See the below letter from incoming WLA President Isabel Finley, announcing the new WLA Board for 2018-19! Our website and blog will be updated over the course of the summer to reflect the new Board and other WLA changes and updates, so stay tuned.
Dear WLA,
Congratulations to all our members on finishing another year of HLS! Whether you’re finally done with 1L, are starting your 2L summer job, or just graduated (!), the WLA could not be more proud to have such exceptional women contributing to the accomplishments and community of our law school.
This year, the WLA has undergone an incredible transformation. We have doubled in size yet again, from ~150 to just under 300 members. But we have also seen a significant increase in the diversity of our membership, which for the first time roughly matches the racial and ethnic diversity of the general HLS student body. Under the superb leadership of Paavani Garg, our outgoing 2017-18 President, the WLA and our programming has become more intentional, inclusive, and intersectional.
We put on and cosponsored close to 150 events, including our Feminism & Womanism and Why We March conferences, and our inaugural Feminist Formal. We voted to amend our mission statement to reflect that we are “a feminist and womanist organization,” and created our Outreach committee, dedicated to engaging other affinity groups and ensuring our programming is inclusive and accessible. Critically, we also created our Women of Color Coalition (WoCC) and Queer Women’s Coalition (QWC), campus spaces that did not exist before for marginalized women. We hosted panels not only about life in biglaw, but also about how to skip EIP and search for public interest jobs, and we advocated to the administration for everything from ensuring admitted students can receive multiple letters from affinity groups, to requiring firms disclose usage of mandatory arbitration and non-disclosure agreements during EIP.
Yet there is absolutely and always more to do in furtherance of our mission. And so, I could not be more pleased to announce the members of the 2018-19 WLA Board! This incredible group of brilliant, dedicated women will work tirelessly to execute our collective vision for the WLA, and I am already so inspired by their ideas, convictions, and commitment to our members and goals.
Board & Membership Structure
The Executive Board is comprised of the President, two Vice Presidents, Treasurer, and Communications Manager. In recognition of the extensive, executive role of communications, this position is now a part of the Executive Board as opposed to a committee chairship. Our 22 committees will be run by 31 board member Committee Chairs, with each cluster of committees overseen by one of our 6 Directors. Additionally, after the President and VPs ran the WoCC and the QWC this first year, these coalitions will now have 3 dedicated board member Chairs.
All WLA General Body Members are placed on a committee, but membership in the WoCC and QWC is additional to committee membership. This is both to reflect the coalitions’ emphasis on providing community while not detracting from members’ ability to participate on committees, as well as to avoid siloing marginalized populations from the WLA as a whole.
I’ve received many requests since General Body Membership applications closed to reopen them, and so applications will be reopened until July 15th at 11:59pm, after which rising 2Ls and 3Ls will be notified of their committees for 2018-19! Additionally, stay tuned for links in our newsletter to sign up for some additional ways to get involved next year, as well as to join the WoCC or QWC — though know you will always be welcome to join the coalitions at any time.
Concluding Thoughts
As we reflect on the many disturbing events and policies in the news, I urge those of us connected to the WLA to remember to show up for others. This was a year of reckoning with the history of the WLA and the feminist movement more generally, such that we may more effectively further our gender equity mission for all who identify as women, and serve as active allies to our friends and colleagues who face marginalization across all lines of identity. Thus, I hope that as we continue to grow in size and expand our intersectional mission, the WLA can strengthen our place as a force against not only gender-based discrimination, but all types of inequities.
I could not be more honored to serve as your President this year, and to work with the extraordinary women on our incoming board. Congratulations to all of our graduates, and best wishes for an excellent summer!
Sincerely,
Isabel Finley
President, Harvard Women’s Law Association
Congratulations to all who have graduated – Well done!