Fordham Law School will begin its second annual Academy for the Advancement of Women in Law: RISE—Resilient, Inspired, Strategic, Empowered on Friday, October 7. This online executive education program will meet Friday mornings via Zoom, 9:00 – 10:15 am (New York time), through November 11. Continuing Legal Education Credits for New York and New Jersey will be available. Bringing together female and male attorneys and other thought leaders in the area of women’s empowerment, participants and speakers will share ideas and best practices for creating more inclusive environments that enable the advancement of women lawyers globally.
The Academy for the Advancement of Women in Law is presented in collaboration with Pérez-Llorca. Co-sponsors include Creel, Debevoise & Plimpton, Dentons, Fragomen, Freshfields, Mattos Filho, Mayer Brown, McDermott Will & Emery, Paul, Weiss, Vinson & Elkins, and Weil. Additional sponsors will be announced.
The program will touch on the most critical issues affecting the legal profession and women in law, including advancement for women in the profession, wellbeing and sustainability, and changing the law firm paradigm for women in the law. The program also features a dialogue between a female and male leader of large global law firms.
The Academy will open with a panel that will discuss the current state of affairs of women in the legal profession, consider the particular ways in which women of color are further marginalized, and offer tips for how white women can better support their colleagues of color. It will conclude with a keynote address by Barbara Levi, Group General Counsel for UBS, one of the top female corporate legal officers in the world and an ardent promoter of women in the legal profession. Her talk will explore ways in which each of us can better position ourselves and our female colleagues for leadership roles, while balancing family obligations and our wellbeing.
“Last year’s program resonated with so many women from across the U.S. and around the world who are dealing with many of the same issues and facing the same leadership gap,” said Bernard Daraz, a director of the program. “We are delighted to again offer the opportunity to discuss concrete, actionable steps that women and men can take to ensure a more equitable and inclusive profession.”
This program is a natural extension of Fordham Law School’s leading role in ensuring access for immigrants, women, minorities, and others underrepresented in the field of law. “Ours is a profession severely lacking in diversity, and this program is one step toward correcting ongoing injustices with respect to women in law,” said Fordham Law School Dean Matthew Diller.
Additional speakers include:
- Heidi S. Alexander (Massachusetts SJC Standing Committee on Lawyer Well-Being)
- Rafique Bachour (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer)
- Paulette Brown (Former President, American Bar Association)
- Ira J. Coleman (McDermott Will & Emery)
- Jordana Alter Confino (Fordham Law School)
- Matthew Diller (Fordham Law School)
- Deborah B. Farone (Farone Advisors)
- Palmina M. Fava (Vinson & Elkins)
- Peter Furci (Debevoise & Plimpton)
- Toni Jaeger-Fine (Fordham Law School)
- W. Brad Johnson (United States Naval Academy/Johns Hopkins University)
- Lisa Kaplowitz (Rutgers Center for Women in Business)
- Tanya R. Kennedy (Appellate Division, Supreme Court of the State of New York)
- Lisa Koenig (Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy)
- Roberta D. Liebenberg (Fine, Kaplan & Black)
- Lori L. Pines (Weil, Gotshal & Manges)
- Jennifer M. Rosa (Mayer Brown)
- Stephanie A. Scharf (Scharf Banks Marmor)
- David G. Smith (Johns Hopkins University)
- Costanza Vergara (Perez-Llorca)
- Mary G. Wilson (Dentons)
- Jennifer H. Wu (Paul Weiss)
For additional information about the program or to register, please visit the webpage, or contact program administration at [email protected].
About Fordham Law School
Situated in New York City, the global epicenter of business and culture, Fordham Law School cultivates the collaborative community, intellectual curiosity, professional craft, and commitment to service vital to creating lawyers and legal scholars who can move our profession, society and world forward. Follow Fordham Law School on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
