The Portia Project

Michelle Hanlon is a maven of all things involving space law. She is Co-Director of the Center for Air and Space Law at Ole Miss and an instructor of aviation and space law. She is also a co-founder and the President of For All Moonkind, Inc., a nonprofit corporation that is the only organization in the world focused on protecting human cultural heritage in outer space. Prior to space law, she conducted complex international transactions, including the restructuring of sovereign debt for a number of South and Latin American countries and evolved into the negotiation and implementation of cross-border technology mergers and acquisitions.  

Listen in as Michelle Hanlon describes what is so exciting about space law, the importance of maintaining space history and cultural property, and the impact of New Space on the legal landscape. 

Legal thriller author Patricia Hunt Holmes spent 30 years as a public finance attorney with a large international law firm specializing in nonprofit healthcare finance and rural electric cooperative finance. She sits down with M.C. Sungaila to discuss what it was like to be one of the first women partners at her law firm, her journey from a Ph.D. to paralegal and then lawyer, and her current career as an author of legal thrillers that expose readers to real life issues, such as human trafficking. There is power in storytelling, especially in addressing contemporary social issues.

Therese M. Stewart, Associate Justice of the California First District Court of Appeal, Division Two, chats with MC Sungaila about moving from a high-profile advocacy career to the bench, efforts to diversify the courts, and collaborating with her judicial colleagues. She provides an in-depth exploration of her work prior to the bench in the area of LGBT rights, both in private practice and at the City Attorney's Office. Tune in for an enlightening and inspiring discussion with valuable insights you can use in your practice.

Annaliese Fleming, Senior Associate Executive Director and General Counsel for the American Bar Association, joins M.C. Sungaila to talk about her experience leading the ABA's legal function. Listen in as Annaliese touches on her wide-ranging legal expertise from private practice to teaching and now as a trusted in-house advisor. 

Note: The thoughts and opinions are those of Annaliese Fleming personally and not official positions of the American Bar Association. 

Lynn Hecht Schafran, the Senior Vice President and Legal Director of the National Judicial Education Program at Legal Momentum, has played a leading role in the advancement of women's rights. Introduced to legal efforts to advance the rights of women by Ruth Bader Ginsburg herself, who was one of Lynn's law professors, Lynn is internationally recognized for her work on gender discrimination and has been active in prompting courts across the country to establish gender bias task forces.

Vice-Chief Justice of Arizona's Supreme Court, Ann Scott Timmer, shares her tips on brief writing and oral argument, and discusses her path to the bench and role on her state's supreme court. 

Justice Adrienne Grover of the California Court of Appeal, Sixth District, discusses her path to the bench and her views on the justice system and gives sound advice for both advocates and lawyers aspiring to become judges. 

Leah Ward Sears was the first African-American female chief justice of a state supreme court in the United States. When she was first appointed as a justice in 1992, she became the first woman and youngest person to sit on Georgia's Supreme Court. She is now in private practice at a major law firm. Justice Sears shares her path to the bench, and the importance of mentors in her career journey, as well as tips for newer lawyers and advocates. 

Judge Joanne Motoike serves as the Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court in Orange County, California. She discusses her time on the bench and her remarkable career prior to the bench serving as a senior deputy public defender at the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, and as a trial attorney in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at the Hague.

Justice Eileen C. Moore of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three, joins us today to provide a historical perspective on the challenges women faced in becoming lawyers in the 1970s, and how far both she and other women lawyers have come in their legal careers. She also discusses the long-lasting impact of her service in the Vietnam War, and her commitment to military veterans.