The Wake Forest University School of Law conferred hoods on 165 graduates on Sunday, May 20, in Wait Chapel.

The law school’s 38th annual hooding speaker, Senior Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy, told the graduates and their families and friends “that a lawyer’s integrity is something you need to protect for your own sake as well as others in our profession.”

Lacy added, “This profession of ours is one filled with boundless ways of using this degree. You are well prepared. Now it’s up to you to open the many doors that law degrees will.”

Lacy became a Senior Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court upon her retirement from the bench in 2007. She had served on the Supreme Court as a Justice since 1989. Prior to beginning her tenure on the Supreme Court, Lacy was a judge for the Virginia State Corporation Commission and a Deputy Attorney General in the Virginia Office of the Attorney General’s Judicial Affairs Division. Since 2007, she has also served as the John Marshall Professor of Judicial Studies at the University of Richmond’s T.C. Williams School of Law.

Commencement exercises will be held Monday, May 21, at Hearn Plaza.

Law School Dean Blake Morant described this year’s class as heroes. “You are already my heroes ladies and gentlemen of the class of 2012 and will soon be heroes for this profession. I applaud you. I congratulate you. And I implore you to do well and to do good.”

The dean also told the graduates to remember their law degree is an investment for a lifetime and that the Wake Forest law school is always with them. “Your relationship with Wake Forest will travel with you no matter where you go and you will always be a very big part of the Wake Forest brand,” he said. “You will continue to thrive; I have no doubt of that.”

Dean Morant announced that the third-year graduating class chose Charley Rose as “Professor of the Year” and Ann Robertson as “Staff Member of the Year.” Professor Miki Felsenburg, who is retiring, conferred the hoods.

The ceremony, which included the bestowing of numerous awards, was followed by the Dean’s Hooding Reception at the Forsyth Country Club. Among the award winners were:

• Caroline Marie Trapeni received the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Award from the North Carolina Chapter.

• Kaitlyn Ann Girard received the American Bankruptcy Institute Award, which is given to the most outstanding student in Debtor-Creditor Law.

• Kimberly Allen Richards (2012) and Aaron Charles Garnett (2011) received the American Bar Association’s Section of Intellectual Property Law and The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. award a certificate and a selected ABA/BNA treatise to the student who achieves the highest grade among the courses of Intellectual Property, Copyright and Trademarks.

• Zoe Elizabeth Niesel received the American Bar Association and The Bureau of National Affairs Award for Excellence in the Study of Labor and Employment Law for employment law, which is given to the students who achieve the highest grade in the course.

• Catherine Lindsey Chapple received the American Bar Association and The Bureau of National Affairs Award for Excellence in the Study of Labor and Employment Law for 2010 employment law, which is given to the students who achieve the highest grade in the course.

• Craig Matthew Principe and Matthew Derrick McClellan received the Dean’s Award, which is given to honor the extraordinary contributions of a student leader.

• Matthew John Antonelli received the E. McGruder Faris Memorial Award and $200 cash, which is given to the student exhibiting the highest standards of character, leadership, and scholarship.

• Sarah J. Hayward received the Forsyth County Women Attorney’s Association Book Award, which is presented annually to an outstanding female graduate based upon her academic achievements, leadership, service to community, professionalism and commitment to the legal profession.

•  Kelly Leanne Amell received the Laura J. Gendy Award, a new award that was established by alumni, family and friends of Laura J. Gendy (JD’ 00) to provide an annual cash award in the amount of $500 to a graduating law student who exemplifies integrity, compassion for others and strength of character that were the hallmarks of Gendy, who died in August 2008.

• Sarah J. Hayward and Katherine A. King received the Robert Goldberg Award in Trial Advocacy, which honors the memory of Robert Goldberg, a student at the School of Law, who was killed in World War II. It is an annual cash award in the amount of $3,000 given to the students showing the highest aptitude and ethics in trial advocacy.

• Zoe Elizabeth Niesel received the I. Beverly Lake Award, which was established in honor of I. Beverly Lake Sr., professor of law at Wake Forest University, practicing attorney, assistant attorney general of North Carolina 1951-1955, and retired Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. The annual cash award in the amount of $500 is given to the student or students in the law school exhibiting the greatest proficiency in the study of Constitutional Law.

• Sarah J. Hayward received the National Association of Women Lawyers Award, which is presented annually to an outstanding law graduate at each American Bar Association-approved law school.

