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Summer 2020 NEWSLETTER Champions of Sisterhood and Service PRESIDENT’S LETTER As we take a moment to reflect on this extraordinary year, I must start by thanking my Board, a special group of women who rose to the challenge of being Champions of Sisterhood and Service during a remarkable time in history. We all stepped forward to serve without knowing the uniquely difficult tasks that lay ahead. The success of our 2019-2020 Board year is centered in the dedication and tenacity of each individual BWL Board Member: Thank you. Serving as President of Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Inc. (BWL) has been a dream fulfilled. Rosezetta E. Upshaw 2019-2020 President March 2020, the halfway point of our Board unrest and protests against police brutality Group. BWL members, friends and family, and year, marked the beginning of the COVID-19 as we demanded justice for countless lost most importantly, children in our community pandemic and quarantine. Hospitals were lives. Nightly curfews were implemented as found comfort spending time together every overwhelmed with patients. We lost friends National Guard troops roamed the streets of Monday and Wednesday evening in April, and family. Universities, offices, businesses, Los Angeles. All the while: BWL continued to May and June to watch BWL Past Presidents, and government agencies shut down. We serve. Judges, Board Members and friends read were ordered to stay home and shelter in enchanting bedtime stories and check-in place. Large in-person gatherings were We halted plans for in-person events and with one another during quarantine. prohibited. Unemployment spiked. Travel swiftly transitioned into virtual programming. was restricted. On March 13, 2020 Breonna We worked with the National Lawyers Guild Similarly, our “Four Part Wellness Playbook” Taylor, a young Black woman was shot and and The Bail Project to protect peaceful in collaboration with Black Women Lawyers killed in her home by Louisville police officers protestors on the front lines of the struggle. Association of Northern California, planned executing a search warrant at the wrong We quadrupled our productivity by providing by our President-Elect Michelle Kazadi, address. On May 25, 2020 George Floyd, an an average of two events every week when spanned April, May, and June and was unarmed Black man was killed when a white we would normally average two events each specially designed to help our community police officer knelt on his neck for eight month. The highlights include our “Virtual engage in self-care and manage the stress minutes and forty-six seconds in Minneapolis. Bedtime Stories” series organized by BWL and uncertainty of COVID-19 and quarantine. These events sparked world-wide civil Board Member Uche Anene and our Parents CONTINUES ON PG 2 4 2020 A Year of Change 2019-2020 At a Glance Enduring COVID-19: 2 Odest Riley Jr. 10 15 My Checklist for Survival Library Foundation Los Angeles: Michele Anderson, Esq. Maintaining Your Workout 12 Changing Los Angeles Through the 3 While Lawyering-in-Place Power of Libraries BWL Press Release Katuri Kaye. Esq. Theresa Morrison 17 5 Hello Africa Tips for Safe Travel in a 2019-2020 BWL Officers Nneka Egbujiobi, Esq. 13 Post COVID-19 World 20 Jill Carter, Esq. Hustle Hard 21 Past Presidents & 6 Amanda-Jane Thomas, Esq. Reexamining the Petty Lifetime Members 14 Criminalization Norm Ask the Experts: 15 Questions Rachel Rossi, Esq. 7 About Purchasing Real Estate 2019-2020 22 Sponsors & Supporters INSIDE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 2020 A YEAR MAINTAINING YOUR PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Continued. OF CHANGE WORKOUT WHILE Continued. Each virtual gathering attracted nearly 100 BWL Membership is the lifeblood of our live participants and countless replays. Odest Riley Jr. LAWYERING-IN-PLACE organization. We owe a special thank you to Chief Executive Officer, WLM Financial Katuri Kaye, Esq. our new Lifetime Members whose pledges In May we broke the internet with our IG: @OhKayeKay enable our success: Honorable Gloria White- “Stocks 101” fundamentals class arranged Brunches, late lunches, game nights and 1. Can I lower my interest on my car Brown, Karlene Rogers Aberman, Heather by BWL Board Member Uche Anene and lead passport stamps have been the reality payment? Do you have any special When I was originally asked to author a fitness article for the Summer Newsletter, Anderson-Hayes, Karen Pointer, Audrea programs to help during the economic by The Stocks and Stilettos Society Founder, for many of us the last three to five years. I brainstormed ways to tell my unique fitness journey from gymnast/dancer to bikini/ Golding, Jerri Jefferson, and Betty Norwind – “Living My Best Life” was the anthem downturn? Cassandra Cummings, that attracted more fitness competitor. Then COVID-19 pandemic hit and what started as recommended Thank you. bumping in our EarPods as we headed to the people than our Zoom account could hold. By social distancing practices, ultimately lead to Los Angeles County and the State airport for a quick weekend getaway. 