By Elizabeth Joyner and Cathy Christensen

2007 Women in Law Conference
Thursday, Sept. 27
Skirvin Hotel, Oklahoma City

Powerhouse Communication Tools for Today’s Women Lawyers

8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
$150 for CLE and Lunch

The Women Lawyers Club

5-9 p.m.
$100 for CLE and Dinner

Register at www.okbar.org/cle

It is difficult to believe that it was such a short time ago, but most of the grandmothers —and some mothers — of today’s “Baby Boomers” were born without the basic civil rights that male Americans enjoyed. However, prior to universal suffrage, some very courageous and determined women and supportive men had started to break down the barriers that kept women from the practice of law. What do women want? In answer to that age-old question, some women want to be lawyers!

The beautifully renovated, historic Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City will be the site of this year’s OBA Women in Law Conference on Sept. 27. The day will consist of both a daytime and evening CLE.

Daytime Program

This year’s daytime program theme is “Powerhouse Communication Tools for Today’s Women Lawyers.” LeAnne McGill, Deborah Reheard, Retired Judge Reta Strubhar and Linda Martin, all women of distinction and with wisdom gained from years of practicing law, will share their secrets with the younger generation of lawyers and answer questions about how to succeed in the law with humor and grace.

Speaking of grace – have you ever felt like a bull in a china closet in court proceedings, in social settings or in meetings with higher ups? Well, it is time to shine the china and get rid of the bull when Ann Hoover shares the latest etiquette tips for looking good, feeling good and doing good in and out of the boardroom. Hoover is a member of the International Association of Protocol Consultants, the International Women’s Forum and Fashion Group International. She also is a member of The Consultants’ Connection, a mastermind group for etiquette and image consultants.

Renowned communication coach and expert on women’s issues, Dr. Joan Goldsmith, will provide tune-up tools for defining your success by creating a five-year plan. You can’t get to where you want to go, if you haven’t defined how to get there. Unlike some of a certain gender, women aren’t afraid to stop and ask for directions. In this session, Dr. Goldsmith will provide excellent directions and give us the tools for building a framework for success. In another session, she will also give us blueprints for being successful in mediation. What types of communication work best to bring a party’s conflicts to a satisfied resolution? Dr. Goldsmith will tell us what works and what doesn’t.

Are you tired of conflicts with co-workers, partners, friends, men, other women, your kids? Want to know how to communicate better in difficult situations? Dr. Goldsmith will provide pragmatic advice about communicating when there is conflict. You will leave the conference with new tools in your toolbox for dealing with situations that drain your energy and take up unnecessary time.

And, yes, “romance” will also be a topic at the 2007 Women in Law Conference. But, you won’t get CLE credit for this lunchtime topic. Elizabeth Joyner, lawyer-turned author/publisher, is publishing the book Love Renewed: Looking into the Heart and Soul of the One You Love. She will share a romantic and practical way to enjoy communication and increase intimacy between you and your loved one.

The tradition continues. Chocolate-covered strawberries and champagne will be served at the end of the CLE. This is a wonderful time to share stories and renew friendships with women (and sometimes men) from across the state.

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Goldsmith, has traveled all over the world – Mexico, Brazil, Japan, China, India (just to name some of her travels) to share her expertise on communication and women’s issues. She has been an organizational consultant, coach and educator for the past 40 years. She has written several books on leadership, resolving conflicts at work, mediation, and cultivating authenticity and awareness. She is a co-founder of Cambridge College and a former member of the faculty at Harvard University, UCLA and Antioch University. She holds a master of arts degree in social sciences and a doctorate of humane letters.

Evening Program

“The Women Lawyers Club” is a lively theatrical montage that focuses on the contributions that women have made in the law and legal practice throughout American history. Cosponsored by the OBA/CLE, the OBA Women in Law Committee and the OBA Litigation Section, this dinner performance provides a fascinating look at the issues that fueled the legal interests of women and tells the stories of some of the most noted (and not noted) women who have impacted the law and the American legal system.

For American women, it was a long and tortuous journey to the bar filled with bigotry, rejection, intrigue, triumphs and more than a little humor along the way. The Women Lawyers Club, featuring Catherine Emberton, Joyce Jefferson and Carol Saunders, dramatizes the decades of striving for professional rights that began in the mid-19th century and resulted in the appointment of Sandra Day O’Connor as the first female U.S. Supreme Court justice in 1983.

The stories of struggle abound, and 13 of them are presented on stage, including those of Margaret Brent, who arrived in the colony of Maryland in 1638 as the first woman to act as a lawyer in the New World...Clara Shortridge Foltz, who created the public defender system, fought for 40 years for the vote and lived to cast a legal ballot...Myra Bradwell, who founded the Chicago Legal News and served as its publisher for 25 years, and Lyda Conley, a Wyandot Indian, who fought for 40 years to save the Huron Place Cemetery.

This presentation provides an engaging tool to facilitate discussion about all forms of bias and the struggle that many women still face in achieving full acceptance in the legal profession; the play will be followed by a one-hour panel discussion. Judge Robin Cauthron, U.S. District Court for the Western District, Oklahoma City; Judge Carol Hansen, Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, Oklahoma City; Professor Judith Maute, University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman; Melissa DeLacerda, attorney at law, Stillwater; and Cathy Christensen, attorney at law, Oklahoma City; will participate in the discussion.

The program has been approved for three hours of mandatory continuing legal education credit. Tuition is $100 for CLE and dinner. Special guest and table rates are available. Check out program details and register at www.okbar.org/cle.