Standing Committee on Women and the Law: Our mission

The Standing Committee on Women and the Law’s mission statement embodies our core purpose and focus. This year, we continued to “study and to focus on areas of law uniquely affecting women” and launched a spirited campaign to have the ISBA support the Equal Rights Amendment (“ERA”) to the United States Constitution. In December 2015, the ISBA’s Assembly overwhelmingly supported our proposed resolution on the ERA.

Our November 2015 Symposium on College Sexual Assaults enabled our committee to work jointly with numerous bar associations and supporting organizations to “assess, design, and implement programs designed to satisfy women’s unmet legal needs” as well as “provide a forum for action relating to women’s issues.” A detailed synopsis of the Symposium will be featured in the ISBA’s Racial and Ethnic Minorities and the Law newsletter.

Through the Symposium, we met Dr. Gail Stern of Catharsis Productions. She was only allotted 10 minutes of time to speak at the Symposium and we knew we needed to hear more. Dr. Stern graciously agreed to serve as our featured speaker at our March 2016 Celebrating Laughter in the Law luncheon and she definitely had us laughing about unexpected topics. Her determination to advocate for women and comedic spirit is inspiring. As part of our membership outreach, committee members invited several law students to attend the luncheon and share our camaraderie.

Our committee’s ongoing efforts to “study and recommend legislation uniquely affecting women” resulted in the passage of the Lactation Accommodation in Airports Act (410 ILCS 140/) in August 2015. We worked with ISBA staff to provide lactation accommodation at the Annual Meeting and at the ISBA Chicago Regional Office. Attendees who are in need of a clean private place to pump breast milk while attending the conference may utilize a private lactation room. A key for the room will be available at the ISBA Registration room at the Annual Meeting. Private lactation space is also available at the ISBA Chicago Regional Office for nursing mothers. A huge thank you to Kim Weaver, Jeanne Heaton, and Melissa Burkholder!

Our committee had great success in our efforts to “explore ways to encourage women in their involvement in the legal community at all levels.” I am so proud to be surrounded by such accomplished, hardworking, and inspiring award recipients. At the time of press, we congratulate several award recipients (who were nominated by our Standing Committee) for the following ISBA awards:

• Cindy Galway Buys selected as the 2016 recipient of the ISBA Human Rights Section Council’s Gertz Award (nomination prepared by Kelly Parfitt)

• Annemarie E. Kill selected as the 2016 recipient of the ISBA Matthew Maloney Tradition of Excellence Award (nomination prepared by Lori Levin)

• Debra Stark and the John Marshall Domestic Violence Clinical Advocacy Program, selected as the 2016 recipient of the Legal Education award (nomination prepared by Sherry Mundorff)

• Shira Truitt, selected as the 2016 recipient of the ISBA Diversity Leadership Award (nomination prepared by Mary Petruchius)

• Erin Wilson, selected as the 2016 recipient of the ISBA Young Lawyer of the Year Award (Cook County) (nomination prepared by Kristen Prinz)

Congratulations to all of the award winners who will be recognized at the ISBA Assembly Meeting on Saturday, June 18, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. 

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Emily N. Masalski is Counsel at Rooney Rippie & Ratnaswamy LLP (R3) and a member of the firm’s environmental and natural resources, health and safety, and litigation practice groups. She can be reached at emily.masalski@r3law.com.