Center for Women in Law

Convening leaders, generating ideas, leading change.

Women have been entering the legal profession in equal proportion to men for decades and some have ascended to the highest positions in the field:  Supreme Court justice, law-school dean, attorney general, managing partner, general counsel, senator, governor, presidential candidate. Yet despite these historic gains, the percentage of women in leadership positions has plateaued far below the point of gender parity.

To increase the number of women in leadership positions, The University of Texas School of Law created the Center for Women in Law. The Center is the premier American institution devoted to the success of the entire spectrum of women in law, from first-year law students to the most experienced and accomplished attorneys. It combines theory with practice, identifying and addressing the persistent issues facing individual women and the profession as a whole. With an approach both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, the Center focuses on gathering and sharing best practices from all avenues of law practice as well as from a host of other professions, including medicine, business, journalism, politics, and academia.

One of the Center’s very first initiatives was its inaugural conference, which was held in Austin in spring 2009. The Women’s Power Summit on Law and Leadership was an historic gathering of leading women in law, ranging from those at the highest echelons of private practice and the corporate sector to their counterparts in government, non-profits, academia, and the judiciary. At this Summit, the country’s elite female lawyers exchanged ideas and field-tested solutions, culminating in the drafting of a platform that calls for specific, concrete steps to tackle the stubborn obstacles facing women in the profession today. Participants are encouraged to continue their association with the Center, returning as leaders-in-residence and serving as faculty for an ongoing leadership academy.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Linda Bray Chanow, the Center advocates for significant and lasting changes in the law and the practice of law by:

• identifying barriers to women’s success in law;
• establishing best practices for advancing women in law firms, businesses, and other organizations;
• providing leadership programs that promote skill building for women lawyers at all stages in their careers;
• advocating for creative solutions that allow women to raise families while building legal careers;
• providing a center for academic research;
• working as a strategic partner with other institutions; and
• serving as a resource to law firms, businesses and other organizations across Texas and throughout the U.S.

For more information, please contact Linda Chanow at lchanow@law.utexas.edu