BACKGROUND ON WOMEN OWNED LAW

Women Owned Law (“WOL”) was founded and is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in late 2016.  It is governed by a Board of Directors, currently comprised of 19 members. Additionally, an Advisory Board, comprised of approximately two dozen individuals with varying backgrounds, including law firms, in-house counsel, diversity and inclusion experts, and experts in entrepreneurship, provides guiding leadership to WOL.

WOL currently maintains several committees, which currently include the Executive, Finance, Member Affairs, Virtual Programming, and Governance.  The committees function as the operational arms of the organization, comprised of volunteers from among WOL members, who complete activities and tasks to carry out the mission of WOL.  

Specifically, the Regional Council Committee oversees the activities of all WOL regions, which are located in both national and international venues. Currently WOL includes four core Regional Steering Committees, in Washington, D.C., Southern New Jersey, New York City, NY &  Philadelphia, PA.  Discussions are underway with prospective Regional Representatives in additional geographic areas.

WOL also has a Diversity & Inclusion Task Force that is currently co-chaired by members of the Board of Directors and the Advisory Board.

WOL has hosted several live in-person events in Philadelphia, New York, Washington, D.C., South New Jersey, the San Francisco Bay Area, Louisville, Chicago, Houston, and Dallas. Some of these events were co-planned or co-hosted with other women focused entities like Her Corner, Tory Burch Foundation, Mothers Esquire and Ellevate. 

In May 2017, WOL commenced a series of live teleconferences to provide a vehicle for participation by WOL members across the nation.  This teleconference series, WOL Virtual Speaker Series, is now being provided via webinar and is offered on a monthly basis.

In the Fall of 2017, an ad hoc Strategic Planning Committee was convened with an initial survey of members and non-members, several focus groups and an in-person meeting and workshop comprised of WOL leaders from across the nation.  Since this meeting, the Strategic Planning Committee has taken the information gathered from these efforts and drafted the proposed goals, tasks and timelines for the strategic plan, which was approved by the WOL Board in September, 2018.

WOL is currently comprised of approximately 200 members, many of which are Founders Circle Sponsors.  WOL Members consist of a diverse group of individuals, coming from a variety of practice disciplines, geographic locations, and career backgrounds. WOL also has received sponsorship support above the Founders Circle level from a number of regional and national organizations.  This support generally has been in the form of both in-kind and cash contributions. WOL also has a number of other in-kind sponsors whose contribution cannot be quantified.

WOL hired its first staff person, a Director of Operations, in August 2017, who handles all administrative and some strategic functions of WOL, with support of an administrative assistant.