March 5, 2025 Dear Members, These are challenging times. In the last six weeks, we have witnessed numerous attacks on and other actions in opposition to the core values that the Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBA) has stood for over its more than 100-year history. At the same time, we have [...]
Jennifer C. Mika is Counsel at Crowell & Moring. She joined the WBA in 2008 when she was a 1L! She’s been involved in many WBA committees, including mentoring, young lawyers, and membership. Jennifer is a first generation lawyer who came to DC after undergrad and has made it her adult home. After 12 years [...]
WBA celebrates Black History Month by celebrating the Black members of our community. Adaoma (Ada) Okafor is a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Chief Judge Anna Blackburne- Rigsby at the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Ada was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and moved to the United States at 12, settling in Hampton, VA. [...]
The Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBA) will recognize Vanita Gupta as the 2025 WBA Woman Lawyer of the Year. Ms. Gupta served as Associate Attorney General of the United States from 2021 to 2024. The Woman Lawyer of the Year Award recognizes a leader who has championed change in the profession [...]
Victoria Clark is the Former Senior Deputy Associate Counsel at The White House and Oversight Counsel at the Department of Homeland Security and is currently exploring new opportunities. After years of public service, Victoria recently transitioned from the federal government, where she focused on investigations. At The White House, she worked on vetting nominees for [...]
Rachel Lawrence is the Associate Director for Pro Bono & Public Interest Career Development at The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. She’s been at the law school for over 8 years, including a 9-month part-time stint in 2021 while she also worked for the Internal Revenue Service. Rachel loves public service law, [...]
December 20, 2024 President Joseph R. Biden The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Biden: The Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBA), one of the oldest women’s bar associations in the country, believes the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) should be a fundamental constitutional principle—that women are people [...]
In February 2023, the American Bar Association (“ABA”) passed Resolution 400, calling on the Supreme Court of the United States to develop its own binding code of conduct similar to the Judicial Conference of the United States Code of Conduct. In November 2023, as a result of the public outcry concerning reports of alleged misconduct, [...]
Sarah A. James is an Associate Attorney at Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott, LLC. She attended law school during the evenings while working full time as a paralegal at a Boston law firm. She went on to clerk at the Land Court in Boston and trial court in Rhode Island. After landing in the DC [...]
WBA celebrates Pride Month by celebrating the LGBTQ+ members of our community. Photo Credit: Sarah Sharaf-Eldien Sunu P. Chandy (she/her) is a Senior Advisor with Democracy Forward, supporting work across the teams including fighting attacks on DEI, and working alongside partner organizations to help build a nation that does right by all of us. [...]
