Discussion with Kathleen Wilkinson of the Pennsylvania Bar Association

Episode Notes

Transcript

Amanda Arriaga:

Welcome to another bonus episode of Leading theBar. I’m your host, Amanda Arriaga, and I’m joined by Lynette Paczkowski. We’re looking back on my discussion with Kathleen Wilkinson, Past President of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Lynette, what did you think of the delightful Kathleen?

Lynette Paczkowski:

When you say good people, she’s just good people. I respect the heck out of the fact that she is the most delightful of people, but also just one of the strongest leadery type of people that we know.

Amanda Arriaga:

And we talk about it during the discussion, but Kathleen and I were on a committee together and then we met in person and immediately just fell in love. And she is wonderful. She really is that leader. She really does want to get to know people and lead them and mentor them and make them their best selves. So you don’t get that with everybody. She’s the real deal.

Lynette Paczkowski:

She really is. And I really liked what she had to say about wellness and lawyer wellbeing and how it’s really part of our ethical obligation to be physically and mentally capable of representing our clients. And I think she was a little bit ahead of her time in recognizing that that means more than work-life balance for young parents and that it really means every lawyer has a holistic need to take care of themselves on some level.

Amanda Arriaga:

Yeah. She is a trailblazer in making sure that we care about ourselves as much as we care about everybody else. So let’s listen in. Sounds good. Welcome to the next episode of the Austin Bar Association’s Council of Firsts. I’m your host, Amanda Arriaga, first Latina Bar President. In today’s episode, we’re doing something a little bit different. We’ve partnered with the National Conference for Bar Presidents to do a series of interviews with bar leaders from around the country here in Louisville, Kentucky. So I’m happy to introduce you to all of these leaders that you might not know because they’re not from Austin. Kathleen Wilkinson is a past president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and a past chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Fun fact, she was the sixth woman in each of those positions. She is a founding member and the first woman president of the Villanova J.

Willard O’Brien in of court. She’s a partner at Wilson Elsir in Philadelphia. She’s been recognized so many times and for so many reasons, including she’s a recipient of the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award in the Third Circuit, the Anne X Alpirn Award from the Pennsylvania Women in the Profession Committee, where she engaged in significant activities on behalf of women in the profession. The Pennsylvania Bar Association C. Dale McClain Quality of Life Balance Award, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Sandra Day O’Connor Award, and the Defense Lawyer of the Year by the Philadelphia Association of Defense Counsel. I’m so happy to have with us Kathleen Wilkinson. So thank you for being here. And I want to start with my initial question. Why did you want to be a lawyer?

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Well, it’s a really good question because I didn’t know anyone in my family who was a lawyer whatsoever. And the first time I really paid attention was when I saw a movie involving Spencer Tracy and Kathryn Hepburn called Adam’s Rib. And I just saw this husband and wife couple. She had so much glamour dressed so beautifully. Her husband was a lawyer, she was a lawyer. They lived together in this beautiful apartment and they had a case together when they were on opposite sides of the case and she was representing one party who was representing another. And I said, “Oh, that looks really cool. I think I want to be a lawyer.” And this was like a really old movie that I saw and here I am. That’s what I ended up doing.

Amanda Arriaga:

Did that also inspire you to wear a lot of pants?

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Yes. In fact, I’m wearing pants today. Indeed. Yes. Pants and nice outfits, nice booths. And also in real life, I’m also married to a lawyer.

Amanda Arriaga:

Oh, you recreated your own Spencer Tracey Adams Rim. Yes. I love that. Yeah. I love that. Brilliant. Feminine and wear your pants. Yes, absolutely. So you became a lawyer and then all of a sudden you became very leadery and you have many accomplishments, but you were also the president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Why was it important to you to be in charge of that? Well,

Kathleen Wilkinson:

I ended up while being a lawyer at my firm, Wilson Elser, getting more and more involved in bar Association war. And I was urged to run for the board of governors for the Philadelphia Bar Association by one of my partners, Shelly Fadula. And I had just had my third child and I really wasn’t thinking about bar service. I said, “Let me just give me a year. I’ll think about it next year.” So I fell in love with the Philadelphia Bar Association. I got elected to be a member of the board. Long story short, I ended up becoming the chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association first. But during my work for the PhiladelphiaBar, I became more involved with the Pennsylvania bar and I decided that I wanted to get more active in that bar association as well. And so eventually, and I’m skipping a lot of steps here, but eventually I saw a door open whereby I could get on the board of governors of the PennsylvaniaBar and that led me to decide eventually to run and later become president of EnspingaBar.

And the bottom line is I love bar service, and that was the main motivation. I fell in love with both bar associations, so that was the main motivation for wanting to serve.

Amanda Arriaga:

Do you have a project or initiative of the Pennsylvania Bar that you’re most proud of?

