NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN JUDGES RECOGNIZES 2015 ANNUAL NAWJ HONOREES

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN JUDGES RECOGNIZES 2015 ANNUAL NAWJ HONOREES

Salt Lake City, Utah – Under the warms lights of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) Annual Gala Banquet, outgoing President Julie E. Frantz (Multnomah County Circuit Court, Oregon) paid admirable recognition to NAWJ members who have acted with distinction. The Gala took place on the penultimate day of NAWJ’s 2015 Annual Conference ‘With Liberty and Justice for All’ which took place in Salt Lake City, Utah from Wednesday, October 7 to Sunday, October 11. Nearly 300 judges, attorneys, legal experts and academics from across the country and around the world attended NAWJ’s annual meeting.

CourtCall’s Cathy Winter Receives NAWJ’s 2015 Mattie Belle Davis Award

The night’s first award, named for Mattie Belle Davis, was presented to NAWJ Resource Board member Cathy Winter. Ms. Winter became a member of NAWJ's Resource Board in 2012. Since that time she has been involved in numerous initiatives all of which have greatly benefitted NAWJ. She has served on the Planning Committee for NAWJ’s 36th Annual Conference in San Diego and was an active member of NAWJ’s Website Committee. She was instrumental in realizing this year meeting with the Congressional Women’s Caucus on Capitol Hill. Ms. Winter also serves on the Board of Directors of Western Justice Center, a non-profit organization that designs and implements programs aiming to promote effective conflict resolution in school and community settings. Professionally, Ms. Winter is the Director of Corporate Development at CourtCall, LLC in Los Angeles. CourtCall is responsible for managing an innovative teleconferencing system introduced in 1996 that facilitates non-evidentiary pretrial proceedings that enable attorneys to make appearances remotely. The service is widely used today, servicing hundreds of State, Federal, Bankruptcy, and Provincial Courts across the United States and Canada. The Award recognizes an NAWJ member who has gone above and beyond his or her role as member and volunteer to help make a difference in the organization and further its mission, as the Honorable Mattie Belle Davis did. The Award salutes an individual dedicated to furthering and supporting women in the legal profession. . (Cathy Winter pictured left, Hon. Julie Frantz, right.)

Attorney Karen Johnson-McKewan Recognized by NAWJ with its 2015 Florence K. Murray Award

Next, longtime NAWJ member and Resource Board Co-Chair Karen Johnson-McKewan, Esq. was honored with the Florence K. Murray Award. Ms. Johnson-McKewan joined the NAWJ Resource Board in 2005, and served as co-chair from 2006 to 2009. Among her many accomplishments during that period, Ms. Johnson-McKewan secured Forster-Long, Inc.’s partnership in producing a statistical summary of gender ratios of the judiciary in every state of the country. In 2011, Ms. Johnson-McKewan assumed the responsibilities of co-chair of the Resource Board for a second time and together with Elaine Metlin has played a critical role in advancing NAWJ’s mission. She also serves as vice-chair of NAWJ's California Coordinating Committee for the Informed Voters-Fair Judges Project (IVP). Orrick has been a substantial resource for the IVP. Its generous financial contributions and pro bono work of its attorneys have preserved NAWJ's tax-exempt status and the independence of IVP's intellectual property. This award was instituted by its namesake, the Honorable Florence K. Murray, for presentation to a non-judge who, by example or otherwise, has influenced women to pursue legal careers, opened doors for women attorneys, or advanced opportunities for women within the legal profession.

Ms. Johnson-McKewan, an Intellectual Property partner in Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP's San Francisco office, is a trial lawyer who concentrates her practice on complex intellectual property and commercial litigation for technology and consumer products companies. Ms. Johnson-McKewan has significant experience litigating and trying particularly intricate cases in which the translation of complex technology issues into plain English is invaluable. Her engagements have involved matters in technology, internet, financial, e-commerce, retail, software and gaming industries in a diverse set of courts and multiple arbitral bodies. She served as Orrick's San Francisco Office Leader from 2005 to 2008. Ms. Johnson-McKewan received her B.A. from the University of California, Davis and her law degree from the University of California, Davis School of Law.

