New club focuses on advancement, support of Md. women in legal profession

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“It seemed like people were waiting for something like this.”

Michelle Siri said the response to the Riveters Law Club — a group created last year that aims to help Maryland women in law advance through networking — has been “extraordinary.”

Siri, the club’s president and one of its co-founders, helped establish the group after noticing there was no law club in Maryland both formed by and focused on women in the legal profession. With 82 members who meet monthly from September through April for dinner, networking and a presentation given by a member, the club has hit the ground running.

‘The Riveters’ take their name from Rosie the Riveter, Siri said, who also serves as executive director of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation.

“It invokes strength and women in a workforce that was predominantly made up of men, and so what could be a more evocative name for a law club like this?” Siri said.

The club invites Maryland women in law who have at least 10 years of experience, and/or who have made significant contributions to the bar or bench.

Rebecca Fleming, partner at Turnbull, Nicholson & Sanders and co-founder of the club, said the group focuses on the support and mentorship of women in the legal profession.

“We can point to progress that women have made in the legal field, but there’s certainly more work to be done,” Fleming said. “I think that having an organization created by and for us is important for representation purposes.”

Sarah David, deputy state prosecutor and co-founder of the club, said that while women represent more than half of law school graduates, representation for women in partnership and in higher-level management in government continues to dwindle.

“I think part of the reason women sometimes step back from leadership roles in the profession could be prevented with mentoring, connectivity and those types of things, which is what we are trying to create,” David said.

David said it’s important for women to see how other women in the legal field have overcome challenges.

“While women have come a very long way in what seems like a short time, there’s a lot still to look at how the field can be adjusted for the greater influence of women,” David said. “The history of women in the bar is still a short one, and the profession will be enhanced by women’s leadership.” 

The club brings together women in Maryland from various facets of the legal profession and has a “rich intergenerational focus” on the advancement of women, David said.

Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, managing partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy, joined the Riveters Law Club in September last year as the group’s inaugural member.

“I was very excited when I got the invitation, in that it was really the first women’s law club that I had ever heard of, certainly in Maryland,” Krevor-Weisbaum said. “I had this feeling that there would be something special about it.”

Krevor-Weisbaum described the first meeting of the club as “electric.”

“I think there’s just a different kind of comfort that a group of only women gathered together brings to a room,” Krevor-Weisbaum said. “It’s hard to explain why it has felt so exciting and different. It really has felt exciting and different.”

Siri agreed the energy at club meetings is “palpable.”

“I had never really felt 100% comfortable (in other spaces),” Siri said. “I think a lot of people would say that they go into these other spaces, and they don’t always feel like they can be their authentic selves. And in that room, we can.”

Siri said she hopes members can recognize fellow members for their work and “lift them up.”

“The law can be a fun and joyous community to be a part of,” Siri said. “When we feel that we have an entire community behind us and supporting us, we feel like we can do even more.”