On September 11, I had the honor and privilege to accompany attorney Donna Killoughey Bird to the 2013 ceremonies at Ground Zero in New York City. Donna was one of the family members who were chosen by lottery to read the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in 2001 and 1993 in New York, Washington, D.C., and Stonycreek Township, Pa. Her husband, Gary Bird, was the only citizen of Arizona to die in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Donna and I first met when I was a law student at the University of San Francisco. I was active with the American Bar Association’s Law Student Division, culminating with serving as national vice-chair in my final year. Donna was a few years ahead of me, already a bright light within what is now called the Law Practice Management section. We had a great LSD board, with many terrific women, but the ABA didn’t yet exactly have zillions of active women lawyers. The exception that proved the rule was LPM — it was (and remains) a feisty group obsessed with technology and innovation, and was populated with many entrepreneurial solo and small firm lawyers. There were many interesting women, and Donna was front and center in that gang. We shared a strong interest in publishing; she was the editor of the first edition of Flying Solo, which would become an iconic “how-to” guide for starting and running a small firm practice. I continued to cross paths with her when I joined ALM covered the ABA from San Francisco, and then moved to New York to run Law Technology News.

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