Please join the NCWBA for its 2021 Annual Women's Bar Leadership Summit: What's Your Why?, which will be held virtually August 5-12, 2021. This year's programming, which will be hosted over the course of several days, is designed to challenge women in leadership positions within their bar organizations to identify the motivators for the work they do and to develop strategies for harnessing the energy from those motivators to grow and lead their organizations.  It will feature programming on practical skills, networking opportunities, and ways for member organizations to learn to best use the community of support that the NCWBA provides.  

 

If you would like more information on this year's Summit, please email our Executive Director, Christina Simpson (info@ncwba.org). To register, please click here.

 

Please see below for a summary of the Summit events:

 

• Kick off and Keynote Speaker on August 5, 2021 @ 1:00pm ET. Keynoting the event is Michelle Silverthorn, Diversity Speaker, Culture Change Expert, Founder of Inclusion Nation, and Author. Ms. Silverthorn “encourage[s] people to live authentically in diverse communities grounded in honesty, courage and leadership.” Her TedX talk can be viewed at michellesilverthorn.com/tedx-talk.  Followed by guided discussion.

 

• Swearing In Ceremony and Opening Remarks on August 6, 2021 @ 1:00pm ET. Please join us for an introduction from our outgoing president, Nicolette S. Zachary, the swearing in of our new board year by Judge Hilda Tagle, Senior United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Closing out this portion of programming will be remarks by our incoming president, Shiloh Theberge. Followed by Awards Ceremony, Trivia, and Networking.  

 

• What’s Your Why: Why Representation Matters on August 9, 2021 @ 3:00pm ET. This program will feature a panel representing diverse career paths within the legal field, who are also women of color with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. The discussion will focus on the hurdles the panelists have faced in their careers, how they have overcome those hurdles and why having women, in particular BIPOC women, represented across our profession matters.

 

• What’s Your Why: Mindfulness for the Legal Mind on August 10, 2021 @ 1pm ET. Join us for an interactive workshop on strategies for leveraging mindfulness to help you thrive. Mindfulness for the Legal Mind is a blend of classical mindfulness, contemplative neuroscience, and practical tools designed specifically for legal professionals who want to better understand the (legal) mind and learn ways to cultivate states of mind that support greater effectiveness and wellbeing. In this program, Judi Cohen, Founder of Warrior One and Lecturer at Berkeley Law, will provide an overview of mindfulness, share tips for using mindfulness to reduce stress and improve your overall performance, and lead you through guided mindfulness exercises.

 

• Overcoming Leadership Obstacles: Panel Discussion and Workshop on August 10, 2021 @ 3pm ET: This session begins with a brief panel discussion by women lawyers with extensive backgrounds in in the worlds of public diplomacy, the military, corporations, and academia. They’ll talk about leadership challenges they’ve faced and the advice they wish they’d had earlier in their career. Then you’ll team up with them in small groups to problem solve real-life leadership challenges facing lawyers in their office or their bar association, in the areas of board governance, social media, and staff interactions. office challenges. This is a session for any leader who has ever asked “Why did this have to happen on my watch?”

 

• What’s Your Why: Leveraging Energy into Action on August 11 @ 1pm ET. An inspirational conversation with women lawyers who have leveraged the energy behind their "why" into tangible action to make waves in their community.

 

• What’s Your Why: Member Best Practices on August 11 @ 3pm ET. Interactive session for Summit participants to present and share their organizations’ innovative programs, initiatives, services, and solutions for issues facing their bar associations and women in the profession.

 

• GOOD Guys: Young Lawyers Edition on August 12, 2021 @2 - 4pm ET.  This GOOD Guys program is the third of four planned joint programs with the Commission on Women in the Profession. This program is a brief presentation about the GOOD Guys program and includes a panel of young lawyers who are successful in their fields to discuss why they are GOOD Guys, why other male leaders should be GOOD Guys, and how male leaders can lead change for the benefit of all.