There was more than one reason to celebrate at the “Women’s Advancement in the Law” conference held Feb. 3  in Washington, D.C. by Duke University School of Law. Held in part to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, the conference also served as a gathering place for the editors-in-chief of the flagship law journals of the top 16 law schools in the country, a group which, for the first time in history, is comprised entirely of women. This historic, diverse group of women included Gabriella A. Ravida, the editor-in-chief of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and only the second African American woman to ever hold the position.

In conjunction with the conference, the 16 editors-in-chief also collaborated on a joint publication called Women and the Law, compiling 14 essays from leading women lawyers, judges and legal academics that focused on the titular topic from a variety of perspectives. Three women with Philadelphia connections contributed to the publication: Maggie Blackhawk, assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, lecturer in law at University of Pennsylvania Law School, Alka Pradhan, and U.S. District Judge Nitza I. Quiñones Alejandro of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.