• Kaitlyn Ann Girard received the North Carolina State Bar Student Pro Bono Service Award, which is presented annually to a student who has contributed time and talent to law-related service.

• Miles Stuart Bruder received the James A. Webster Jr. Faculty Award, which is given to the student who displays the greatest proficiency in the courses of Property, Real Property Security and Donative Transfers.

Jess Kimble (’12) grew up on a farm in rural Ohio where she canned food and sold green beans to her aunt’s grocery store for 69 cents a pound.

She left Ohio for Wake Forest University School of Law because she was impressed with the number of clinics the school offered–and the opportunities available in a larger city.

She soon found herself up to her elbows in the legal intricacies involved in setting up a cannery in rural Virginia. The experience that brought her back to her roots also highlighted the difficulties of making rural life economically viable for people who love country living. But Kimble didn’t mind.

“I had firsthand experience,” she said. “This was something near and dear to my heart.”

Virginia Food Works, a nonprofit food processing center in Prince Edward County, Va., is one of about 30 projects pertaining to food systems that the School of Law’s Community Law and Business Clinic has worked on over the past four years, said Steve Virgil, a law professor and director of the clinic. The food processing center allows farmers to can, freeze or preserve their produce for personal or commercial use.

Such projects are engines of economic development for rural areas, where the population is aging, capital for business start-ups is scarce and the infrastructure is often crumbling.

“My work is a real opportunity to help our students think more broadly about their own practices and to think about the societal and historic forces that shape the places where we live,” Virgil said. “Getting food from the farm to the table involves a whole range of relationships that involve legal issues.”

Pilot Mountain Pride center in Pilot Mountain, which opened in 2010, was another project for law students. The center connects farmers to local people and retailers. It’s also a corporation with an extensive network of contracts with farmers, consumers and distributors.

The students helped the market register its trademark, set up articles of organization for the Secretary of State’s office and oversaw contracts and IRS compliance.

Chris Knopf, the assistant county manager for economic development and tourism in Surry County, said that without the law students’ help Pilot Mountain Pride would have had a hard time opening its doors.

“They were outstanding, responsive, knowledgeable, and their tasks were always carried out in a timely manner,” Knopf said. “I have recommended their services to countless small businesses and nonprofits over the past couple of years.”

Virgil estimated that the law school provided about $50,000 worth of legal services to the center.

“There are a range of challenges, but in another sense, there’s not another sector that’s as important as agriculture for the long-term interests of society,” he said.

For Kimble, who comes from a family of small business owners, the logistics involved in helping ventures like the cannery and farmer’s market succeed require creativity and an entrepreneurial spirit.

“I like the idea that I can be involved with these projects and help people make business decisions that are tied to real people and real things,” she said. “There’s the abstract part of the law that we tend to get caught up in as law students. The clinic brought out the practical side of me that says, ‘Okay, now how do we get this done?’ ”

The Pro Bono Project at Wake Forest University School of Law partnered with Advanced Placement to help jumpstart the program, Reclaiming Futures, in Forsyth County. 

Reclaiming Futures is a nationwide project that strives to help young people who struggled with drugs, alcohol, and crime by partnering juveniles with positive, caring adults to serve as their mentors.  There was a need in Forsyth County for mentor volunteers and law students at Wake Forest stepped forward to fill this void. 

Chief Judge William B. Reingold has been a vocal supporter of having Reclaiming Futures in Forsyth County.  He has met and spoken with each mentor as well as many other law students about the benefits of serving as a mentor.  Judge Reingold hopes that the partnership between the Pro Bono Project and Reclaiming Futures “is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

The Wake Forest University School of Law students meet at least once a week with their mentees and participate in activities such as bowling, prom dress shopping, and playing basketball.  The mentors are required to write “contact notes,” which they submit to Advanced Placement monthly, to help ensure that the program is running effectively.

Although law students make a one-year commitment to the program, most of this year’s mentors have expressed their desire to remain involved in their mentee’s lives.  Kelsey Baird (’13), a mentor, called her experience “valuable as it is fulfilling . . . and one of the best programs I’ve been involved in at Wake Forest.” 

The Pro Bono Project has been thrilled to organize volunteers for Reclaiming Futures this year, and has already received numerous requests by law students to be partnered with mentees next year. New mentors will be trained and paired up with a mentee by Advanced Placement in September.

Every spring semester, Wake Forest University School of Law LL.M. students have the opportunity to hear oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.  This year, Professor Shannon Gilreath led the students to visit the high court on Wednesday, April 18.

