Kate Stoneman Day 2024
Wednesday, March 27, 2024, 5:30 PM
Albany Law School - DAMC and Zoom
Celebrating individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to seeking change and expanding opportunities for women within the legal profession
About our Honorees
Miriam M. Netter '72 Kate Stoneman Keynoter
Verna L. Williams
Verna L. Williams (she/her) is the CEO of Equal Justice Works. In her role as CEO, Williams will continue to advance the mission of Equal Justice Works to create opportunities for leaders to transform their passion for equal justice into a lifelong commitment to public service.
Verna brings with her an extensive background of experience teaching and practicing law, as well as researching civil and women’s rights. Verna previously served as the dean of the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she was a professor prior to becoming dean, and taught courses on family law, gender discrimination, and constitutional law. Additionally, she founded and co-directed the Judge Nathaniel Jones Center for Race, Gender, and Social Justice at the University of Cincinnati.
Before her work at the University of Cincinnati, Verna was the Vice President and Director of Educational Opportunities at the National Women’s Law Center, where she focused on gender equity in education. In this role, she was the lead counsel and successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which established that educational institutions have a duty to respond to and address complaints of student-to-student sexual harassment.
Verna clerked for the Honorable David S. Nelson, U.S. District Judge for the District of Massachusetts. After the clerkship, she practiced law at Sidley Austin LLP and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kate SToneman Award
The Honorable Llinét Beltré Rosado ’97
Llinét Rosado ’97 was appointed to the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division by Gov. Kathy Hochul in August 2023, and has served as a judge for more than a decade.
She was first appointed as a judge for the Civil Court of the City of New York in Bronx County in 2013 and was designated Acting Justice of the Bronx County Supreme Court in 2016. Prior to her election to the bench, she served as a public defender; an attorney for children; and a court attorney for three judges. Justice Rosado is a Commissioner of the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission, a member of the Gender Fairness Committee for the 12th Judicial District, the New York State Bench Book Committee, and the New York State Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts.
As a law student, she spent a significant portion of her time in the clinic as part of the team representing Charline Brundidge, the first incarcerated New Yorker to receive clemency for killing her violent abuser.
She is a member of Advisory Board of the Thurgood Marshall Junior Mock Trial Competition and First Department Vice President of the National Association of Women Judges, NY Chapter.
Kate Stoneman Award
Professor Laurie Shanks
Laurie Shanks has devoted much of her career to mentoring hundreds of young women throughout their legal careers and teaching and training young lawyers as a professor in addition to her robust private practice.
She joined the faculty at Albany Law School in January of 1989 as a Clinical Instructor. She was later promoted to Clinical Professor of Law. She taught and supervised students in the Disabilities Law Clinic, the Domestic Violence Clinic, the Field Placement Program, the Summer-in-Practice program, and Semester-in-Practice program. In addition to her clinical teaching, she also taught a number of courses aimed at training law students in the basic skills needed to practice law in an ethical and responsible manner.
Prior to joining the faculty at Albany Law School, Shanks served as the Training Director for the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office in Phoenix, Arizona. In that role, she trained and mentored young attorneys hired to provide legal representation to indigent defendants. For more than 25 years, she has taught annually at the National College of Criminal Defense and at the New York State Defenders Association Trial Practice Institute.
In addition to her teaching and mentoring, Prof. Shanks has also provided countless hours of pro bono representation often representing women who were victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse.
Kate Stoneman Student Award Winner — Students will be honored for their award-winning submission answering the question, “What Would Kate Stoneman Do?”
Future Award Nominations
The Kate Stoneman Honorary Committee is always accepting nominations for the Kate Stoneman Awards.
The Kate Stoneman Awards are given annually to individuals who have demonstrated a commitment to seeking change and expanding opportunities for women within the legal profession. They have influenced other women to pursue legal careers and have opened doors that historically have been closed to women lawyers.