News

California Women Lawyers is pleased to announce that The Honorable Diana Becton, Presiding Judge, Contra Costa County, has been selected as CWL's 2012 Rose Bird Award Recipient.  Judge Becton will be honored at a Reception on Friday, March 23, 2012.  We hope you will join us in honoring Judge Becton, and the legacy of CA Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird, for whom the award is named.  Please watch for additional information, including the event location.

CWL's 2012 Annual Conference to be held, Friday, April 20, 2012 in the Silicon Valley.

Fall Newsletter 2011.

SAVE THE DATE
CWL's  38th Annual Dinner will be held on Thursday, October 11, 2012 in Monterey.  Northern California Judicial Reception to be held on Friday, March 23rd in Northern California.  Watch for additional information.

CWL wishes to congratulate  members and former Board members Holly Fujie and Michelle Williams Court on their recent appointments to the Los Angeles County Superior Court!

September 15, 2011 A big THANK YOU to all who came to the Annual Dinner this year. It was an enchanting evening honoring Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Tani Cantil-Sakauye and other notable women. We appreciate your attendance and generous support.

Photos from this event are viewable on our Facebook page! Please Like us while you are there.  Below is the program from that evening's event.

On September 15, 2011, at the CWL 37th Annual Dinner, former Assemblywoman and Santa Barbara attorney Hannah-Beth Jackson will receive the prestigious Fay Stender Award. 

Ms. Jackson has been fighting for women's rights since she was a young athlete, unable to play Little League baseball because she wasn't a boy. She turned to tennis instead and became a junior champion in New England. Later, she helped found the women's varsity tennis team at Scripps. 

After obtaining her law degree at Boston University in 1975, Ms. Jackson worked at the Santa Barbara District Attorney's where she helped found Shelter Services for Women, the predecessor to Domestic Violence Solutions, which has helped many victims of violence in the home.

She was a co-founder of the Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee, as well as Santa Barbara Women Lawyers. Later, while in private practice, she represented the Tri-Counties chapter of Planned Parenthood in defending the "Bubble Ordinance," which provided a safe zone for patients to enter and exit Planned Parenthood clinics. 

Ms. Jackson continued her commitment to women's reproductive health in the Assembly, where she held office from 1998 to 2004. She authored AB 2194, requiring all medical residency programs in obstetrics and gynecology to include training in the performance of abortions. She was also the principal co-author of the Reproductive Privacy Act (SB 1301), ensuring protection of Roe v. Wade principles in California and increasing access to early, non-surgical abortion procedures. 

Ms. Jackson co-chaired the Assembly Select Committee on Title IX and chaired the Legislative Women's Caucus. Ms. Jackson currently serves as the Executive Director of the Institute of the Renewal of the California Dream, President of Speak Out California!, a web blog (http://www.speakoutca.org/weblog/), and host of a Saturday morning radio program, "Speak Out with Hannah-Beth." 

CWL is honored to recognize Ms Jackson with the Fay Stender Award for her lifelong efforts to protect the rights of women.

CWL proudly presented Chief Judge Irma E. Gonzalez of the United States District Court of California for the Southern District with the 2011 award on Friday, July 29, 2011.  

Each year, CWL awards one jurist in Southern California, who is a champion of women's rights and an inspiration to women attorneys, with the Joan Dempsey Klein "Distinguished Jurist" award.  CWL was proud to present the award this year to Judge Gonzalez.

Many firsts highlight Judge Gonzalez's legal career.  She is the first woman U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Southern District of California.  She is the first Hispanic woman appointed to the San Diego Superior Court and first Latino judge appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.  And, she is the first Mexican-American woman ever appointed to a federal district court in the United States. 

Judge Gonzalez's inspiration however, goes well beyond what she has achieved on the bench.  Judge Gonzalez is a leader in San Diego's legal community and commits countless hours to public service.  She personally mentors young minority and women lawyers and law students through the Lawyers Club of San Diego, "Latinas in the Law" and La Raza Lawyers Association and is actively involved in numerous other organizations.  She serves with distinction on both circuit and national committees and effectively administrators one of the busiest district courts in the country.  Known for her impartiality, thoughtfulness, and coolheaded decision making, Judge Gonzalez is one of the most respected jurists in San Diego. 

On March 25, 2011, California Women Lawyers posthumously honored the Honorable Isabella Horton Grant with the 2011 Rose Bird Memorial Award.  Judge Grant’s niece, Judge Elizabeth Allen White, Los Angeles Superior Court accepted the award on her behalf. 