Hon. Anne Walsh Bradley Recognized for Excellence in Service

This year NAWJ presented the Norma Wikler Excellence in Service Award to Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Justice Bradley serves as International Director for NAWJ. She is the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the International Judicial Academy and has served as an international lecturer for the Academy, the American Bar Association's Asia Law Initiative, and the U.S. Department of State. Currently, she also serves as the state coordinator of iCivics, a civics education program founded by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and as the North American delegate to the Board of Directors of the International Women Judges Association. Justice Bradley was in private practice until becoming a circuit court judge in Marathon County in 1985. She was elected to the Supreme Court in 1995 and re-elected in 2005 and 2015. She has been an NAWJ member since 2007. She was associate dean of the Wisconsin Judicial College and has formerly served as a Commissioner of the National Conference on Uniform Laws, Chair of the Wisconsin Rhodes Scholarship Committee, and a member of the Wisconsin Judicial Council. Justice Bradley is a native of Richland Center, Wisconsin. She was a high school teacher before entering the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she earned her law degree. She and her husband, Mark, live in Wausau where they raised their four children.

Hon. Shirley S. Abrahamson, NAWJ’s 2015 Joan Dempsey Klein Honoree of the Year

NAWJ presented its premier award, Justice Joan Dempsey Klein Honoree of the Year, to Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson who was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court by Gov. Patrick Lucey in 1976.This award honors a judge who brings distinction to her office and to NAWJ as exemplified by one of NAWJ’s founding mothers, Justice Joan Dempsey Klein. Justice Abrahamson was the only woman to serve on the Supreme Court when appointed. She won election to the court in 1979 and re-election in 1989, 1999, and 2009. Since August 1, 1996, she has been chief justice and, in that capacity, serves as the administrative leader of the Wisconsin court system. She gave an inspiring acceptance speech that spoke to a commitment to justice and the continued role of NAWJ members as exemplars.

Before joining the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Abrahamson was in private practice in Madison for 14 years and was a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School. She is a past president of the National Conference of Chief Justices and past chair of the board of directors of the National Center for State Courts. She also has served as chair of the National Institute of Justice's National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence. She also has served on the State Bar of Wisconsin's Commission on the Delivery of Legal Services, the American Bar Association's Coalition for Justice, and the National Academies' Science, Technology and Law panel.

Born and raised in New York City, Chief Justice Abrahamson received her bachelor's degrees from NYU in 1953, her law degree from Indiana University Law School in 1956, and a doctorate of law in American legal history in 1962 from the UW Law School. She is a fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an elected member of the American Philosophical Society. In 2004, she received the American Judicature Society's Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence. In 2009 the National Center for State Courts awarded her the Harry L. Carrico Award for Judicial Innovation, for serving as a national leader in safeguarding judicial independence, improving inter-branch relations, and expanding outreach to the public.

NAWJ Past President Hon. Anna Blackburne-Rigby Receives NAWJ’s 2015 Justice Vaino Spencer Leadership Award

NAWJ Past President Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby received this year’s Justice Vaino Spencer Leadership Award. The award is given for outstanding leadership in promoting the vision, core values, and mission of NAWJ. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby was one of NAWJ’s leading voices on the importance of judicial independence and the relevance of NAWJ’s newest program Informed Voters-Fair Judges Project to America’s democratic experiment. She was sworn in as President of NAWJ in October 2013. Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby was nominated by President George W. Bush to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals in August 2006. Prior to her appointment to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, Judge Blackburne-Rigsby was nominated by President William Jefferson Clinton to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and served from 2000-2006. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby previously served as a Magistrate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 1995-2000. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby chairs the District of Columbia Courts’ Standing Committee on Fairness and Access, and serves as Co-Chair of the District of Columbia’s Access to Justice Commission. In addition to her work with NAWJ, she also serves as Chair of the Board of Managerial Trustees for the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).

National Association of Women Judges Founded in 1979, NAWJ is a non-profit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to promote the judicial role in protecting the rights of individuals under the rule of law through strong, committed, diverse judicial leadership; fairness and equality in the courts; and equal access to justice. Our membership of 1,250 includes women and men, trial, appellate, administrative, tribal and military judges, on federal, state and tribal courts at every level of the judiciary, from throughout the country, and international tribunals, as well as attorneys, law clerks, law students and law professors committed to our mission. For more information about NAWJ contact Executive Director Marie Komisar at (202) 393-0222