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There were about 200 attendees, including dozens of international judges, at the 2023 National Association of Women Judges annual conference in Indianapolis earlier this month.
Marion Superior Court Judge Heather Welch, who served as chair of the conference, said highlights from the conference included the social gatherings, a proclamation from the city and speeches.
“Our keynote speakers were amazing,” said Welch, who will retire from the bench next year.
Among the speakers was Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, who was the first female judge advocate general officer in the Michigan Army National Guard and served as judge in the case of disgraced USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Judge J. Michelle Childs also spoke at the conference about her journey through her career, which included being considered by President Joe Biden to replace former Justice Stephen Breyer on the U.S. Supreme Court. The seat ultimately went to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Along with about 80 international judges from 26 countries, Welch said there were about 25 students who attended from the law schools at Indiana University, IUPUI and the University of Louisville.
The students got to sit down with judges in a fashion similar to speed dating, Welch said, where judges moved from table to table so students could meet everyone and ask questions.
“The educational programs were excellent,” Welch said. “It gave an opportunity for judges of all different backgrounds to learn something new.”
The annual conference marked a return to Indiana for the National Association of Women Judges, which held its conference in Indianapolis in 2004.
The three-day conference also included a U.S. Supreme Court update from University of California at Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, along with panel sessions about women leading complex cases, combatting sexual abuse in college and professional athletics, and issues in neuroscience among judges.
Welch and April Keaton, a deputy attorney general in the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, previewed the conference in September on the Indiana Lawyer Podcast
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