While in Washington, D.C., the law school’s Afghan LL.M. candidate, Yama Keshawerz, was invited to attend a speech given by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) about Afghanistan at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  “It was a great event and the event was attended by many,” Keshawerz said.

Keshawerz goes on to describe the event and McCain’s speech: “In his speech, Senator McCain wrapped up very important issues faced in Afghanistan. For instance, Senator McCain talked about the peace talks with the Taliban and disagreed with the way the peace talks with the Taliban are going on. He also criticized the planned withdrawal of the U.S. troops from Afghanistan saying it has sent a wrong signal to the insurgents and the countries in the region. In the meantime, he emphasized the U.S.-Afghan strategic partnership saying such an agreement could change the entire narrative in Afghanistan and the region from one of looming international abandonment to enduring international commitment.”

Keshawerz is the law school’s first Afghan student. Keshawerz came to Wake Forest as a scholar from the Public-Private Partnership for Justice Reform in Afghanistan (PPP).  Keshawerz led a discussion in the fall semester titled “Afghanistan after 9/11,” as part of WFU Law’s LL.M. “Lunch and Learn” series, and continues to be an active student in the law school community.

The law school is looking forward to host another Afghan PPP scholar for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year. In 2011, WFU Law was certified as a host institution for the PPP, established by the U.S. Department of State and leading private attorneys in the U.S. The PPP is a prestigious academic foundation supported by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and offers scholarships, training, and other educational resources to Afghan prosecutors, judges, defense lawyers, advocates, and educators. 

The annual Washington, D.C., trip to attend a U.S. Supreme Court hearing is a part of the required LL.M. course, “Introduction to American Law.” This course provides an overview of various areas of American law, of the U.S. legal profession, and of the U.S. judicial process. It is a basic introduction to the common and statutory law of the U.S. federal and state systems of law. The U.S. Supreme Court hearing is integral part of this course as it allows students to observe the highest court in the United States. Students also take tours of the U.S. Supreme Court Courtroom to explore some of its symbolism, as well as to see interesting “behind the scenes” areas, such as conference rooms.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Retired Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bermingham Lacy will be the speaker for the Wake Forest University School of Law Hooding Ceremony on Sunday, May 20.

The ceremony will be Lacy’s second recent appearance at the law school, as the Senior Justice also took part in the Journal of Law and Policy’s Spring Colloquium, “Gender and the Legal Profession: The Rise of Female Lawyers.”

The ceremony will be held at 1:45 p.m. in Wait Chapel, followed by the Dean’s Hooding Reception at 3 p.m. at the Forsyth Country Club.

Graduation exercises are scheduled for 9 a.m. on Monday, May 21, at Hearn Plaza (weather permitting). Tickets are required for guests. Learn more about hooding and graduation here.

Lacy became a Senior Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court upon her retirement from the bench in 2007. She had served on the Supreme Court as a Justice since 1989. Prior to beginning her tenure on the Supreme Court, Lacy was a judge for the Virginia State Corporation Commission and a Deputy Attorney General in the Virginia Office of the Attorney General’s Judicial Affairs Division. Since 2007, she has also served as the John Marshall Professor of Judicial Studies at the University of Richmond’s T.C. Williams School of Law.

After graduating from St. Mary’s College in 1966, Lacy went on attain her JD at the University of Texas School of Law in 1969. She returned to school later on in her career, earning an LLM degree from the University of Virginia in 1992.

Lacy has received numerous honors throughout her distinguished career. Most recently, these include the Virginia Bar Association Gerald L. Baliles Distinguished Service Award and the Hill Tucker Public Service Award from the Bar Association of the City of Richmond in 2008, the William B. Spong Memorial Award from the College of William and Mary’s George Wythe School of Law in 2005, and the Robert R. Merhige, Jr. Outstanding Achievement Award of the John Marshall American Inn of Court in 2002.

Michael Bixby (’14) won the 41st annual George K. Walker Moot Court Competition final round held at Wake Forest University School of Law on Friday, April 20. 

The final round showcases the top two first-year law students in the moot court competition. 

Arguing a fictitious Title VII employment discrimination case, Bixby was able to successfully argue in favor of the defendant. Fellow first-year law student Justin May represented the plaintiff.

The distinguished panel of judges included The Honorable James G. Exum, Jr., Smith Moore Leatherwood, LLP Retired Chief Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court; The Honorable Samuel G. Wilson (’74), Judge, U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia; and Attorney Lynn M. Block, Employment Law specialist, Fremstad Law Firm. 