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Yes. The initiative that I’m most proud of is something I’m really passionate about, and that is attorney wellness. And so when I served as the president between 2021 to 2022, we were just coming out of COVID and just being able to return back to work, doing meetings in person again, networking with our colleagues. And I realized because I was already looking into the area of attorney wellness that this was an area that I wanted to vote my presidential year on. And so a lot of what we focused on was adopting the Seven Point Wellness Pledge of the American Bar Association, also adopting a resolution to ensure that when people returned to work, that they would have adequate mentoring, that they could return maybe part-time or work remotely from home, basically called it a safe return to work type policy, which was also adopted. And we did many programs throughout the year on wellness and the legal profession.

Amanda Arriaga:

And you actually won an award, the C. Dale McClain Quality of Life Balance Award from the PennsylvaniaBar for your work in identifying issues relevant to balancing the professional and personal lives of Pennsylvania attorneys. You are passionate about wellness and work-life balance, but that isn’t something that lawyers have traditionally talked about or have been celebrated for. Why do you think that’s changing? Well, thank you for noting

Kathleen Wilkinson:

That award. I was very honored to receive that award. I think things are changing for a lot of reasons. Number one, I think during COVID in particular, we started focusing more on our own health and safety. We also developed new tools such as the use of Zoom, which no one was doing, and that gave us safe space to keep networking. We could keep doing CLEs. We could be safe and not have to interact during COVID. And then as we came out of COVID, I think a lot of people realized that taking care of oneself, having self-care, being healthy is very important. And a separate factor is that I think the legal profession has also felt that wellbeing is important, not only just to lawyers, but to judges as well. For example, in the Third Circuit, Third Circuit Judge Cheryl Fraust, who’s going to be speaking tomorrow at a wellness program that I’m doing for the National Conference of our president, she wrote a law review article about that her opinion is that wellness is really at a crisis level and just like lawyers have to be competent under model rule 1.1 in order to handle their cases, competency also includes making sure you’re healthy and that you’re physically able, mentally able to handle your cases.

So from that, we’re seeing more of the judicial branch also adopting wellness policies. Third Circuit has people available to employees of the Third Circuit to help them with the wellness. So it’s just a couple of examples why I think we’ve really evolved since the time that I received that award. Do you have

Amanda Arriaga:

Any wellness or work-life

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Balance tips for our audience? Yes, for sure. When I received that award, at that time, we were actually doing different types of programs. We were talking more about balancing your career with being a lawyer, whether you’re a mother with young children and trying to do things during a specific time of day. Maybe you’re busy in the morning working before the kids get up, and then you take them to school, you arrive at work later, but then you go home early and you work at night. That was a way of balancing your life before flex time was even available. Today, my tips are, it’s not just about balancing your day, which I still do today. I’m someone who, even though I don’t have young children at home anymore, get my best work done early in the morning. Maybe I have to do something in the middle of the day and then I’m back at it late at night.

But other tips would be, what is your happy place? During the middle of the day, if you can take a break, maybe your happy place might be to walk across the street and go to Starbucks, which is right across the street from my office, or if I was working from home. Maybe that means walking around the neighborhood for a little while, or maybe it means I’m sitting at my desk thinking about my frame of mind, thinking about places that make me happy, like going to the ocean, going to the beach, thinking about your happy place. Also, it means taking care of yourself, going for those long wellness walks. If you do that for 20 minutes a day, and that’s all you do, those 20 minutes in a day will make a big difference to you.

Amanda Arriaga:

So I think if we had a hashtag for your episode, it’s going to be, what is your happy place? Yeah, because we all need one and we actually, we all have one probably.

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Yes. Or a happy drink. And a happy drink could be like for me, this could be a Starbucks commercial, but it could be like a frapcino or a nice latte or maybe some mineral water with some flavor in it. You get those zero calorie drinks. Just those little things during the day kick you up, your wine gets fresher and you can continue going back to your work. But if all you do is sit at your desk and don’t take those wellness creaks, then you start not to be as thoughtful about your work, you’re not as productive as your worth. Once you take these breaks to come back, you’re going to be much more effective.

Amanda Arriaga:

That’s why everybody’s activity tracker is telling them get up and walk. Yes. It’s not only about your happy place, but it’s also stop sitting down and move around. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. You

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Have to move around. Breathing is another one. Breathing at night, for example, if you’re having trouble sleeping, you just take deep breaths. I like the smell of lavender. I have levender candles year by bed where I can smell the lavender from the candles. Or if you’re having trouble sleeping, again, think about your happy place or think about the waves on the seashore, something soothing, running water, for example, to soothe your son. And there’s other things you could do too, such as meditation.

Amanda Arriaga:

So besides wellness, you’re also well known for all of your work in the DEI space. Do you think that the legal profession is getting on the right track to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive? That’s a big question.

