In 2013, Haley Altman sat in her office after midnight surrounded by hundreds of documents, looking for the one needed to close a $30 million-dollar deal.

Peggy McCausland was tired of her firm’s networking events.

The potential clientele she wanted to woo — business women — weren’t showing up, she said. So McCausland conceived her own networking event that would draw them — golf lessons, catered meals and shop talk — and asked for the necessary marketing funds. She was a partner at the firm, Blank Rome, after all.

As a Federal District Court judge in New York, I often encountered this courtroom scene: A senior partner in a large law firm would be arguing a motion. I would ask a tough question. He (and it was usually a man) would turn to the young lawyer seated next to him (often a woman). After he conferred with her repeatedly, I would ask myself why she wasn’t doing the arguing, since she knew the case cold.

Each year, the IndyBar Women and the Law Division presents the Antoinette Dakin Leach Award to recognize the accomplishments of a female attorney in central Indiana. The award is named in honor of Antoinette Dakin Leach, one of the first women admitted to the Indiana Bar.

The ABA Journal reports that women at large law firms earn less than their male counterparts and have fewer leadership opportunities.

A memorial service for the Hon. Denise K. LaRue of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana will be held on Thursday, September 14 at 3 p.m. in the William E. Steckler Ceremonial Courtroom in the Birch Bayh Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse. 

Today, August 14, marks the 82nd anniversary of the enactment of the Social Security Act of 1935.  Frances Perkins, who served as Secretary of Labor under FDR for the entirety of his presidency and who was the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, was a driving force behind the legislation.

Women are 50.3 percent of current law school graduates, yet they still make up just under 35 percent of lawyers at law firms, the report found. Most important, their share of equity partnerships — where the highest compensation and leadership positions are lodged — remains at 20 percent and has not changed in recent years, the report found.

Read a recap of the Women & the Law Division's Beyond the Bookclub, from WLD exec member, Lauren Sorrell! 

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