September/October Best Friends at the Bar Newsletter

There is a lot going on at BFAB, and here is the most recent newsletter to keep you posted. Hope you enjoy it!

BEST FRIENDS AT THE BAR SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 NEWSLETTER

What a busy Fall for Best Friends at the Bar! It has been non-stop activity since the July release of my new book, Best Friends at the Bar: Top-Down Leadership for Women Lawyers (Wolters Kluwer/Aspen Publishers), and requests for speaking engagements and articles are keeping pace with that activity. I am delighted with this response to a book on leadership, and I look forward to sharing the messages of the book and my program with you and your schools, firms and organizations.

BFAB LAUNCHES A NEW BOOK!

On October 26th, over 100 sponsors and guests gathered for the Book Launch at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. Thank you to my sponsors, including law firms Womble Carlyle (Premier Event Sponsor), DLA (Sustaining Project Sponsor), Kirkland & Ellis, Reed Smith, Polsinelli, Hogan Lovells, Faegre Baker Daniels, Potomac Law Group and NewLAWu.s. Here are some pics of speakers Cathy Hinger of Womble Carlyle and Libby Baney of Faegre Baker Daniels introducing me and speaking about the value of the Best Friends at the Bar program and me surrounded by colleagues, friends and my family of lawyers. It was an unbelievable night for Best Friends at the Bar!

Legal Bisnow agreed! For more information about the evening, here is a link to the Legal Bisnow article about the Book Launch:

https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/washington-dc-legal/book-launch-at-the-national-museum-of-women-in-the-arts-51806#.VjQVtljT_vw.email.

The event also included my interview with DC Spotlight newspaper just before the doors opened. Here is a photo of editor, Wendy Thompson, interviewing me in one of the beautiful salons in the museum. Wendy and her paper have been true to Best Friends at the Bar since publication of the first book, and I really appreciate the support they show for the project.

Here is a link to that interview: https://youtu.be/m3uxTEAbu5k. I hope you enjoy it and will share it with others.

AHEAD IN THIS ISSUE:

What’s Up at BFAB?

BFAB in the Media

Future Programs

WHAT’S UP AT BFAB?

Best Friends at the Bar in NYC

I enjoyed being a discussion leader at the Legal Market Roundtable sponsored by NewLAWu.s. at the end of September in NYC. NewLAWu.s. is a new concept virtual law firm with an impressive technology platform, and the conversation about the future of law practice was both interesting and thought-provoking. There is more than one successful model for law firm practice, and non-traditional firms like NewLAWu.s. present options to lawyers whose circumstances do not fit traditional firms as a result of work-life issues or other preferences. We will keep an eye on these new firms to see how they prosper and what their presence and new platforms of reduced overhead and reduced fees means to the rest of the practice field.

Getting to the dinner for the discussion was more challenging. The UN General Assembly was in session, and taxis were a rare commodity on the East Side. This called for invention. Here is a picture of me in my new mode of transportation. Fortunately my driver pedaled fast, and I arrived at the dinner on time, but windblown!

It was a truly unique Big Apple experience! And why I love NYC!

Women Influence and Power in Law (WIPL) Panel

I spoke at the Women Influence and Power in Law (WIPL) conference, sponsored by PWC, in Washington, DC last week. As a member of the panel addressing “Why Flexibility is Good for Law Employers,” I enjoyed a lively discussion with fellow panelists including an in-house counsel, a partner in a new concept virtual law firm, and the panel moderator, a senior manager at PWC.

The panelists agreed that:

Law firms need to address and increase flexibility to achieve retention of the talent women lawyers represent and secure succession plans and relationships with clients demanding diversity; and
Male lawyers must become part of those discussions in order to find effective and lasting solutions to the retention and advancement of women lawyers.

Bravo to PWC and the moderator of my panel, Laura Cox Kaplan, for putting on such a valuable and inspiring conference and program.

BFAB IN THE MEDIA

The Fall/Winter 2015 edition of Georgetown Law mentioned my new book in Alumni Authors (page 66), and information on the panel I moderated at the Georgetown Law Women’s Forum last Spring appeared in Alumni Events on page 78. The programs for women lawyers at Georgetown Law are excellent, and I am proud to be a Hoya Lawyer!

NALP, the association for legal career professionals, soon will release the first update of its handbook Perspectives on Career Services since 2004. I am pleased to be the author of the chapter on “Success for Women Lawyers.” Look for it, and I will keep you posted.

FUTURE PROGRAMS

Countdown for the Launch of the Global Webinar Series for Women Lawyers

Big news! My new global webinar series “Career Success for Women Lawyers” will launch soon. It is a collaboration between BFAB and its parent company, LegalPerspectives LLC, and The Female Capitalist, an established global webinar producer headquartered in the UK, and its principal, Christine Brown-Quinn. “Career Success for Women Lawyers” will bring the messages of Best Friends at the Bar to users in a digital format that will be easily accessible on iphones and tablets for busy law professionals. It is a very effective and efficient way for law firms, law schools and other organizations to provide important career advice to law students and lawyers. This exciting concept has potential to reach women lawyers throughout the world. Watch for more details of the program in the November/December newsletter.

Speaking Engagements/Programs

2016 is going to be a busy year for BFAB and will include the following speaking appearances and programs:

Launch of “Career Success for Women Lawyers'” a Global Webinar Series;
SpeakerUniversity of Maryland and Baltimore University Law Schools, Spring 2016;
Speaker, Womble Carlyle;
Speaker, DLA in Spring 2016;
Speaker, Colorado University Law in Spring 2016;
Book Talk, DC Women’s Bar Association;
Speaker, Polsinelli in Spring 2016; and
Book Talk at Georgetown University.

That’s a Wrap!

Look at the schedule for your law firm, law school or law organization and get ahead of the crowd in making a date with Best Friends at the Bar. The new book is generating interest from even wider audiences, and the speaking and events calendar is filling up fast.

Please contact me if you would like to Be My Guest! by contributing a guest column for a future newsletter. This is a good way to get your name and information about your services out to my readers.

Buy My Books from Amazon and Wolters Kluwer/Aspen Publishers direct from my website. All of my blogs are reprinted on my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages, and most of them also are reprinted on the Ms JD website. Click “share” and re-tweet to move them on to others and show your support for BFAB.

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