The Women's Initiative of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, now one of the largest professional networking groups in New England, was initially formed in 1996 in response to the desire of our women clients to have a meeting place to connect with other women professionals.
The Women's Initiative has evolved with the explosion of women entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses and the increase in women attorneys at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge. Today, the Women's Initiative provides educational information on all issues that professional women face and is a venue for professional women to connect and network. More than 500 professional women have attended events in the past year. The group also provides a support and mentoring component for the women attorneys of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge through their interaction with other professional women, and through internal programs and resources that facilitate the development of their skill building and networking skills.
Many of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge's offices have active Women's Initiatives Groups including Boston, New York, Providence and West Palm Beach. The groups meet periodically in their own communities, providing educational speakers and seminars aimed at teaching valuable skill sets, holding informative meetings to address health and life issues and serving as a forum to foster networking and mentoring. The women attorneys work with each other between/among offices to share ideas and experiences.
The Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge Women's Initiatives Group model has been instituted in other law firms in Boston, New Orleans, Denver and Seattle through "word of mouth," based on our successes following national exposure through speaking engagements, thus demonstrating its appeal and popularity among women attorneys and female clients. As groups like this grow and proliferate around the country, a critical mass of women owned businesses, women attorneys and their confidants create the necessary power base capable of affecting political and social change.
The firm understands that our commitment to women is a commitment to excellence and helps to support other female and minority sponsored organizations and events. As an example of this, EAPD is a sponsor of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ), National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), Women's Association of Venture & Equity (WAVE), the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, and the Association of Professional Insurance Women (APIW).