Kathleen Wilkinson:

I know. Very big question. Yes, but we need to do a lot more. We are still not there. Women lawyers especially still are not where they should be. We look at the number of women who have been bar presidents. I was the sixth woman to be the chance of the PhiladelphiaBar. I was the sixth woman to be the president of Pennsylvania Bar Association. And since that time, we’ve made some further progress, but this is just recently. I was the president only two years ago. So we need to do war there. We need to have more women in power in the bar Associations. I think within law firms, we also need to do better. I think a lot of the law firms, although in Philadelphia, there’s many more women managing partners than there were the past. It still doesn’t make up for all the years of when there weren’t as many or hardly any managing partners.

And if you look in terms of racial and ethnic diversity, religious diversity, every day we hear troubling news on so many currents. And in our society, there’s still so much to be done. And we as lawyers at a minimum have to try to make sure that our members feel welfare, that we respect their religion, that we respect their ethnic background. What’s been going on in the world, I don’t need to name the places, you know all the places that we’re thinking about. As lawyers, we should treat each other with kindness or dignity and professionals at all tonight. So there’s a lot of war that still lose.

Amanda Arriaga:

Since you are the sixth female president of Philadelphia and PennsylvaniaBar, is six year new lucky number?

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Yes, yes. Write that down.

Amanda Arriaga:

Yes, yes, absolutely. Yeah. I think the next thing, you need to start looking for what is available to be the sixth so that we can keep you on that track. Yes. I think that’s a great lucky number. Or at least the sixth. Right. At least the sixth. Yes. Yeah. Or if

Kathleen Wilkinson:

It’s earlier, I would take it too.

Amanda Arriaga:

You’ll take it, but it would have so much fun alliteration to end up just always being the sixth.

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Yeah. Yes,

Amanda Arriaga:

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Kathleen Wilkinson:

What does NCBP mean to you? I love NCBP. As you could tell, I’m definitely one who loves the bar association. I love helping other lawyers. I love mentoring. I love talking to you. I like helping people. And so when I started going to NCBP meetings would’ve been 2011 because that’s when I would’ve been the vice chancellor of PhiladelphiaBar Association. And I immediately got involved and started volunteering for different activities. I met so many great people. I enjoyed the networking and camaraderie, and eventually I ran for and was part of the executive council for three years between 2014 to 2016, 2014, 15, and 16, roughly. And so I’m very proud to still be part of this association at this point in time. And for me, because then I was on council, if you look at the timeline, I would’ve become the vice president of the PennsylvaniaBar just a few years later after my term on executive council ended.

And so then I’m back automatically anyway, and I kept involved with NCBP during that entire time up to the president, and I’m still involved. And now my immediate past president … I was the immediate past president, but the current president would’ve been the vice president when I was the president, and the immediate past president would’ve been the president-elect. So I’m overlapping with the same people within myBarBOR here and people from the PhiladelphiaBarBw I’ve known for many years. So I’m trying to help them make sure they’re happy with NCPP and keep them involved with NCBP. So it’s very important. I wouldn’t have met people like you. I would add, as you know, I’ve become very friendly with many of the other MetroBars and state bars, Austin, Texas, Dallas. We could go on and on. All the bars around that have been very active, like your bars, the ones that you belong to, have been very active in NCVP as well.

Well,

Amanda Arriaga:

It’s funny, you are the true model of this idea that NCVP is, you’re in charge of aBar Association one year, but you are a leader for life.

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Absolutely.

Amanda Arriaga:

Because you keep coming back as you ascend and are in charge of different things, you keep coming back to NCBP. So I think you’re going to need to be the spokesmodel for

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Do a commercial.

Amanda Arriaga:

We’re going to do a commercial. Maybe this could be the commercial for NCBP. Yes. We’re going to splice this up because you are the model of leaders for life. Thank you. And thank you. You were so kind to me. We sat next to each other in Minneapolis and you were so kind to me. Thank you. And I must have said something sassy and you said, you sound like my daughter and we bonded.

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Yes, that’s exactly right. That’s right. Exactly right. And when you look at it, the precedents and the incoming precedents for NCPP are all different, right? All different ages, different parts of the country, different backgrounds, and yet we all have the common bond of being here to support NCPP to help one another be betterterBar leaders, leaders for life, right? As you said, not only just forBar life, but life in general is we would hope that society looks up to us as lawyers.

Amanda Arriaga:

But my last question for you today is, do you have any advice to lawyers who want to follow in your footsteps? Well, that’s

Kathleen Wilkinson:

Another really good question. Be yourself. Be yourself. I learned early on in my career that being professional at all times and kind will never hurt you. And to be yourself, especially for women attorneys, you don’t have to be obstructive. You should always give those extensions of time that are asked for. Always be flexible. It’s your reputation. And so you want to be yourself, but have a very good reputation. That’s your stock and trade, but you can be yourself in this world. And I think I’ve shown that you could be a soft-spoken person, but people know in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, they know me well and I get things done. You can be soft-spoken, think we have this in common, yet very effective leader if you just yourself.

Amanda Arriaga:

That would be my advice. Thank you so much for being here. I have loved this discussion. I know the audience is going to love it as well. Thank you. I hear them applauding. They’re applauding for you now. Thank you.