Upcoming Events:

August 8, 2010
WLD Retreat, Marriott Hotel, Canal Street, 3-7 pm
I’m Every Woman: Come be refreshed, renewed, and empowered

as you relax your mind, move your body, and energize your spirit.

$50.00

New Orleans, Louisiana

August 10, 2010,
WLD Breakfast, “Celebrating the Past, Embracing the Present, and Capturing the Future” Keynote Speaker, Anita F. Hill, Professor of Social Policy, Law & Women’s Studies, Brandeis University Honoring Dr. Dorothy I. Height, “Hats for Height”
New Orleans, Louisiana

August 9-13, 2010
National Bar Association's 85th Annual Convention, Marriott Hotel, Canal Street
New Orleans, Louisiana

Recent Events:

Respect Yourself Program in St. Louis-Gertrude Rush

Respect Yourself – St Louis Dream Team

On Saturday, April 10, 2010, the NBA Women Lawyers Division (WLD) hosted the “Respect Yourself” Mentorship Program participants at the Law firm of Thompson Coburn LLP in St. Louis, Missouri. WLD First-Vice Chair, DeMonica D. Gladney, Esq. and WLD Board Member, Pamela Meanes, Esq., Co-Chaired the function. DeMonica and Pam are a terrific, productive team. The program included a “Sister to Sister” group discussion and luncheon with twenty-one (21) high school girls who had an opportunity to meet and talk one-on-one with their assigned mentors; i.e., women lawyers and judges, who shared their personal challenges and emphasized the importance of respecting yourself and others.‪

The program is intended to be a long term commitment. To locate the young participants, WLD partnered with Washington University Law Professor Kimberly Norwood's pipeline program for disadvantaged youth. This Washington University program began as a service component of Professor Norwood's Race, Education and the Law course. The law students and local lawyers teach and mentor students at Soldan International High School. While most of the mentoring has occurred at Soldan, a part of Professor Norwood's program and concept was introduced and expanded to Northwest Law Academy by her colleague Professor Katherine Goldwasser. Both Soldan and Northwest High Schools are in socioeconomically depressed communities. Twenty-one girls from these two schools were invited to meet their NBA WLD Mentors during the Gertrude Rush meeting in St Louis. The group of 21 girls participating in the NBA WLD’s mentorship program have been named the “St. Louis Dream Team” in honor of the first group of mentees who called themselves the “San Diego Dream Team.‪”

The NBA WLD initially launched its national “Respect Yourself” Mentor Program during the NBA 84th Annual Convention in San Diego, California, in August 2009. For the first program, the WLD partnered with the “Dream Team,” which is a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Spring Valley Middle School (SVMS) in Spring Valley, California. A former Dean of Students at SVMS, who was the only African American on the staff, formed the organization to address the special needs of “at risk” African American girls at the school.‪ ‪

The next Respect Yourself Program will be held during the annual convention in New Orleans, on August 10, 2010 with the assistance of three New Orleans organizations—an NCNW affiliate, Girls First, and the Louisiana Association of Black Women Attorneys.

Supreme Court Swearing-In Ceremony

WLD’s The WLD Annual U.S. Supreme Court Swearing-in Ceremony has been held on the first Tuesday after Memorial Day, for more than 27 years. This year it will be on June 2, 2010. Elaine Jones, former President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund will be our Movant. The event is open to all NBA members who have practiced 5 or more years. After the swearing in, some of the Supreme Court Justices generally stop by the area assigned to the NBA and take photos with our group. WLD also provides a luncheon and formal program for our inductees and their guests.

Many thanks to Iris McCollum Green and her committee members, Antoinette Barksdale and Shari Crittenden for their efforts putting together a first class event for our new inductees.