Judge Grant epitomized the characteristics of excellence, integrity and exemplary judicial courage for which Rose Bird is so acclaimed.  Judge Grant’s many years as a family law judge and a probate judge during her tenure on the San Francisco Superior Court gave her ample opportunity to pioneer judicial change.  Most importantly, Judge Grant became an icon for young female externs, paralegals, attorneys and judges for nearly the entirety of her long career. 

Isabella Grant, a former employee in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, pursued a distinguished path in higher education during a time when few women were even encouraged to attend college.  Graduating with high honors from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania in 1944, Ms. Grant obtained a Masters degree in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.  After studying abroad at Oxford University in Political Science, Ms. Grant graduated from Columbia University Law School in 1950.  She returned to academia to teach at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco in 1971 until her appointment to the bench, and was also a member of the Columbia Law School Board of Visitors in the late nineties.

Following her appointment to the San Francisco Municipal Court in 1979, Judge Grant dedicated her life to public service.  She was appointed to the Superior Court in 1982, serving as the Presiding Judge in the Family Law Department and later as the Presiding Judge of the Probate Department.  She retired from Superior Court in 1996 but continued to work with the American Arbitration Association.  She is a past President of the California Chapter of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and of the Northern California Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.  After retirement, she served the First District Court of Appeal, volunteering her time as a mediator in the Appellate Mediation Program.  With her high standard of personal integrity, she truly exemplifies the qualities represented by The Rose Bird Memorial Award. 

Judge Grant's public service career is highlighted by numerous contributions to the field of probate law, her main practice area for 26 years prior to her appointment to the bench, in addition to family law.  She consistently exhibited her passionate drive for the betterment of the legal process and simultaneously increased awareness of sensitive domestic issues.  She was particularly concerned for children of divorced households.  She served on the Board of Kids’ Turn Honorary Committee for many years, an organization offering assistance for children impacted by divorce, including psycho-educational workshops for children being raised in two households.  She also pioneered the first Guardian Mentorship Program for children being raised in alternative homes.

Judge Grant is largely regarded as one of the first judges in the State to be sensitive to the victim in domestic violence cases.  She analyzed the regular divorce calendar and saw that victims of domestic violence who were coming before the court for restraining orders were usually pro per and were inhibited in presenting their cases and discussing their circumstances.  She felt that their cases were not being given the attention they deserved.  So, Judge Grant took action.  She established a Domestic Violence calendar where the victims of domestic violence could be heard, with litigants who had similar issues.  Bringing oft-overlooked domestic abuse situations to the foreground allowed Judge Grant to oversee the study and implementation of a variety of services supporting victims of domestic violence.  This included special training for the court mediators as well as legal help for parties in filling out and processing restraining orders.  She distinguished herself as an author of California’s Family Law Act in 1970, which became a model for reform.  Additionally, when Judge Grant served on the Probate bench, she worked tirelessly to revise the San Francisco Probate local rules.  These remarkable achievements, among many, are evidence of Judge Grant’s passion for fairness, progress and legal scholarship. 

Judge Grant’s dedication to open and sometimes candid interaction had a profound effect on those in all levels of the legal community.  Even at the outset of her career, over 50 years ago, she was a model female attorney in a very nearly all-male environment.  She immediately recognized the cumulative power of mentorship and consistently opened her doors to many aspiring female lawyers.  On the bench, male and female attorneys alike commend her for giving counsel ample opportunities to be respectfully heard and acknowledged, even to an unfavorable outcome.  They all knew her judgment was thoughtful and fair.  Many current female judges count Isabella Horton Grant as a critical role model throughout their careers.  Several of us in California Women Lawyers count ourselves lucky to have such a woman as an inspiration.

Judge Isabella Horton Grant, in her tenure as a pioneering female judge, manifests the courage and compassion that Rose Bird embodied.  Judge Grant took many aspiring hopefuls under her wing and passed on a legacy of ‘paying it forward’, a concept her mentees will not forget.  She taught by example that a woman does not need to imitate a man to be a judge, and she commanded her courtroom with an understanding as one human to another.  California Woman Lawyers was proud to name her as the 2011 Rose Bird Memorial Award recipient.

Judith Soley, CWL life member and Board member from 1999 to 2007, was shot and killed by a divorce client's estranged husband on February 16, 2011. 

Both she and her client were killed by the man, who later killed himself.   For more information about the life and legacy of this remarkable woman attorney, who was the first woman President of Fresno Bar Association, click on  this link to the Fresno Bee article http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fresnobee/obituary.aspx?n=judith-leslie-soley&pid=148713995