Vickie A. Gillio and I are pleased to serve as co-Editors for this year's newsletter of the ISBA Standing Committee on Minority and Women Participation. Featured in these pages are articles on a variety of topics of interest. Part of the mission of our Standing Committee is outreach to all ISBA members, through encouraging participation by a diverse population. To that end, we offer these pages as a forum and invite our readers to submit letters to the editor, op ed pieces, and travel/human interest writings. Of course, articles on substantive legal topics are welcome as well. You may send them to us at smwitt@barrettandgilbert.com or vgillio@niu.edu.

In this issue we highlight several exciting events. On Saturday, May 1, 2004, our Committee will present our annual "Lawyer's Workshop." A variety of interesting and timely topics will be covered. The Workshop has, over the years, always received rave reviews from attendees as an informative, useful, and entertaining day-all for a very reasonable fee that can't be beat! Please do consider attending.

Also on May 1, 2004, Northern Illinois University will present a seminar called "Career Opportunities for Attorneys." Hindi Greenberg, the author of The Lawyer's Career Change Handbook, is a featured speaker.

Finally, don't miss the opportunity to give a day of service to your community at the annual "Women Everywhere Service Day" on Friday, May 14, 2004. As a volunteer, you will have the opportunity to give back to your community by dedicating some or all of your workday to volunteer activities at community service agencies aimed at serving women and their children in need. The agency activities will include direct service tasks such as painting, building, gardening or cleaning, as well as educational activities such as topical seminars, job training information, mock interviews, tutoring, and mentoring. All members and friends of the legal community-both male and female-are invited to volunteer for this worthwhile project.