About the Coalition

The Coalition of Women's Initiatives in Law is a non-profit membership association comprised of law firms, companies and other organizations in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C. that serves the professional development and networking needs of its members women attorneys.

 
The Coalition's mission is to benefit its member firms and companies and its individual in-house counsel members by providing positive avenues of communication, collaboration and guidance that help members to: 1) enhance the recruitment, retention and promotion of women lawyers, and 2) support the building, implementation and continued relevancy of women's initiatives in law firms and companies. 
 
Any law firm or company with lawyers based in the Chicago, New York or Washington, D.C. areas that have a women's initiative or is committed to addressing issues facing women lawyers in the firm or company is welcome to join the Coalition. The Coalition also welcomes individual members of in-house/corporate counsel in the Chicago, New York or Washington, D.C. area. 
 
The Coalition offers individual memberships only to in-house counsel. For law firm and corporate members, the law firms and the companies are the members, and individuals from each law firm or company member are delegates to the Coalition. Each firm and company member is allowed one main delegate and up to three alternate delegates who may participate in the Coalition at any given time. 
 
All Coalition members have delegates to the Coalition. The delegates are the formal representative of their law firm or company to the Coalition. Delegates also can participate on or chair Coalition committees, such as Programming, Community Outreach, Public Relations, Finance, Membership, Policy, Sponsorship, Associates, and In-House Counsel. Click here for more information on our Committees. 
 
While non-lawyers cannot join the Coalition, we do work with consulting firms and businesses on women-related issues, and joint events and programs are occasionally held in which non-lawyers are able to attend. In addition, there are a number of sponsorship opportunities for outside entities to support the Coalition. 
 
Annual membership dues are based on a sliding scale depending on the size of the firm's office(s), or the company's legal department. 
 
The Coalition's goals include: increasing attendance at events, expanding use of the website as a communications hub for membership, improved exposure for sponsors and expansion to additional cities.