Remembering Dr. Dorothy Irene Height

As late afternoon sunlight streams through stained glass windows

WLD Chair Gloria Johnson at a Celebration of Life for Dr. Height,

on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, at Shiloh Baptist Church, Washington, DC

As an affiliate of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (NCNW), the National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division (WLD) was deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved leader, Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. She was a great champion of freedom and an extension of Mary McCloud Bethune whose legacy she carried. Silenced by the chilly fingers of death, is the melodious voice that made us sing stanza after stanza of “We are Climbing Jacobs Ladder” at every NCNW event. But her legacy will live on in the hearts of those touched by the warmth of her commitment and greatness. Dr. Height embodied everything that the late Mary McCloud Bethune (founder of NCNW) bequeathed in her Last Will and Testament, wherein she stated:

Faith, courage, brotherhood, dignity, ambition, responsibility -- these are needed today as never before. We must cultivate them and use them as tools for our task of completing the establishment of equality for the Negro. We must sharpen these tools in the struggle that faces us and find new ways of using them. The Freedom Gates are half-ajar. We must pry them fully open. If I have a legacy to leave my people, it is my philosophy of living and serving. As I face tomorrow, I am content, for I think I have spent my life well. I pray now that my philosophy may be helpful to those who share my vision of a world of Peace, Progress, Brotherhood, and Love.

Dr. Dorothy Height not only shared that vision, she lovingly imparted it to all of us in WLD who were blessed and honored to serve under her as NCNW Affiliates. Some of our most exciting WLD moments and memories in the past few years were spent under her cultivation, absorbing her philosophy and preparing to carry out her vision; as she personally called and invited us to participate in projects and tasks that she assigned to WLD.

Who among us can forget how we (the WLD Board) huddled around the phone like kids around the Christmas tree when Dr. Height called to ask if the NBA WLD would chair the Affiliates Luncheon during the National Council of Negro Women Convention at Gaylord’s Fort Washington Harbor? Little did we know, at the time, that would be her LAST Annual NCNW Affiliates’ Luncheon. Thank you WLD. You supported the event with record attendance. As WLD Chair, I (Gloria Johnson) presided over the event as MC, former WLD Chair Brenda Girton Mitchell gave the opening prayer, former WLD Chair Iris McCollum Green presented the “Occasion,” WLD Board member Antoinette Barksdale made a presentation regarding our WLD projects (Respect Yourself and Lawsuits). WLD member Beverly Druitt provided a flavor of well-received levity as timekeeper; raising a glowing electrical red light when Affiliate Heads from all over the country mounted the stage and tried to expand their two-minute time allotted to present highlights of their various local programs. Dr. Height found it effective and amusing. Members of WLD helped to organize the NCNW Affiliates luncheon program, locate musicians, select participants, layout and draft the printed program and make the changes that Dr. Height suggested. Working with her was a pleasure. Her memory was so sharp and the stories she shared were invaluable lessons in history.

Dr. Height was an inspirational, but fun loving leader. I will never forget her infectious laughter when she saw our “red-light” - the mechanism the WLD instituted to notify the historically long-winded Affiliate Heads of their waning time. I will always remember the appreciative comments and words of praise that both Dr. Barbara Shaw and Dr. Height showered upon the WLD for having skillfully coordinated that event – Dr. Height’s very last NCNW Affiliates Luncheon.

Health Care Law Summit

WLD Sponsored an HIV-AIDs Seminar during the NBA Healthcare Law Symposium. AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women ages 25-34. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, African American women are over 21 times as likely to die from HIV/AIDS as non-Hispanic, white women.

On May 7, 2010 the NBA-WLD sponsored a seminar entitled, “Intersecting Epidemics: HIV, Violence Against Women, and Human Trafficking” This seminar was held during the NBA Healthcare Law Summit in Washington, D.C.

The seminar was convened by WLD Chair Gloria Johnson, and moderated by Iris McCollum Green, ABA Special Counsel for Civil Rights HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee (Past Chair NBA WLD).

Intersecting Epidemics: HIV, Violence Against Women, and Human Trafficking”panelists were: Anna Martínez who currently serves as Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women; Kenneth D. Johnson, Section Chief in the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), who discussed preventing and addressing healthcare disparities; and protecting the civil rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and Samantha Vardaman, of Shared Hope International who issued copies of her research that was compiled into “The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children,” which was released in July at a Congressional briefing to highlight the issue of child sex trafficking in America and admitted into the Congressional Record.

