Nancy Degan talks with New Orleans CityBusiness about her role as chair of the litigation section of the American Bar Association and her goals during her one-year term.
"One of my key initiatives is to create a law school outreach program and help provide more law students with a guiding hand while they are embarking on their careers. There are about 360 chair leaders in the section of litigation and about 250 ABA accredited law schools in the U.S. I'd really like to be able to forge a stronger relationship between law students and the litigators by having mentors available. I requested that everyone in a leadership opportunity agree to do a mentorship program at a law school. These mentors would be able to connect with law schools to do one or two one-hour programs on how to get a job, how to be a good associate, resume writing, and to make sure the students are aware of all the ABA resources available for law students. We hope to target all accredited schools, but that will vary depending on the mentors' locations. Unfortunately, we might not be able to target every school depending on the mentors' location. Another key initiative looks at a continuing education seminar geared strictly at women litigators. It's the first time we have ever had a program geared directly to this demographic. The reason we are doing this is to provide a program where our women lawyers can network and focus on litigation skills."
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