The Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey’s 2024 Scholarship and Awards Day Gala, Beyond the Standard: Women of Resilience and Revolution, celebrates the resilience and revolution embodied and fostered by Black women, especially the Black women lawyers that serve the diverse communities of New Jersey. ABWL-NJ celebrates its own history of revolution that is the creation of ABWL in 1975, the first women’s bar association in NJ, and the resilience harnessed to continue to thrive nearly 50 years later.

The Keynote Speaker addressing ABWL’s founding and history in cultivating social progress and the elevation of Black Women in society and the legal profession is none other than Patricia Darden, Esq., an ABWL Founder and NJ family law practitioner. This year, ABWL-NJ will also pay tribute to the excellence of public service realized by the late Lt. Governor Sheila Y. Oliver, who was a fervent supporter of ABWL and its mission. Senator Britnee N. Timberlake is the inaugural recipient of the Lt. Governor Sheila Y. Oliver, Public Service Excellence Award. In addition to the law students who will receive scholarships, the event will honor Black women lawyers who exhibit the resilience to ascend in the legal profession and the revolutionary spirit to combat unjust barriers to success and establish pathways to ensure more Black women attorneys realize the pinnacles of leadership in law, public service and business. This honor will also posthumously be awarded to Hon. Lisa P. Thornton, AJSC, the first Black woman Assignment Judge in New Jersey.

The Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey (ABWL) invites you to support this annual scholarship fundraiser. ABWL is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that promotes and encourages the participation of women, particularly African-American women, in the field of law. Each year, ABWL hosts a Scholarship Fundraiser Event to help support outstanding law students and recognize extraordinary individuals and institutions.

We look forward to seeing you at the 2024 Scholarship and Awards Day Gala and invite you to donate to the Scholarship Fund to continue ABWL’s mission to advance black women in the study and practice of law!