Connie K. Duckworth Featured at the National Association of Women Lawyers® Mid-Year Meeting & Awards Luncheon

On March 5th 2015, the National Association of Women Lawyers® (“NAWL”) hosted its Mid-Year Meeting & Awards Luncheon – The Power of Us: Building a Better Future Together – for over 250 women attorneys from firms and companies across the country. As part of the robust program, social entrepreneur Connie K. Duckworth shared her knowledge and insights as the keynote presenter.

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Today’s world requires attorneys not only to be expert lawyers, but also to be multi-faceted, strategic, and motivational leaders who engage themselves, their teams, and their organizations to achieve at the highest level possible.  On March 5th 2015, the National Association of Women Lawyers® (“NAWL”) hosted its Mid-Year Meeting & Awards Luncheon – The Power of Us: Building a Better Future Together – for over 250 women attorneys from firms and companies across the countryAs part of the robust program, social entrepreneur Connie K. Duckworth shared her knowledge and insights as the keynote presenter.

Ms. Duckworth, has a long history of mentoring women in the male-dominated business world. In 2004, she founded ARZU, which means “hope” in Dari, to empower destitute women weavers in rural Afghanistan, and currently serves pro bono as Chairman and CEO of that organization. Starting with 30 weavers, ARZU has transformed into a learning laboratory for holistic grassroots economic development, and today employs some 500 women, providing access to education and basic healthcare, seeding multiple micro-business start-ups, building community centers, preschools and parks, and creating award-winning fair-labor rugs.  It is noteworthy that this all occurs in a country ranked as “the world’s worst place to be a woman.”

Ms. Duckworth, a pioneer in the business world, retired in 2001 as a Partner and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs, where she was the first woman to be named a sales and trading partner in the firm’s history. For the past decade, she has focused on many roles, including corporate director, published author, activist, angel investor, humanitarian, and blogger. She co-founded 8 Wings Enterprises, a group of angel investors that advised and selectively funded early-stage, women-led companies, co-authored The Old Girls’ Network: Insider Advice for Women Building Businesses in a Man’s World, and served as chair of the Committee of 200, a professional organization of the nation’s most powerful women entrepreneurs and corporate executives.

Ms. Duckworth is currently a Trustee of Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and a Director of Russell Investment Group and Steelcase Inc. Ms. Duckworth serves on the boards of The Wharton School in Philadelphia, the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago and NorthShore University HealthSystem, in Evanston, Illinois, where she was the first woman to be named Chairman of the Board.

She is the recipient of numerous awards for leadership, advocacy, social impact, innovation, and global presence and is the happily married mother of four. Ms. Duckworth holds an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from the University of Texas.

Attendees of the Mid-Year Meeting & Awards Luncheon walked away with tips for implementing best practices for building business ethically and for rallying in difficult situations. Through programs like the Mid-Year Meeting, NAWL provides the tools for women in the legal profession to advance, prosper, and enrich the profession.  Perhaps most importantly, NAWL, through its members and committees, functions as the Voice of Women in the Law™, providing a collective voice in the bar, courts, Congress, and the workplace to ensure that womens’ concerns are heard.

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For further information about NAWL and the organization’s programs, visit www.nawl.org.

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