2. Dear credit card company can I lower my of California issuing stay- at-home orders (referred to herein, as the “Mandate”). the time we resolved the spacing issue we interest rate? Can you pause all interest This year was not what any of us imagined, Now as we sit in our homes quarantined One positive result of the Mandate was our law office being converted to remote still had 311 live participants ready to learn and making TikTok videos (e.g., cue Bored on my card for a set amount of time? access only; a huge plus for me because I enjoy working from home (and I have yet in the midst of this crisis there is still so how to put their money to work during the in The House), the days of yesterday’s past much to be thankful for. In September, at the almost seem like a fading dream. For many of 3. Navient/Sallie Mae can you stop interest the best snacks in my pantry). However, a major detriment of the Mandate was the pandemic. Many of whom tuned in again later start of our year, President-Elect Michelle us, our days now seem to consist of waking up on my student loans for a set amount of closure of all gyms and recreational facilities. I do not have a home gym and rely that month for our “First-Time Homebuyer and hopping on Zoom conference calls and/ time? How do I apply for forbearance of on my area gym for my 45-minute daily weekday workouts. So, after a week of Kazadi helped me bring my dream Installation and Investment Property Seminar” arranged or waiting in long line outside of Costco for my loans? sheltering-in-place, I found myself inactive and a few pounds heavier (as I said the best Brunch Gala to life and we honored by Uche Anene. essential supplies. Has Costco become the snacks are in my pantry, don’t judge me). Champions in our community: Kimberly new Disneyland? Many of us have begun to 4. Dear Landlord /Mortgage Company Chainey, Karen A Clark, and Kiesha Nix. We what options are available to me for my The numerous congratulatory texts I wonder whether this is our new reality and partied for a purpose at the lavish 2019 current situation? Can I spread my rent Sheltering-in-place under the Mandate school through college. However, like received after each virtual event made me so how long it will last. payments out and add an extra 3 months also had a significant impact on my most future attorneys, it all came to a Thanksgiving Eve Cocktail Sip fundraiser happy that I had provided my personal cell halt when I entered law school and the So, what’s next? How do we move from to my lease? Are there any government physical wellness. As lawyers, we often fail delivered by Cocktail Sip Committee Chairs demands of the classroom, securing a phone number to the hundreds of attendees YOLO (you only live once) to UH OH (I don’t programs to help me pay my rent or to realize how our professional routines Uche Anene and Holly Parker. And although job and studying for the bar exam took at our September 2019 Installation and have an emergency fund)? The reality now is mortgage? expose us to sedentary, nonphysical the quarantine interrupted our Annual precedence over my physical activities. Awards Gala. My phone was buzzing nonstop that lot companies are cutting staff, reducing lifestyles, especially those of us who are Before I knew it, I had been practicing law Scholarship Luncheon fundraising plans bonuses and landlords/ mortgage companies The second step is the most polarizing word transactional attorneys, myself being no after our Young Lawyers Committee Chairs for over 5 years and had not set foot in we remained committed to supporting law are sending out more and more “We are all in in English language. It’s time to set a BUDGET exception. As background, I have always Rochelle Higgins and Ashley Williams a dance studio or gym during that time. students. This year they needed our help this together” emails with invoices attached. so we can start to control our financial valued physical fitness. I entered dance presented "How to Slay and Maximize Your In 2012, I decided to turn it all around by As such, it’s time to take inventory of our lifestyles. A budget is how you control your and gymnastics young and maintained more than ever as law school campuses committing to a physical challenge each Study Time for the Sept. 2020 CA Bar Exam." lives and come up with a plan, understanding life -- it is like a road map or GPS.