Dedicated to Service. Recognized for Leadership.

Immediately after graduating from Yale Law School, I joined the newly-formed Special Committee on Women’s Rights of the New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA).  The opportunity to have an impact on important issues including the then-novel concept of sexual harassment, Title IX enforcement, and inclusion of pregnancy as a disability under the State Human Rights Law (on which I co-wrote an amicus brief that was cited by the New York Court of Appeals) was intoxicating; I rose from chair of that committee through NYCLA’s leadership ranks, becoming its first woman president in 1998.  

Later in my career, I was a founding member of the New York American Inn of Court, heading that association in 2010 and continuing to create and chair annual Inn programs which frequently focus on equity issues (and which occasionally feature singing and dancing).

I also led the ABA Back to Business Law Program, which provided Continuing Legal Education programs and informal networking opportunities to attorneys who had temporarily left active practice.  I served on the Advisory Board of ABA DirectWomen, which sought to prepare women lawyers leaving private practice to serve as independent directors of publicly-held corporations, and I co-chaired the Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination Section of the National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA).

I was appointed by President Bill Clinton to DACOWITS (the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services), and I served for many years on the Departmental Disciplinary Committee for the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, First Judicial Department (the arm of the court responsible for hearing charges of professional misconduct against attorneys licensed to practice in Manhattan and the Bronx).

I also have been active in Yale Law School alumni affairs since graduation, including chairing or co-chairing most of my class reunions, and I co-led the effort to create a Hillary Clinton Fund for the Public Interest at the Law School.

I have served as an advisor to State Senators Brad Hoylman and Andrew Gounardes on proposed legislation arising from the #MeToo movement and other bills addressing discrimination and harassment.

I was inducted into the Academy of Women Achievers of the YWCA of the City of New York in 1997 and received both NYCLA’s Conspicuous Service Award and its President’s Medal in recognition of my contributions to the bar and my profession.