A Message from the President:

I was born at the very tail end of the seventies, and so I grew up watching women enter the work force in earnest and in higher numbers than ever before. I was blessed enough to have a wonderful role model for this in my mother, whose dedication to her career is nothing short of extraordinary, and who showed me from a young age that women can – and should – demand to be seen for who we are and what we can do, not just what we look like. And to my father, who, as a teacher, had a career that left him able to pick up the majority of childcare duties while we were growing up. As a result, I never thought it was odd for a dad to have an active role in childrearing, even though mine was often the only man at so many of the soccer practices, or at the playground, or picking us up from school.

I carried this worldview with me into adulthood and my career, and have often thought – so naively – that while there is still so much work to do in order to create a profession that is truly equitable, we were at least moving in the right direction, as more and more women entered and excelled at law school, rose in the ranks of private firms, government agencies, and non-profits, and were appointed to the bench at all levels of both the state and federal courts. As both a law student and a young lawyer in the early 2000s, this helped boost my self-confidence and gave me the opportunity to learn from many professional female mentors, many of whom are current or former members of the RIWBA.

Sadly, we cannot take forward-moving progress for granted – it is no longer a matter of the society and the profession moving forward too slowly, but a fear of moving backwards in extreme and frightening ways.

And so, I know that, despite all we have accomplished, there is plenty for us to do in the upcoming year. We have taken an increasingly active role at the state house and it is a goal of mine to keep that momentum going and even increase our work in that area. In addition, I want to continue the work we have started in the areas of privilege and equity, with continued and expanded programming both in terms of CLEs and non-legal topics.

Through the Bar Journal series that I, along with several other members of the RIWBA, have worked on over the past few years, called Women Lawyers Past Present and Future, I have been lucky enough to chat with and profile several women who were either part of the founding of the RIWBA or were active in its early days. These conversations have given me an even deeper understanding of why this organization formed in the late 1980s, when women were seriously underrepresented both in the profession and in the higher ranks of firms, agencies, and the judiciary, and why we continue to need to fight these several decades later.

We are proud to be a DEI organization, even as the term has been corrupted and maligned by others, and proud of our goals of promoting the advancement of women in the legal profession and a just society, and promoting the administration of justice in this state – we may be facing a headwind now, but that is why the fight is more important than ever. DEI should not be a dirty word. Rather, diversity is our strength, equity is our goal, and inclusion is our pathway, and I look forward to another year of fighting the good fight with all of you amazing women lawyers and allies.

  Angela M. Yingling, President 2025