CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Open Letter to President-Elect Trump from National Legal Associations:
Dear President-elect Trump:
As the leaders of national legal associations, including the National Association of Women Lawyers, Ms. JD, the LGBT Bar, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the National Bar Association, we urge you and the members of your incoming presidential administration and Congress to find common ground and lead the nation towards unity and inclusion.
As Americans and as lawyers, regardless of our party affiliation, we cherish the rule of law and the peaceful transfer of power to a new administration after each election. At the culmination of this challenging and contentious election season, we call upon you to lead the nation towards unity and inclusion. We also call upon you and our newly-elected Congress to preserve and expand the hard-fought rights that have been established for all of our citizens, not to diminish them.
The work of our organizations continues to be critical, as we amplify the collective voice of women and men of all races, ethnicities, gender identities, and sexual orientations. You, along with Secretary Clinton and President Obama, all agree that we must come together as one united people. Actions supporting inclusion and justice for all are essential to achieving that goal. We call on you to make diverse appointments to leadership positions on your transition team, to key positions in your administration and at every level of government, and to the federal judiciary. We owe it to ourselves, as well as to those who came before us and those who come after to work together.
The mission of the National Association of Women Lawyers is to provide leadership, a collective voice, and essential resources to advance women in the legal profession and advocate for the equality of women under the law. Since 1899, NAWL has been empowering women in the legal profession, cultivating a diverse membership dedicated to equality, mutual support, and collective success. If you are not already a member, please considering joining. NAWL welcomes the membership of individual attorneys, including private practice, corporate, academic, government and non-profit attorneys, and groups, including law firms, corporate legal departments, law schools, and bar associations. Learn more at www.nawl.org.
Ms. JD is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to the success of aspiring and early career women lawyers. Ms. JD is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of law students and legal professionals. Founded at Stanford Law School in 2006 by a group of female law students from Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley), Cornell, Georgetown, Harvard, NYU, Stanford, UCLA, UT Austin, the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, and Yale, Ms. JD is a 501(c)(3) incorporated in California. Serving as a unique nexus between the profession and the pipeline of diverse attorneys, Ms. JD’s online community provides a forum for dialogue and networking among women lawyers and law students. Ms. JD’s programs provide law student fellowships, public interest scholarship and international scholarships for foreign women law students. With campus chapters throughout the nation, Ms. JD is also home to the National Women Law Students’ Organization. Learn more at www.ms-jd.org
The National LGBT Bar Association (“LGBT Bar”) is a non-partisan, membership-based professional association of lawyers, judges, and other legal professionals, law students, activists, and affiliated lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender legal organizations. The LGBT Bar promotes justice in and through the legal profession for the LGBT community in all its diversity.
The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) is the national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. NAPABA represents the interests of about 50,000 attorneys and over 75 national, state, and local bar associations. Its members include solo practitioners, large firm lawyers, corporate counsel, legal services and non-profit attorneys, and lawyers serving at all levels of government. NAPABA engages in legislative and policy advocacy, promotes APA political leadership and political appointments, and builds coalitions within the legal profession and the community at large. NAPABA also serves as a resource for government agencies, members of Congress, and public service organizations about APAs in the legal profession, civil rights, and diversity in the courts.
The objectives of the National Bar Association "…shall be to advance the science of jurisprudence; improve the administration of justice; preserve the independence of the judiciary and to uphold the honor and integrity of the legal profession; to promote professional and social intercourse among the members of the American and the international bars; to promote legislation that will improve the economic condition of all American citizens, regardless of race, sex or creed in their efforts to secure a free and untrammeled use of the franchise guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States; and to protect the civil and political rights of the citizens and residents of the United States."
