The following excerpt is from the remarks made by Immediate Past Section Chair Sheryl B. Galler at the June 2023 meeting of the Executive Committee of the Women in Law Section held in New York City at the offices of Katten Muchin Rosenman. These remarks are reprinted here to acknowledge and celebrate her term as … Continued

The WILS Partner’s Committee held its inaugural quarterly meeting at Lowenstein Sandler’s offices in midtown Manhattan on May 2, 2023. Shelia Plaisance of Templar Advisors facilitated a discussion about executive presence, and participants got to know one another. After about an hour and a half together, it was clear that this group has chemistry! The … Continued

Justice Tanya R. Kennedy Awarded Jurist of the Year and Alphonso B. Deal Award The Honorable Tanya R. Kennedy, Associate Justice, Appellate Division, First Department, received the Metropolitan Black Bar Association (MBBA) Jurist of the Year Award at the May 19, 2023 MBBA Annual Gala in recognition of her significant and ongoing contributions to the … Continued

The June 2022 Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade, proved to be a watershed moment, propelling women’s rights activists to action and prompting both reactive and forward-looking legislation across the country. The New York Legislature proved no different. What follows is a brief accounting of the legislation passed in New York’s 2023-2024 legislative session that directly, or disparately, … Continued

On March 22, 2023, Susan Harper, founder and past chair of WILS, and Sheryl Galler, (then)chair of WILS, participated in a webinar presented by the Women Judges Committee of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York (WBASNY) entitled “From Roe to Dobbs: Where Do We Go From Here?” This program focused on women’s rights and the … Continued

The 4th Annual International Law Conference on the Status of Women, which was held on March 8, 2023 in conjunction with the United Nations’ 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, commemorates International Women’s Day and the International Day of Women Judges. The conference was sponsored by the New York City Bar … Continued

WILS then-Chair Sheryl Galler was honored to attend the Platinum Gala of the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association’s Women’s Initiative and Leaders in the Law. The gala, held on March 28, 2023, honored leaders from the judicial, public, corporate, and private law firm sectors. We thank Linda Harvey, past president of the NJWLA and partner … Continued

The Chief United States District Judge of the Western District of New York Elizabeth A. Wolford and Jamie Levitt, New York managing partner at Morrison & Foerster, were honored by the Women in Law Section of the New York State Bar Association during its Annual Meeting Jan. 18-24, 2023 in New York City. Judge Wolford … Continued

The Women in Law Section of the New York State Bar Association is deeply disappointed that the U.S. Senate has failed, once again, to recognize women as equal under the supreme law of our land. On Thursday, April 27, 2023, 47 senators voted against a measure that could have guaranteed equality for women under the … Continued

Staying focused is difficult these days. There are too many distractions pulling me away from the work at hand, fragmenting my attention, and rewarding me with quick dopamine hits. A distracted 10 minutes of my morning might, hypothetically, unravel like this: I open my email and begin to respond to a colleague’s question that requires … Continued