The judges were highly complimentary of both finalists.  Judge Block said it was an interesting question and both arguments were very impressive.

Judge Wilson said: “I was here in class of 1971 and Professor Robert E. Lee told us to go home and tell our parents we would never be lawyers. You can tell your parents that you’re both going to be fine lawyers. I’ve never had a bad law clerk out of Wake Forest and I didn’t hear a bad argument out of either of you. You did a fine job.”

Judge Jackson added: “It was remarkably good. I was really impressed by your ability to state your case and answer questions. You knew the cases. It was so close, razor thin actually. I thought your (Bixby) rebuttal was particulary strong.”

The summary of the case that was at issue follows:  

Defendant Herman-Estes, Inc. is a private for-profit corporation that contracts with several states to operate correctional facilities. One of the facilities operated by Herman-Estes, Inc. is the Baines Juvenile Detention Center in Forsyth County, N.C. Plaintiff Emma Baker was employed at Baines from February 2008 to October 2011. She started out as a third-shift Girls Group Leader and eventually moved up to second-shift Girls Group Leader after receiving superior performance evaluations during her tenure. In February 2011, a first-shift Boys Group Leader position became open, and Ms. Baker applied. She was not hired for the position; Baines’s Director of Human Resources, Jane Fellows, informed her that pursuant to Herman-Estes’s policy, females could not serve as Boys Group Leaders at Baines. Herman-Estes bases its policy on the belief that hiring only males to be Boys Group Leaders is necessary to enable it to achieve its mandate from the State to maintain a secure facility and to rehabilitate the juveniles while safeguarding their privacy rights. After being denied the Boys Group Leader position, Ms. Baker eventually quit her job at Baines and later filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC, which issued her a right-to-sue notice dated Sept. 15, 2011. Ms. Baker filed her lawsuit on Jan. 9, 2012.

The event, which is held each spring for first-year law students, fielded 96 initial competitors. The competition is held each spring for first-year law students. Each student wrote a brief and argued twice, once “on-brief” and once “off-brief.” After two weeks, 20 students were invited to join Moot Court, and the top 16 competed in the following week in an elimination tournament leading up to the final round.

Bixby was not the only student to take home an award. Distinctions for Best Brief, Best Oralist, including runners up, and the Debbie Parker Memorial Moot Court Service Award were also awarded.

Jennifer Skinner won the Best Brief award, while Justin May was the runner-up. The Best Oralist award went to Lindsay Watson, with Craig Harasimowicz earning runner-up. The Debbie Parker Moot Court Service Award went to Jessica Rutledge (’12).

The 2012 Walker Moot Court Competition co-chairs are Emily Schwebke and Mary Beth Usher.

New first-year members of the Moot Court Board are Michael Bixby, Justin May, Craig Harasimowicz, Ebbie Yazdani, Candace Cain, Jennifer Skinner, Lauren Timmons, Emily Unnasch, Erin Blackwell, Bethany Corbin, Lauren Huddleston, Nathan Kupka, Nik Ortega, Laura Twichell, Taryn Walker, Lindsay Watson, Atolani Akinkuotu, Linda Boss, Adam Stoddard and Erin Walker.

For 40 years, the Wake Forest Moot Court Board has conducted a moot court competition for first-year law students. In 1998, the Moot Court Board named this competition the George K. Walker Moot Court Competition in honor of Professor George Walker’s long-standing support of the Wake Forest Moot Court program.

The Debbie Parker Moot Court Service Award is an honor granted to either a member of the Moot Court Board or a participant in the Walker Moot Court Competition who exemplifies throughout the competition a spirit of dedication and service to Wake Forest University School of Law, as well as compassion and cooperation with his or her fellow students.

Eighteen Wake Forest law students will be honored Monday, April 23, for completing intensive training in professionalism. The Applied Legal Theory (Law in Action) Program at Wake Forest School of Law is designed to give students hands-on experience and skills that will prepare them for the practice of law.

This includes curricular opportunities for learning the law in a real-world context through courses that emphasize practical lawyering skills, as well as opportunities for students to participate in pro bono legal efforts in the Winston-Salem community.

For the Career and Professional Development component of the program, students worked closely with career advisors at the law school on resume development and interviewing skills, participated in workshops and lectures focusing on professionalism, and engaged with practicing attorneys to seek career advice.  This component is designed to help students develop essential professional skills, such as networking, proper client communication, business etiquette and civility, among others, that will carry over into long term success in their careers.

