President's Message:
By Queen's Bench President Sarah M. King

...continued

Launch of the Queen’s Bench Mentorship “Pod” Program
      For generations, Queen’s Bench members have benefitted from the mentoring that takes place both formally and informally between members. The formal one-on-one mentoring program began in 2000. This year, thanks to the leadership of Mentorship Committee Chair Alison Crane, we launched a new mentoring “pod” program, which matches small groups or “pods” of 8-10 women who share a common interest or career goal. Each pod consists of senior, mid-level and junior attorneys. The structure is designed to encourage relationship-building, and to recognize that women of all experience levels can learn from one another. It is also hoped that the structure will reduce the importance of personality matches inherent in our traditional one-on-one mentorship pairings, and will allow us to more easily incorporate new members during the course of the year. Currently, we have eight pods in the areas of Judicial Aspirations, Corporate/In House, Family Law, Public Sector, Labor and Employment, Part-Time/Flex Time Attorneys, and Litigation.

The New “Queen’s Bench Leadership Series”
      In an effort to facilitate the advancement of women to leadership positions, this year saw the launch of our “Queen’s Bench Leadership Series.” The series consisted of three panel presentations, all of which were enthusiastically received.
      The Business Development Committee presented our sold-out Women Rainmakers Panel, which featured women rainmakers from a variety of firms and practices. The panelists shared their personal experiences with developing a book of business, including the psychological barriers they had to overcome to ask for business. The event was spellbinding and received positive media attention, with a write-up in The Recorder.
      In the Starting Your Own Firm event, Past President Kelly Robbins moderated a panel of four successful, female legal entrepreneurs, including Queen’s Bench member Barbara W. Moser. The panelists shared their experiences and practical advice on starting your own firm.
      Finally, the Legislative Issues Committee, led by Mary Catherine Wiederhold, presented Running for Office, an event featuring Emerge California and California List, whose representatives discussed the nuts and bolts of running for elected office.
      In 2012, we plan to continue the Leadership Series with a panel of in-house counsel who will give tips to lawyers on business development.

Celebrating Our 90th Anniversary
      This year marked QB’s 90th anniversary. In celebration, we held a women’s legal history luncheon featuring Stanford Law School Professor Barbara Babcock, whose biography of California’s first woman lawyer, Clara Shortridge Foltz, came out to critical acclaim in 2011. QB past presidents and lifetime achievement award winners Hon. Barbara J.R. Jones, Hon. Ina Levin Gyemant, and Hon. Lee Baxter shared their knowledge of QB history and their fond memories of QB colleagues over the years.
      Our new History Committee also hosted a cocktail party to collect documents and photos for our archives and created an historical photo display for our 2011 Judges’ Dinner. Undoubtedly, they are planning our 100th anniversary celebration even now!
      Finally, we have featured a series of articles in the newsletter this year, chronicling QB’s achievements through the decades.

Education
      QB presented six MCLE classes this year, all of which were free to members:

• “Women on Top: Managing Life, Work and Leadership in Your Legal Career”
• “Groundbreaking Advances in Domestic Violence and Asylum Law”
• “Conflicts and Waivers and Rules, Oh My!: Identifying, Avoiding and Managing Conflicts of Interest”
• “Preventing Job Burnout and Building Engagement”
• “Women, Stress and Substance Abuse”
• “Domestic Violence and Technology”

      Special thanks to the Domestic Violence Committee, Employment/Work-Life Committee, Amicus Briefs Committee and Education Committee Chairs for organizing these programs.

Public Service
      The QB Juvenile Hall Project continued its important twice-monthly programs at the Juvenile Justice Center. The program is focused on reaching out to the pre-teen and teenage girls in “lock-up” at San Francisco Juvenile Hall. Volunteers attempt to “connect” with and mentor the girls as they sit with them doing an arts or crafts project and sharing a snack. Examples of projects include Mexican Day of the Dead sugar skulls decorations, Japanese origami, and Chinese New Year crafts. Each week, the committee attempts to introduce the girls to different types of fruits and vegetables and encourage them to have a healthy diet.
      Also this year, the Juvenile Hall Project teamed up with Music National Service to facilitate a drum circle for the girls. Committee Co-Chair Nancy Walter reports that the volunteers “related to the girls with warmth, humor and understanding, and we saw the girls really coming out of their shells with the drum circle. The drumming itself was a lot of fun, and resulted in very impressive music.”
      The Juvenile Hall Committee is looking for additional volunteers to participate on a regular basis at the meetings at Juvenile Hall. In addition, we need behind-the scenes support, such as researching opportunities for after-care mentoring, as well as help coming up with ideas for projects.

Scholarships
      As in previous years, Queen’s Bench awarded scholarships to deserving law students at both USF and Hastings. The Scholarship Committee awarded the Mildred Levin Scholarship in the amount of $2,225 to Brenda Rosales, a second year law student at Hastings. The Agnes O’Brien Smith Scholarship went to Wendy Betts, a first year law student at USF. Wendy received $5000.
      In the process of amending our Bylaws, Queen’s Bench re-discovered certain scholarship funds available at Golden Gate University School of Law. Next year’s Board will tackle the issue of how best to administer these funds.

Business Development and Networking
      The Business Development Committee went all out in 2011, organizing four successful business development and networking events: Cocktails & Couture, the Women Rainmakers’ Panel, our annual LEAADD Dinner, and a Speed Networking event facilitated by a professional business development coach.
      In addition, the Employment/Work-Life Committee launched a Linked-In group featuring job postings and discussions of interest to members, and hosted the “Women on Top” MCLE event.

Advocacy
      Queen’s Bench signed on to two important amicus briefs in 2011. In Perry v. Schwarzenegger, Queen’s Bench joined other members of the Minority Bar Coalition in successfully arguing that Judge Walker was not required to recuse himself from the same sex marriage cases due to his sexual orientation.
      In In re C-R-P, Queen’s Bench joined the National Immigrant Justice Center in arguing that a Guatemalan woman seeking asylum based on domestic violence that the Guatemalan authorities were unable or unwilling to control. The brief argues that women from societies where sexual violence against women is a documented, systemic type of harm can establish they face persecution because of their gender.
      Queen’s Bench is also in the process of collaborating with California Women Lawyers and other like-minded organizations in People v. Beltran, an appeal of the criminal conviction of a man for the murder of his domestic partner. The brief will address the applicability of the provocation defense in a situation where a man killed his intimate partner after learning that she had an abortion.

Governance
      Queen’s Bench updated its Bylaws and Articles of Organization this year, for the first time in more than a decade.

Fun
      Finally, we had a lot of fun this year. Our annual Past Presidents’ Dinner, Judges’ Dinner and Holiday Dinner all provided opportunities for friendship and camaraderie.
      My most profuse thanks to our 2011 Board of Directors, Pauline Farmer, Lisa Freitas, Vanessa Hierbaum, Rebecca Hooley, Hon. Barbara J.R. Jones, Clarissa Kang, Amee Mikacich, Annie O’Donnell, Kelly Robbins, Holly Schaitberger, Jaime Touchstone and Mary Catherine Wiederhold. Additional thanks to our 2011 Committee Chairs, including Simona Agnolucci, Sophia Andritsakis, Katie Burke, Andrea S. Carlise, Barbara Harris Chiang, Alison Crane, Tammy Dawson, Janka Dubakova, Michelle Fowler, Heidi Hugo, Courtney LeBouef, Melissa Malone, Pamela Markert, Hon. Adrienne Jacobs Miller, Lisa Rauch, Michelle Siefert, April Rose Sommer, Elizabeth Stone and Nancy Sullivan Walter.

TOP