About the Committee

Mission

The Woman Advocate Committee is open to all members of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation. Joining the committee entitles a member to a number of benefits (see list below). The committee’s leadership is made up of experienced women litigators from all over the country working to provide support and useful information to all women who litigate.

To accomplish this goal, the committee provides its members with these benefits:

• The Woman Advocate, a quarterly publication
• Programs that feature talented, effective women trial lawyers demonstrating trial and advocacy skills and styles
• Programs on rainmaking for women, emphasizing how women can effectively attract and retain clients
• Opportunities to network with other women trial lawyers and exchange information, questions, or ideas on a wide variety of professional and personal issues confronting women lawyers, particularly those in a litigation practice, including alternative work styles, balancing trial work and motherhood, mentoring, and perceptions of women advocates

Whether you want to receive The Woman Advocate, learn from and network with top women litigators, contribute to our programs and publications, or all of the above, join us. Section of Litigation members may join up to three committees at no charge.

To join, you must first be a member of the ABA and also a member of the ABA Section of Litigation.

Committee Conference Calls

Monthly Committee Calls are held the second Tuesday of every month at 2:00 PM ET via Zoom. Please connect using the following details

Zoom join with phone only:
Dial-in: 888 475 4499 US Toll-free
Meeting ID: 914 3367 9035
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,91433679035# US (Chicago)

Zoom Join with computer:
https://americanbar.zoom.us/j/91433679035
Dial-in: 888 475 4499 US Toll-free
Meeting ID: 914 3367 9035
One tap mobile
+13126266799,,91433679035# US (Chicago)

Message from the Chairs

Hello fellow women litigators! As cochairs of the 2022–2023 Woman Advocate Committee, we are delighted to welcome you to our Committee, affectionately referred to as “WAC.” We are a community of women litigators from across the nation with diverse areas of expertise. In WAC, we have the opportunity to share and enhance our knowledge base, create resources, and build relationships that enrich our careers and our lives. Our committee is open to all members of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation. Our focus is to support women in the legal profession, provide information on topics of interest to women in the profession on a variety of subject matters, provide a forum to have an open and candid dialogue about issues female attorneys face, and lead the profession in finding solutions to those issues.

We welcome and encourage members to play an active role in our committee work—including by joining our committee events and/or participating in one of our subcommittees. If you would like to introduce yourself, get to know us a little better, or have ideas you would like to share, please join us at our monthly meeting! You can also join us and learn alongside other women litigators across the country through WAC sponsored ABA Roundtables, virtual events, and conferences. Make sure you sign up to get notifications on ABA Communities! Membership in WAC is a wonderful way to grow your network and connect with other women litigators—welcome!

We have a plethora of subcommittees you could join. Some are focused on various types of member benefits and engagement, such as

• Programming & Roundtables
• Membership
• Networking & Inclusion
• Newsletter Editorial Staff
• Website
• Audio Content & Practice Pointers
• Book Projects
• Social Media

We also have substantive subcommittees, including

• Bankruptcy
• Consumer Litigation/Regulatory
• Insurance
• Intellectual Property
• Labor and Employment
• Products Liability
• Professional Liability
• Securities Litigation
• Small Business
• White Collar

Members can also serve as liaisons to other Section of Litigation committees and events. We have the following liaison positions:

• Corporate Counsel Liaison
• LGBT Law & Litigator
• Minority Trial Lawyers Liaison
• National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations Liaison
• Professional Success Summit Liaison
• Regional Meetings Liaison
• Women Rainmakers Liaison
• Young Lawyers Liaison

No contribution is too small, and every contribution is what makes this community so vibrant. So, if any of this sounds interesting to you, please reach out. We’d love to have you on the team!

We look forward to welcoming you into our community and actively supporting your professional needs! If you’ve recently joined the Committee and are reading this, please reach out and say hello or join our next monthly call and introduce yourself—we look forward to meeting you!

Woman Advocate Committee Cochairs
Tiffany DeGruy, Michal Rogson, Chaney Hall and Patricia Astorga

Committee Leadership

Messaging Through ABA Connect:

If you (or your subcommittee) have information or requests to share with the committee, please reach out to our ABA Connect/Social Media Subcommittee cochairs (Calie Adamson, Kirsten Castaneda, and Jessica Ortiz) with your proposed communication, and they will include your post (if appropriate) in an official Committee posting through ABA Connect.