Metwork On the Go: The Society of Women Trial Lawyers
Metwork’s Major Account Manager, Tara Lee, recently attended the Society of Women Trial Lawyers 2024 Annual Conference and she took some time to share her thoughts.
May 23, 2024
Metwork’s Major Account Manager, Tara Lee, recently attended the Society of Women Trial Lawyers (SWTL) 2024 Annual Conference. Held in Scottsdale, Arizona, the event brought together women trial lawyers from across the country to promote networking, impart knowledge, and, most of all, lift up the community.
Tara took some time to share her thoughts on the event:
The Society of Women Trial Lawyers is an amazing group of the top plaintiff trial lawyer women from across the country. I had the pleasure of joining them in Scottsdale recently for their annual convention, which was a conference like no other.
The founder of SWTL, Nancy Holston, has worked in the legal field for over 20 years. Many of the women she had been working with just really needed a space where they could have a safe space to communicate. It’s important to form connections and be able to talk about the unique challenges that women trial lawyers face. Many of the women in this group are leaders and members of other legal organizations. They are trailblazing, groundbreaking women shattering their profession's glass ceilings.
Nancy Holston, Julie Kane, and Tara Lee at SWTL 2024.
This meeting was inspiring and rejuvenating. Even as a non-lawyer legal professional, I learned so much about the struggles women face in this industry. Through the interactive sessions, we all connected in the unique challenges we face as women in legal. The Society of Women Trial Lawyers is really breaking down barriers and creating a safe space for these women to connect, become better lawyers, and talk about the latest new legal technologies or services, like Metwork, that can help them create the careers that they really want and to step outside of the usual norm and boundaries that unfortunately a lot of these members have experienced as women lawyers.
Metwork was proud to exhibit at the SWTL's annual convention this year. We are so excited to announce our partnership with the society as our first association on the Metwork platform. During the conference, I had the pleasure of connecting with members and going through all of the great features and tools that will enhance the association’s communication and collaboration, as well as strengthen the group as a whole. I also connected with individual lawyers, showing them our other amazing modules and features created to empower them to make connections not only with each other but with lawyers across the country in various practice areas.
Looking back, my biggest key takeaway from the SWTL convention was how important a community is to lawyers, especially women trial lawyers. It was amazing to see the friendship and camaraderie, these great, strong relationships with women from across the country. It was a safe, welcoming environment where the women attendees could speak freely; it didn't feel structured or rigid; it just felt very fluid. We were all encouraged to participate in discussions to share our individual experiences. Julia Metts said at breakfast on day 1 of the conference, this is a conference for you. Unlike other conferences where you are expected to be “on” all the time, feel free to tell your fellow attendees if you just don’t feel like “peopling” anymore. That set the stage for all of us to lean into being comfortable and our true, authentic selves. Be comfortable, come as who you are, come with your challenges, and know that this is a place where you're not the only woman or attendee who has experienced some of these things. And it just really reinforced how important a community like this is to create a safe space. I left feeling really inspired and walking away from the conference with many more connections and many new friendships.
Video courtesy of SWTL.
As someone who has been to more legal conferences than I can count, this one just felt less like work and more like a retreat with friends and family. They've created such a sense of community and safety in a space where other women are letting you know that the challenges you feel are shared, that the struggles that you're going through, and that you're not alone in those. There are other women who have dealt with them, who have struggled with them, and then you can talk about it freely. I was a first-time attendee, and while I did know a lot of the attendees from being in this profession for so long, it's always kind of a little bit nerve-wracking to attend your first conference because you don't know what to expect. And you come here, and you immediately feel like you're a part of a family. Everyone was just so welcoming.
We cried, we laughed, we ate, we took in the beautiful sunsets, and it was really a conference like I've never experienced before, and I cannot wait for their 2025 conference in New Orleans. If you're a woman trial lawyer and are not part of this organization, join it. This community of women is the best of the best across the country. They are creating their own firms. They are stepping outside and taking risks. They are going against what a lot of the partners at their firm are even telling them to do, but they are unapologetically moving forward and blazing a passport. You will have a community; you will have a group of lifelong friends. SWTL has created the space that we are building at Metwork, and I can’t wait to see their organization continue to grow and thrive.