“We are delighted to honor this group of students, who, in addition to meeting rigorous academic demands, completed all the requirements to receive this certificate,” said Wake Forest School of Law Dean Blake Morant. “It is a testament to their perseverance and their personal recognition of the value of professionalism that they were able to do so.”

The 18 first-year law students receiving the professionalism certificate will be recognized during a reception at the law school.  One lucky student will receive a $100 gift card donated by Brooks Brothers to help build a professional wardrobe.  The students completing all requirements for the certificate are:

Jessica Bingham
Erin Blackwell
LaDean Cooley
Matthew Daniels
Jeremy Demmitt
Ryan Fisher
Kevin Flanigan
Rebekah Garcia
Audra Gaspar
Justin Jenkins
Jasmine Kelly
Sean McGonigle
Evan Mongiardo
Obed Morales
Jennifer Om
Garin Scollan
Douglas Tsao
Daniel Waxman

The Worrell Professional Center Library is usually home to law and MBA students studying or rigorously cramming for exams. Recently, however, students spending weekends among the stacks have enjoyed a furry new form of stress-relief.

Over the past several weeks, Taryn Walker (’14) and Alice Hicks (’14) have brightened students’ otherwise work-laden afternoons by bringing their relief-trained dogs along with them to the library.

“I just got Sparky this winter, who has ADA access to all public places, and I was just thinking one day about how much more practical it would be to be able to bring her with me rather than having to leave her at home,” Walker said. “I wanted her to get more experience interacting in school settings, and I thought it boost morale.”

Alice Hicks ('14) and Josie

Hicks began bringing Joise to Worrell soon after hearing that Walker was doing so with Sparky.

“As soon as I heard about Taryn and Sparky, I knew I had to start bringing Josie too. I contacted the school administration about it and was happy that they let me bring her as well,” Hicks explained.

Both Sparky and Josie are trained therapy dogs with experience providing relief to troubled individuals. Sparky is fully-certified by Canine Assistance, which is a program that trains dogs to provide help for children and adults suffering from mobility, seizure, hearing or development disorders. Similarly, Josie has worked extensively with a professional trainer and has passed the Canine Good Citizen Test.

As part of their activities, these dogs frequently visit strenuous locations such as hospitals’ Hospice Houses. Both have frequently been able to charm their residents of the areas they visit, seemingly almost no matter how glum they are before meeting one of these dogs.

“I was once with Josie walking down the hall of a hospital, and an elderly gentleman randomly stopped us and asked if we’d see his wife,” Hicks said. “She had apparently been barely cooperating with the nurses and wanted no visitors, and was generally just in a rather ornery mood beforehand – until she saw Josie. Not only did she immediately want to have her brought in, but she got up and moved to pet Josie, which she had refused to do for the nurses. She even tried to start playing with her.”

Walker and Hicks plan to continue bringing such boosting stress-relief to Worrell for as long as they can.

“I’ll keep on bringing in Sparky for as long as they let us,” Walker said. “We plan to do a lot of volunteering around the community as well.”

Wake Forest University School of Law is now offering a new pre-law program for undergrads during the 2012 Summer Session I.

The program will consist of two classes, “Lawyers and Legal Institutions” (POL 286) and “Advocacy, Debate and the Law” (COMM 370), and will be open to any student who is considering law school, regardless of their majors. The courses will be taught by Wilson Parker and Chris Coughlin professors in the law school.

 “The goal of the program is to provide students with enough information about law school so that they can make an intelligent decisions as to whether or not law schools is a good choice for them,” Parker said. Read the full story here.

During the Wake Forest Journal of Law and Policy’s Spring Colloquium on April 5, 11 esteemed women attorneys and justices spoke about how the stigma of female attorneys has changed in the legal profession and in society as a whole.

Pulling from their own personal experiences and from stories they have heard, the panelists agreed that things have drastically improved over the past 40 years. They explained how women have broken many barriers to earn more respect among their peers, but they said it hasn’t always been that way.

The Honorable Karen Eady-Williams (’92), a judge for the 26th Judicial District Court of North Carolina, said she experienced discrimination in her early career as a criminal defense attorney. She said clients would tell her that they didn’t want her to defend the case because she was African-American and a woman. They didn’t think they could win the case because the judge would not listen as intently.