WLD wishes to thank Denise Hanna and members of the NBA Health Law Section for allowing us to participate in the summit and discuss this critical subject.

Distinguished Scroll Award

The Women Lawyers Division (WLD) Distinguished Scroll Award is given to women who have provided exemplary service to the National Bar Association. During our WLD Annual Breakfast in New Orleans, on Tuesday August 10, 2010, we will honor several women who have worked to support and implement WLD programs throughout the years. It is a time set aside to honor and celebrate our own. Some of the former honorees have been Gertrude Rush, Charlotte Ray, Ollie Mae Cooper, Honorable Constance Baker Motley, Hon. Joyce London Alexander, Honorable Alice Bonner, Honorable Golden Johnson, Arthenia Joyner, Allie B. Latimer, Wilhelmina Jackson Rolark, Mabel D. Haden, Honorable Arnette Hubbard and Jewel S. Lafontant

During our Annual Breakfast, in August 2009, we honored Attorney Iris McCollum Green, the former WLD Chair who created the Distinguished Scroll Award. A graduate of the George Washington University National Law Center, Attorney Green is a private practitioner in Washington, D.C . As a senior trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, Attorney Green engaged in complex litigation of civil rights issues including discrimination in housing, education, credit and on the basis of sex.

Iris has chaired our WLD Supreme Court Swearing-in Ceremony for more than twenty (20) years. She has been instrumental in creating and moderating a number of WLD seminars and symposiums including the Decriminalization of Female Juveniles a joint project with the American Bar Association which resulted in a comprehensive collaborative written report. For the 50^th anniversary of Brown v Board of Education, she organized a celebration at the Supreme Court with speakers and honorees such as Congressman John Lewis, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and NCNW Chair Dr. Dorothy Height. Iris also brought to the celebration and honored civil rights icon, Attorney Oliver Hill who litigated the segregated Farmville Virginia school matter in Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County which later became one of the five cases decided by the Supreme Court under Brown v. Board of Education in 1954.

The 2009 Distinguished Scroll Award was also given to Honorable Loretta King, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice. Loretta King has supported the programs and projects of the Women Lawyers Division for a number of years. A graduate of Duke University and the American University Washington College of Law, Ms. King from January 20, 2009 through October 7, 2009, was the Acting Assistant Attorney General. She supervised and reviewed the work of Division attorneys and staff in almost every subject matter under the Division's jurisdiction, including: disability rights, voting rights, police misconduct, protection of the constitutional rights of persons in public institutions, and protection against discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, lending, education, and public accommodations. Deputy Assistant Attorney General King has always served as a ready resource to the WLD in our substantive seminars.

WLD presented the 2009 Distinguished Scroll Award posthumously to U.S. Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones. A former Judge, County Prosecutor, member of Congress and regular participant in NBA Women Lawyers Division activities. WLD will never forget her outstanding service, her substantive contributions to our many CLEs and seminars and her willingness to assist the WLD whether as a breakfast speaker, supporter of our causes. Former NBA Vice President Marlon Primes shared that Stephanie as she was affectionately called “…changed the legal landscape of Cleveland by hiring 40 African-Americans to serve as Assistant County Prosecutors. Prior to her arrival, the Cuyahoga County Prosecutors’ Office rarely employed more than a handful of African-American attorneys.” She was a trailblazer in many areas of the law. Congresswoman Tubbs-Jones was a great role model and tireless advocate whose presence will be sorely missed in our legal community. Her legacy will live on in the WLD. We love you Stephanie.

As the Women Lawyers Division ventures to New Orleans for our 2010 convention, we will remember that Stephanie Tubbs Jones ventured down to Louisiana and boldly marched with protestors who attempted to cross the bridge after Hurricane Katrina, to reach dry ground. They were met with guns and resistance.