#WIL2021 Speaker Lineup Confirmed with Addition of Nina Totenberg

For program details and registration, please visit our conference page.

2021 SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Michele Coleman Mayes
Michele Coleman Mayes is vice president, general counsel and secretary for the New York Public Library (2012 – present). She previously held the position of general counsel for Allstate Insurance Company (2007-2012) and Pitney Bowes Inc. (2003-2007). Ms. Mayes served on the Presidential Commission on Election Administration from 2013-2014. She was chair of the Commission on Women in the Profession of the American Bar Association from 2014-2017. In 2015, she became a fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel. In August 2016, she was elected to the Board of Directors of Gogo Inc. (NASDAQ: GOGO).  She is a sought after speaker on the topic of diversity and inclusion. She is co-author of the book Courageous Counsel: Conversations with Women General Counsel in the Fortune 500. 

Shirley Leung
Shirley Leung is a columnist and associate editor at The Boston Globe. She has written on everything from the intersection of business and politics to gender and diversity issues in the workplace. She has been a three-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb Award for Commentary. In 2018, Boston Magazine named her to its list of the “100 Most Influential People in Boston.” Shirley is also a contributor to WGBH’s “Boston Public Radio” and “Greater Boston,” as well as a regular guest on New England Cable News. Previously, Shirley served as The Globe’s interim editorial page editor. She also has been The Globe’s business editor, where she oversaw its award-winning coverage of the 2008 financial crisis. Prior to The Globe, Shirley was a staff reporter at The Wall Street Journal. A graduate of Princeton University, she started her career at her hometown paper, The Baltimore Sun.

Nina Totenberg 
Nina Totenberg is NPR’s award-winning legal affairs correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR’s critically acclaimed newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition. Her coverage of the US Supreme Court and legal affairs has won her widespread recognition. She is often featured in documentaries — most recently RBG — that deal with issues before the court. As Newsweek put it, “The mainstays [of NPR] are Morning Edition and All Things Considered. But the creme de la creme is Nina Totenberg.”

Totenberg has been honored seven times by the American Bar Association for continued excellence in legal reporting and has received more than two dozen honorary degrees. On a lighter note, Esquire magazine twice named her one of the “Women We Love.” A frequent contributor on TV shows, she has also written for major newspapers and periodicals — among them, The New York Times Magazine, The Harvard Law Review, The Christian Science Monitor and New York Magazine, and others.

About the Conference

This conference provides career guidance and professional development growth to women attorneys and other professionals at all stages of their careers and brings together powerful decisionmakers from Massachusetts, Alaska, Canada, California, Illinois, New York, Washington, DC, and beyond.

We emphasize practical, useful information to take away from the full day’s programming to further develop your career.

• Top-notch panels, breakout sessions and speed mentoring with high level practitioners.
• Learn how to position yourself to take the leap into a power role and be inspired by our expert panelists as they touch on topics such as civil rights, pay equity, economic and social justice, and best practices for advocacy.
• Network, network, network – whether you want to advance where you are or move to a new opportunity, this is a great space to network for that next step.