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Immediate-Past President of ABA to Address Philadelphia Bar at Quarterly Meeting
Celebrating women as leaders will be the theme of the Philadelphia Bar Association's Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon on Wednesday, Oct. 24 at noon at the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue. Martha W. Barnett, Esq., immediate-past president of the American Bar Association, will address members of the Philadelphia Bar as the keynote speaker of the meeting. Former Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Judith J. Jamison will be honored posthumously with the 2001 Sandra Day O'Connor Award--the highest honor that the Philadelphia Bar Association can bestow on a woman lawyer.Barnett, a partner in the global firm of Holland & Knight LLP in Tallahassee, Fla., was the second woman president of the ABA. During her tenure as ABA president, she brought attention to issues ranging from the death penalty to immigration. But the issue that garnered the most attention was the ABA's role in vetting potential federal judicial nominees.
Earlier this year, President Bush ended the half-century practice of providing candidates' names to the ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary for screening before nominations are announced.
The controversy gave Barnett a chance to talk about the evaluation process. Now, she says, the ABA may well find itself with a much more visible role in advising the Senate, the public and the President about candidates.
Barnett has held numerous leadership positions with the ABA and is active with her local bar associations. She has been involved in numerous national organizations, serving on the Board of Directors for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the American Judicare Society and the National Institute for Dispute Resolution. In Florida, Barnett has been a governor's appointee to the Governor's Select Committee on Workforce 2000 and the Florida Commission on Ethics.
Judge Judith J. Jamison, who passed away in August of this year, will be honored posthumously with the Sandra Day O'Connor Award. The award is given annually to a woman attorney who has demonstrated superior legal talent, achieved significant accomplishments and has furthered the advancement of women in both the profession and the community.
Judge Jamison joined Cozen O'Connor in July 1997 as Of Counsel in the Estate Planning and Administration Department. From 1974 to 1990, she was a judge in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, where she was the first woman to serve as an Orphan's Court judge in Pennsylvania.
Tickets to the Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon are now available at $40 for Bar Association members and $45 for the public. A ticket order form is available on the Association's Web site at www.philadelphiabar.org. For more information, call the Bar Association at (215) 238-6342.