Kathleen Wilkinson (Senior Counsel-Philadelphia, PA) has been appointed as a Commissioner of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession (CWP), continuing her longstanding commitment to advancing the interests and well-being of women in the legal profession. The CWP was established in 1987 to evaluate the status of women lawyers, identify barriers to their advancement, and recommend actions to address those barriers. Its first chair was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who went on to serve as First Lady and a U.S. Senator from New York.
Kathleen’s appointment builds on her past three years of work with the Commission, during which she served as a Special Advisor and cochair of the Commission’s Mental Wellness Committee. At the direction of Commission Chair Karol Corbin Walker, who spearheaded the idea of studying the mental health of women attorneys, Kathleen participated with other Commission members in examining the available research on lawyers’ mental well-being in the legal profession. They studied whether women are impacted differently by stress, along with factors such as race, ethnicity, and disability, among others. The Committee recommended a national study, issued requests for proposals, and retained MindSetPower, led by past ABA President Paulette Brown. Virtual and in-person focus groups were assembled. One in-person focus group of diverse attorneys from Philadelphia met at Wilson Elser’s Philadelphia office. After a national survey, once all the information was collected, analyzed, and discussed, MindSetPower issued a groundbreaking report at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago earlier this month. The Mental Wellbeing for Women in the Law Study: The Unique Challenges of Women Lawyers and a Path Forward is the first national research initiative to examine how stress, bias, and systemic barriers uniquely affect women lawyers, including across demographic groups and as compared to male counterparts.