include the ABA Presidential Recognition Award, the Florida Bar President’s Award of Merit, the Florida Conference of County Court Judges’ Trailblazer Award and Harvey Ford Leadership Award, the Fraternal Order of Police Citizen of the Year Award, the Dade County Bar Association’s Johnnie M. Ridgely President’s Award, the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Historical Society’s “Silverman Award”, the University of Miami School of Law Alumni Association’s Thomas Davison III Service Award, the Miami-Dade Justice Association’s “Judge Steve Levine Award”, MADD’s Judicial Distinction Award, the Legal Services of Greater Miami’s 2015 Equal Justice Judicial Leadership Award, the Juvenile Judges’ Child’s Heart Award, the Miami Bridge Youth & Family Service’s Champion for Children Award, Our Kids’ Leadership Award, Mellon Bank’s Community Service Award, the Jewish Legal Society’s Rodef Shalom Pursuer of Peace Award, Judge of the Year from the Minority Chamber of Commerce, Miami Todays’ 2019 Stars in Government Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Miami Women Who Rock.

Hon. Florence Hermite-Fageur
Paris Court of Appeal
Former Justice Liaison for the French Embassy in Washington, DC
Participation Capacity – Femmes de Justice (France) & International Association of Women Judges
Florence Hermite, 45, was appointed as a member of the French Judiciary in 2003. She is currently a Judge at the Court of Appeal in Paris. Between 2020 and 2024, she served as Justice Attaché for North American (USA and Canada) at the French Embassy in the United States. Between 2014 and 2019, she held different positions at the Ministry of Justice and Office of the Prime Minister. Before that, she had practiced during 10 years as a civil and criminal judge in first instance courts located in the Paris area and in in the West of France (Nantes).
Since 2020, Florence Hermite has been a member of Femmes de Justice, the French association of women working in the justice system. She joined the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ) in 2024.

Hon. Michelle Rick
Michigan Court of Appeals
Participation Capacity – President, National Association of Women Judges
The Honorable Michelle Rick was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals in November 2020 and began her term of service representing the 4th Judicial District in January 2021. Judge Rick served as a trial judge on the 29th Circuit Court from 2007–2020. Before that, Judge Rick worked primarily in public service as a prosecutor, a senior assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan, and as deputy legal counsel to Michigan’s Governor Jennifer M. Granholm.
Judge Rick is a graduate of Michigan State University and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. She is currently serving as President of the National Association of Women Judges. She is a former president of the Michigan Judges Association. Judge Rick serves as an advisor to the Rural Justice Collaborative Advisory Council. She has served as a member of numerous state committees, including the State Bar of Michigan Judicial Council, the Human Trafficking Commission, the Limited-Scope Representation Workgroup, the State Planning Commission, the Limited English Proficiency Steering Committee, the Affordable Legal Services Committee, and the State Bar of Michigan Corrections and Prisons Section.
In 2015, the Women Lawyers Association of Mid-Michigan awarded Judge Rick the Carolyn A. Stell Award. In January 2019, the Michigan Supreme Court recognized Judge Rick as a judge who gives back and makes a difference. In 2020, the State Bar of Michigan awarded Judge Rick and select University of Detroit Mercy School of Law faculty and students the Kimberly M. Cahill Bar Leadership Award. The award was given for creating and executing “Project Access,” a traveling expungement clinic that brought expungement relief to six rural communities in Michigan’s northern Lower Peninsula. In 2022, the National Association of Women Judges awarded Judge Rick the Vaino Spencer Award for outstanding leadership in promoting the vision, core values and mission of NAWJ.
Judge Rick teaches Access to Justice at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, and she is a Michigan State Bar Foundation Fellow and an American Bar Foundation Fellow. Judge Rick is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer at various statewide and local law-related events.

Hon. Delissa Ridgway
U.S. Court of International Trade
The Hon. Delissa A. Ridgway was sworn in as a Judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade in May 1998. The Court of International Trade – based in New York – is a nine-member Article III federal trial court with exclusive nationwide jurisdiction over disputes involving the interpretation and application of U.S. customs and international trade laws.
Prior to her appointment to the Court, Judge Ridgway served as Chair of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the U.S., a three-member international tribunal charged with adjudicating claims by U.S. nationals against foreign sovereigns, including, e.g., claims against Germany brought by U.S. survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Before her 1994 appointment to the FCSC by President Clinton, Judge Ridgway was a member of the International Practice Group at Shaw Pittman (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) in Washington, D.C., where she specialized in international arbitration. She has been an Adjunct Professor of Law on the international law faculty of Cornell Law School and has served as a rule of law/“capacity-building” consultant to numerous U.S. government agencies, foreign governments, international organizations, and NGOs, advising/teaching judges and lawyers around the world on the rule of law and legal/judicial reform, as well as a wide range of topics in international law.
A longtime member of the American Law Institute, Judge Ridgway is a past Chair (2009-2010) of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges (representing the interests of all federal trial judges in the U.S.) and has a long history of leadership in the U.S. judiciary and in bar and community activities. She is a Charter Fellow of the Federal Bar Foundation and served for two decades on the National Council of the Federal Bar Association (“FBA”), in addition to service as Chair of the FBA’s Government Relations Committee and service on the Editorial Board of The Federal Lawyer and in the leadership of several FBA Sections. The Judge also served several terms on the Board of the Federal Bar Building Corporation (“FBBC”).
Judge Ridgway is also very active in the American Bar Association, where she is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has served on, inter alia, the Council of the ABA’s Judicial Division, the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements, the ABA Commission on Women, and the Asia/Pacific Council and the Middle East/North Africa Council of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative (“ROLI”). In addition, she has served for nearly a decade on the Council of the ABA International Law Section and previously served as a member of the ABA’s delegation to the United Nations. She also serves on the New York City Bar Association’s Council on International Affairs and is a founding member of the City Bar’s Task Force on the Independence of Lawyers and Judges. Earlier in her career, Judge Ridgway served for seven years on the Board of Governors of the 100,000-member D.C. Bar and as President (1992-1993) of the Women’s Bar Association of D.C.
Judge Ridgway was the 2000 recipient of the Earl W. Kintner Award, the national FBA’s highest honor; and, in 1997, the FBA recognized her as one of four “Distinguished Women in International Law” (an honor that she shared with, inter alia, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright). She was also recognized as Washington, D.C.’s “Woman Lawyer of the Year” (2001) and as the University of Missouri’s “Distinguished Scholar in Residence” (2003). The Judge’s many other honors include the ABA International Law Section’s World Order Under Law Award (2019) and its Mayre Rasmussen Award for the Advancement of Women in International Law (2020), as well as the D.C. Bar’s Frederick B. Abramson Award (1996). She received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New York City Bar’s Third Annual International Law Conference on the Status of Women in 2022.
Judge Ridgway is a 1975 honors graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she completed coursework for an M.S. in Community/International Development. She received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 1979 and was a member of the inaugural (2014) class of the LL.M. in Judicial Studies program at Duke University School of Law.

