Annual Awards Gala (Virtual)
Click Here to Watch 2021 Gala, for the annual awards gala, which was held virtually on December 7, 2021. The Awards Program recognizes women and men and groups who have enhanced white collar practice while making the field more diverse and equitable, or who otherwise have used their platforms to support women in the practice. In addition, this year WWCDA gave a new award that was announced at the 2020 Awards Gala to honor the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: The Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Outstanding Student Award. The award will be given annually to a female law student who is in the final year of her legal education and who best exemplifies Justice Ginsburg’s commitment to excellence, perseverance, resilience, extraordinary work ethic, and tireless efforts to ensure justice for all in the eyes of the law.
Maintaining and Strengthening Our Connections
Regional & Chapter Conferences: One of the most exciting new initiatives launched during the last year by the WWCDA Executive Committee is a series of regional conferences and events. The Regional Leaders who serve on the Executive Committee have convened the leaders in each of the chapter regions to discuss WWCDA initiatives and plan activities so that chapters can collaborate and have events at the regional level.
As highlighted on our website (Chapter Region Chart and Executive Committee Members), WWCDA has five chapter regions: North America East Coast, Midwest and West Coast, Europe/Latin America, and Asia Pacific. This spring, the chapters in Europe worked together to launch a series of events for the year where each European Chapter will host an event on how the following topics apply in their jurisdiction:
- Internal Investigations
- Legal Privilege
- Disclosure of information to other countries
- External/internal lawyers – who can conduct investigations
This past Spring, London, Italy, and Ireland each held amazing events, covering topics like “English Privilege” and “Application of UK Laws to Non-UK Companies” in London, to “The Gradual Rise of Internal Investigations in Italy” and “The Limited Scope of Privilege in Italian Law” in Italy, to “Mandatory Legal Reporting Obligations Under Irish Law” and “Offences Committed by Directors, Officers, and Managers of Companies” in Ireland. The Leaders in the other regions are in the process of making similar plans.
I am so impressed by our chapter leaders who have put the many amazing programs together, and would encourage other chapters to do the same. For any chapters needing help, please reach out to me or the Chairs of the Chapters Committee, Joanelle O’Cleirigh and Kristin Winemiller.
Other Successes
WWCDA has continued to successfully place women on panels at conferences and other events and promote the professional accomplishments of our members and sponsors on social media and our website. WWCDA is also using the size and strength of our organization in seeking to have more women included in the rankings of top professionals — rankings that we know prospective clients rely upon in choosing who to hire. For example, just recently we celebrated the fact that no fewer than 10 of our members were named among The Top FCPA Practitioners by Global Investigations Review. What an accomplishment! Many thanks to the WWCDA committees that are leading these different initiatives.
Thank you for being a part of WWCDA. If you are interested in getting more involved by serving on a WWCDA committee, check out the list of committees and volunteer here. Many personal and professional relationships grow from the sisterhood of our members working together in building WWCDA.