Annual Meeting Subcommittee
The Chair of the Annual Meeting Subcommittee serves as the Women in the Law liaison to the DRI Annual Meeting Steering Committee and has primary responsibility for encouraging Women in the Law members to attend Annual Meeting. The Chair and Vice Chair coordinate Women in the Law activities at the Annual Meeting, including contributing substantive ideas and speakers for the Annual Meeting program. The Annual Meeting Subcommittee also plans the Women in the Law Committee's business meeting at the DRI Annual Meeting. The business meeting has a CLE component on a topic of interest to women lawyers. This Subcommittee also organizes networking events for women lawyers so that they can connect, develop referral networks and socialize during the Annual Meeting and to coordinate with the membership committee to form liaisons for first time attendees.
Corporate Counsel Subcommittee (In-House Counsel Only)
The Corporate Counsel Subcommittee is open to in-house counsel only and serves as a unique resource to women lawyers serving in corporate counsel positions. Members of this subcommittee publish in an electronic newsletter, The Corporate Counsel Law Update, which is distributed to all of DRI’s corporate members with a goal of providing in-house attorneys with recent legal developments. This subcommittee also assists with marketing DRI’s Annual Meeting and the Women in the Law Seminar.
DRI Communities Subcommittee
DRI's substantive law committees are designed to provide members with a forum to develop their professional skills and profiles through education, networking, and leadership opportunities. The contacts made and information shared between committee members is one of the many ways to bring value to your DRI membership. DRI's goal is help facilitate these efforts using today's social media and technological advances. As such, the WITL Communities Subcommittee is focused on updating and creating content for the WITL Community in DRI. Through this dedicated online community, you will be able to interact with your fellow committee members and keep up with what's going on in WITL. Wo men in the Law Sub com m i ttees
Expert Witness Database Subcommittee
The Expert Witness Database Subcommittee maintains and seeks to expand the database of female expert witnesses that is accessible on the WITL committee’s DRI webpage. Through the ongoing efforts of this subcommittee, we want to continue the efforts to grow this valuable resource for WITL Committee members.
Membership Subcommittee
The Membership Subcommittee is responsible for recruiting new members and working on getting new DRI members involved and integrated into the Committee. We reach out to all new members who join the Women in the Law Committee and all committee members who have dropped their membership. We work hard to make sure that everyone who wants to get involved finds a place and to make sure that everyone who wants a leadership role gets one. To facilitate reaching its goals, this subcommittee has five vice chairs (recruiting, retention, integration, corporate counsel and international membership) who each work on portions of the various membership initiatives. All five of these initiatives are seeking new members to get involved and help out.
Mentoring Subcommittee
The Mentoring subcommittee is charged with bringing women lawyers of different backgrounds together for mentoring opportunities. After two years of pilot work, the mentoring subcommittee is revising its program and will begin implementing a “mentoring circle” concept. In addition, the subcommittee will work hard to provide additional mentoring opportunities for interested women both at our seminar and throughout the year. Subcommittee members are needed to help plan mentoring luncheons and/or conference calls, promote attendance of women at the WITL seminar and the Annual Meeting for purposes of furthering the mentoring program.
Networking Subcommittee
The Networking Subcommittee is one of our most active subcommittees and has lots of opportunity for interaction. The goal of this subcommittee is to identify and create opportunities for WITL members to network amongst themselves, with other DRI committees and outside the DRI organization. The Networking Subcommittee has been successful at coordinating women’s networking events at almost every DRI seminar in the past two years, and it looking to expand to other local or regional events. The Networking Subcommittee created a “WITL Referral Database” that is accessible to DRI WITL Committee members on the DRI website. Wo men in the Law Sub com m i ttees/p
One of the primary goals of this subcommittee is to create opportunities for WITL members to refer business to each other.
PR, Communications & Research Subcommittee
The Research, Survey & Articles Assessment Subcommittee conducts ongoing searches for articles, books, web postings and other publications that relate to women in the practice of law for the purpose of assessing the current state of women in the profession. This Subcommittee will compile a collection of important articles for reference by Committee members. This Subcommittee will also coordinate with the Webpage and Publications Subcommittees to use and build upon specific pieces. The Subcommittee will also continue to assess prior DRI White Papers and Best Practices Guides and suggest when it may be timely to begin another study and paper. Public Service Project Subcommittee
The public service subcommittee works to create, identify and promote public service opportunities for the Committee. This subcommittee serves as the liaison to the DRI Public Service Committee, and also organizes the public service event at the WITL annual seminar.
Publications/Newsletter Subcommittee
The Publications Subcommittee provides an opportunity for members to publish articles in a national forum on topics affecting the practice of women defense lawyers. These articles range from substantive areas of law and tactics and techniques, to personal practice tips and lifestyle issues. Articles can be featured in DRI’s enewsletter, The Voice and also in For the Defense, DRI’s monthly magazine. Authors are also needed from time to time for chapters in DRI’s Defense Library Series publications. This subcommittee is also working toward establishing an electronic newsletter for the Committee.
Seminar/Marketing Subcommittee
This subcommittee puts together the annual Women in the Law Seminar, which occurs each spring. This includes speaker selection, topic selection, venue, organization of social events, solicitation of sponsorship dollars and marketing of the Seminar, and relies on the entire Women in the Law Committee and virtually every Subcommittee Chair, Vice Chair and their members to accomplish this task. We begin planning the seminar in February or March each year, just weeks after the Seminar from the previous year. Speakers, topics and an initial program outline are due to DRI nine months in advance, so we have the program already in place Wo men in the Law Sub com m i ttees
before the Annual Meeting each year, but continue to handle marketing, logistics and coordinating the efforts of the other Subcommittees related to the Seminar all the way up until the Seminar begins.
Social Media Subcommittee
The Social Media Subcommittee acts as the conduit between the WITL Committee and the advanced technological world in which we live and work. The Committee seeks to have an active presence on various social media and expand our efforts as new opportunities arise. The Social Media Subcommittee is also responsible for coordinating/submitting content for the DRI Blog.
State Liaison Outreach Subcommittee
The State Liaison Outreach Subcommittee is looking for liaisons to our Committee for every state. We are particularly interested in coordinating with women who are active in their state or local women’s initiatives. The Subcommittee Chair serves as a liaison between the Women in the Law Committee and state/local defense bar associations. The main functions of the state and local defense organization liaisons are to encourage women in their state/local defense bar organizations to become involved in the DRI Women in the Law Committee through participating in our events, working to establish women’s initiatives for their state/local defense bar organizations where one does not exist; and generally relay any important information/ideas between the Women in the Law Committee and their state/local defense bar organizations. Serving as a state and local defense organization liaison is a great way to get involved with DRI and to meet people both nationally and in your local bar./
Webcast Subcommittee
This subcommittee develops and hosts webcast presentations geared toward topics of interest for women. We hope to host two webcasts a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. The speakers and authors on these conferences will generally be women, but the programs will be marketed to DRI at large. This subcommittee runs programs from beginning to end, selecting topics, speakers, and assisting with promotion and marketing.
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