Hon. Col. Linda Strite Murnane
Associate Justice on the High Court, Republic of the Marshall Islands
Participation Capacity – Officer for the FBA International Law Section
Linda Strite Murnane served as an Associate Justice on the High Court for the Republic of the Marshall Islands from November 2022 to November 2024. She remains available to assist the court as a pro tem resource as the Republic of the Marshall Islands completes the process of identifying a replacement for her on the High Court.
Linda holds a B.A. from the Christopher Newport College of the College of William and Mary (Dean’s Honors) and a J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. She currently serves on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association. She is a past chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) National Conference of Specialized Court Judges and the ABA Judicial Division. She previously served as co-chair of the ABA International Law Section’s International Human Rights Committee and Lawyers Abroad Committees, as well as in a variety of vice chair roles with other International Law Section Committees and Interest Networks. She served six years on the ABA ILS Executive Council.
Colonel Murnane served 29.5 years on active duty with the United States Air Force. She enlisted in 1974 as an airman basic, the lowest enlisted grade. She earned her B.A. and J.D. degrees both while serving on active duty. She served as a public affairs specialist (journalist/photo journalist) while enlisted. After earning her commission as a second lieutenant, she served as a supply officer at Nellis AFB, NV, and Keesler AFB, MS, then as a public affairs officer (community relations specialist) and protocol officer before being selected to complete her law degree under the Air Force’s Funded Legal Education Program. She transferred to the Judge Advocate General Corps in 1981 in the grade of captain upon completion of her J.D. and passage of the Ohio Bar. She served as a prosecutor, defense counsel, claims officer, legal assistance officer, chief military justice, deputy staff judge advocate and staff judge advocate before her appointment as a military trial judge and chief circuit military judge for the United States Air Force. She served 10 consecutive years as a military judge including chief circuit military judge (CCMJ) for Europe and for the Eastern Circuit, Bolling Air Force Base, Washington, D.C. While in the position of CCMJ for Europe, she presided at the first trials for U.S. airmen in both Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom while serving on active duty, trying cases in Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. She also served on the first military assistance team sent to Rwanda following the genocide.
Following her retirement from active duty in 2004, she served two years as Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, five years as the senior legal officer, chief court management services, acting head of chambers and acting deputy registrar at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and three years as the chief court management services at the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. She was the Senior International Attorney for the U.S. Defense Institute for International Legal Studies (DIILS) from 2008-2009, and participated in global human rights and rule of law training with DIILS in Argentina, Latvia, Liberia, Zambia, Rwanda, and Papua New Guinea, and oversaw training programs by other faculty members globally in her role at DIILS.
Colonel Murnane serves as Chair of the U.S. Chapter of the Pan American Commission of Judges on Social Justice. In that role, she was invited to speak at the Vatican in 2019 and again in 2023.
During her military career she earned the Legion of Merit among her other military decorations. She received the Ohio State Bar Association’s Nettie Cronise Lutes Award in 2003 for opening doors to women and girls in the field of law, the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement in 2008 and ABA International Law Section’s Mayre Rasmussen Award for opening opportunities in international law for women in 2016. She was inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in November 2021 and the Greene County, Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame in 2022. She received the Mattie Belle Davis and Justice Vaino Spencer Awards from the National Association of Women Judges.
She is married to Kevin Murnane, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, and mother of two daughters, Christina Veillon and Rachel Manuel. She has three grandchildren, Cody and Abrial Leger and Aidan Ray Manuel.

Registration
Virtual registration is closed.
Attendance is free for anyone interested, and we encourage you to invite your networks to participate. The program is in-person for those local to New York City, and virtual for those unable to join in-person on March 14, 2025, from 10:30 – 12:00 ET.
To participate in-person: This event is an official Parallel Event being held at the NGO CSW Site across the street from the United Nations. In-person attendees must register directly with the NGO CSW Forum here on their website. Note: Participation in this event will not enable you to attend events within the United Nations Building itself. Here is the address for this event:
Church Center for the United Nations (CCUN)
777 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
11th Floor – Assigned room is TBD

CLE

Please note CLE will not be offered for this event.