When she finally had her first jury trial, Eady-Williams said the client leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek when they won. She said she didn’t know exactly how to react, but she chose not to overreact. She explained that this client also thought she was the secretary when she first took on the case. Eady-Williams said that when her boss told the client that they would take the case, the guy’s response was “great, I want your secretary over there to handle it.”

Margaret Burnham (’83), a member of Nexsen Pruet, LLC, said she experienced discrimination while in the courtroom. Burnham said she has been called “honey” on numerous occasions by judges, clients and the general public. She said she never will forget the day she went to handle a closing transaction and heard someone say “honey, I think we are ready for your case now, you can go get the lawyer.”

Burnham said she used that experience as a learning tool. She said she now walks into the room and introduces herself as the practicing attorney so the other party doesn’t have the opportunity to mistake her for someone else.

“I actually loved working as an assistant district attorney when I started, but it came with its own challenges,” said Janet Ward Black, principal at Ward Black Law. “I had to convince the judges that I could be on time and do as great of a job as the male (assistant district attorneys),  but I think that pushed me to work hard and to become the best attorney I could for my clients.”

Black said there were a limited number of women attorneys when she first graduated, but she relied on their expertise and friendship to survive the male-dominated industry. She said volunteering with the local bar association helped her to get to know many people and break down some of glass ceiling. She said she encourages new graduates to do the same, especially women. She said women need to take advantage of every opportunity that comes their way because they never know what doors that will open.

“Politics may often be what gets you there, but if you do a good job, you will open a world of doors for the future and make it easier for those who come after you,” said the Honorable Rhoda Billings (’66), former Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.

Billings said she was the only woman in her graduating class at Wake Forest, but never felt unwelcomed. She said she came back to teach in the 1970s and was the first female professor at Wake Forest. She said she saw more and more women enter law school while teaching, and by the time Heather Howell Wright graduated from Wake Forest law in 2002, many of the prior discriminatory behavior had disappeared.

“I’ve never felt discriminated against and I haven’t been called honey,” said Wright, associate at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, LLP. “I don’t think it is awkward to be the only woman in the room or the only woman on a conference call. In fact, I think women are the only ones who notice that kind of information. The problem I do see, however, is the huge gap between the number of men and women who continue practicing law after their fourth and fifth years.”

Wright said she has seen what it is like to re-enter the industry after taking a break to have children and can understand why so many women either drop out of the industry altogether or move to smaller firms. She said the practice of billable hours often makes it difficult for women to make partner and manage their other responsibilities, but she said her firm strives to find new ways to support women in these positions and to keep them in the system.

“We’ve always used the concept of billable hours to reward good lawyers, and that tends to put women at a disadvantage,” said the Honorable Elizabeth B. Lacy, senior justice for the Supreme Court of Virginia. “It is hard for women to reach 2,000 hours a year when handling all of their responsibilities, which is why I think so many women pick smaller law firms.”

Eady-Williams said she also has seen discrimination against women who don’t have kids. She said there were many times that she was expected to fly across the country at a moment’s notice because she didn’t have to worry about picking up children at daycare or getting home to a sick child.

Lacy said gender discrimination at both the state and federal judicial level dates back for as long as many people can remember. She said task forces have been working hard since the 1980s to help educate members of the court on the areas of sexual harassment and discrimination to help raise awareness, but she said the fight has not ended. She said men and women alike need to work together and remain vigilant so the legal industry doesn’t take a step backwards.

“We’ve done some remarkable things over the years to improve these conditions, but we still have plenty of work to do,” said the Honorable Linda M. McGee, who is a judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals. “We still need to encourage women to be involved and mentor others.”

“I would encourage people to always do the best they can and not be afraid to learn from those who came before them,” added the Honorable Patricia Timmons-Goodson, an associate justice for the North Carolina Supreme Court. “I’ve had many mentors along my journey, and I think they all have helped shape the person I am today. Often times, those mentors see qualities in you before you do, so if someone approaches you with a plan, don’t be afraid to say ‘yes’ because you never know where it will lead you.”

Wake Forest School of Law Dean Blake Morant closed the program by thanking all of the panelists for participating in the informal discussion about a topic that many practicing lawyers still face today. He said the statistics may show that nearly half of law school graduates and 45 percent of law firm associates are women, but inequalities remain.

“I’m proud that our students wanted to take on this discussion and to show people where the legal industry is when it comes to gender-related issues,” Morant said.