Sept. 16, 2009 – John Quiñones, ABC News Correspondent and co-anchor Primetime Live and What Would You Do? news magazines will headline an Oct. 2 conference on diversity in the legal profession sponsored by the State Bar Diversity Outreach Committee.

The Diversity and Empowerment: Your Competitive Edge program will focus on strategies Wisconsin attorneys can use to create positive visibility and build their practice. The event, which is presented in collaboration with the Association of Corporate Counsel, Wisconsin Chapter, will focus on minority-and women-owned law firms, but is relevant to a wide range of attorneys and other professional service providers.

Quiñones will address his own experiences with diversity during his decades-long journalistic career and his views on how diversity in network news has contributied to better news coverage. His remarks "The Edges of Diversity in Network News" will highlight his experience as a news correspondent and co-anchor, including his observations about the legal ramifications of using hidden cameras to test how people react to tough ethical dilemmas as part of the ABC program What Would You Do?

R3 Group LLC managing director Jane DiRenzo Pigott specializes in providing leadership, change, and diversity/inclusion consulting to organizations. During the first morning session, Creative Positive Visibility for Effective Self Promotion, Pigott will speak about why creating positive visibility within your organization as well as in the community at large is an essential means of building personal profile. She also will focus on understanding how to effectively self promote and how to creati gravitas through your actions is a success strategy that has some material gender difference, and understanding the substantive concepts and the gender differences will allow you to be more effective personally and as a mentor/coach.

In her second morning session, Speed Networking: Maximizing Your Investment, Pigott will address how most professionals invest hundreds of hours in networking over the course of the year and have very little return on their investment. She will not only discuss the research on the science of effective network construction, but she will also assist you in actively implementing the ideas garnered from the discussion. Armed with the knowledge of how to get a greater return on the investment, attendees will engage in intentional networking with other participants.

Afternoon sesssions include: Practice Management: A Client and Ethically Centered Approach, From Microinequities to the Power of Positive Micro-gestures, Client Development and Marketing, and A Focus on Minority  & Women-Owned Law Firms. More about the afternoon programs.

The conference will be held at the Italian Community Center in Milwaukee from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. and will be submitted for CLE credits. For more information, please contact State Bar Diversity Committee liaison Patricia Morgan at (608) 250-6107.

• Register

• Sponsor this event