Women in the Profession
SECTION UPDATE
Women in the Profession
By Sarah Cipperly & Megan Hodgkiss Sarah @ cipperlylawgroup. com, mthodgkiss @ gmail. com
Ten Years of WIP
Thank you to everyone who has helped WIP celebrate our big 10th birthday this year! From socials to CLEs to breakfasts to panels, we have had a great year. And it is not over yet! More is yet to come. Did you miss out on any of the great events WIP put on this year? Come join us next year! We host an event monthly: an educational event, networking social, or both. We are active in pro bono legal services and community service, and there is always someone for everyone. Come be part of WIP in the next bar year!
What is the Women in the Profession all about?
We are a section dedicated to furthering the practice and perception of law with a focus on issues unique to women in the practice. We offer CLEs and programs on issues relevant to women and law, as well as networking events allowing lawyers to meet each other and develop support systems and mentors. We organize and encourage community service opportunities for our members and friends, and we make pro bono legal service a no-brainer with our long-standing partnership with Atlanta Legal Aid’ s Breast Cancer Legal Project.
Our CLEs and Programs
This year, we hosted a variety of CLEs and educational programs. These included: Our partnership with JAMS, featuring an October lunch CLE on international mediation; our 10th anniversary panel discussing why we need women and minority bar sections today; and in March, our own March Madness section, one of the most popular of the month, hosted by The Atlanta Legal Aid Society and training our members on assisting pro bono clients with simple wills.
Our Networking Events
There was no shortage of opportunity to meet fellow bar members this year! We continued our tradition of kicking off the bar year with a September social at Little Trouble in West
Midtown. We had a great turnout with lots of members and friends! In November, we had our second annual fall networking breakfast in Midtown at J. Christopher’ s.
December always brings our annual Holiday Party. This year, we were lucky to ring in the holidays at the home of Immediate Past Chair Heather Miller. If you have never come by our annual holiday party, we would love to have you. It is the time of year when our dearest friends and members get together for great food and good cheer( and adult beverages). One of our favorite events every year is the joint social we do with another section of the Atlanta Bar. This year, we teamed up with the Solo / Small Firm section for a social at Krog Street Market. We took advantage of the great location, great food, and great drinks to have a successful event with other Atlanta Bar friends. Please join us next time!
Community Service and Pro Bono
WIP is most proud of the work it does around the Atlanta community. WIP focuses its commitments on causes that impact women and children. To that end, WIP has long supported the Breast Cancer Legal Project, helping low-income women battling breast cancer, and Forever Family, which supports children whose mothers are currently incarcerated. WIP has also collaborated with organizations and causes that help survivors of human trafficking. WIP is also involved with causes near and dear to the Atlanta Bar. This year, we sent a sponsored team to the Legal Runaround, collected gift cards for Forever Family, trained lawyers to interview clients at the hospital and prepare wills for low-income cancer patients, sent a team of walkers to the Komen-Atlanta Race for the Cure, supported the Summer Internship program, AVLF’ s domestic violence programs, and collected toiletries for Wellspring Living. Our community involvement is a key piece of WIP’ s leadership in the Bar. Everyone is welcome to join us!
32 May 2016