Rep. Rosalyn Henderson-Myers (D-Spartanburg) won the National Bar Association Division of the Year award as Chair of the Women Lawyers Division, the association’s highest award given to a division.
The association, with more than 60,000 members, recognized Henderson-Myers for her outstanding work as chair of division formed in 1972 to address the needs of women attorneys and judges within the organization. The Women Lawyers Division is one of nine divisions of the National Bar Association and is one of the largest division, representing roughly one-half of its membership. Henderson-Myers is also the first South Carolinian to chair the division.
Henderson-Myers also won two other awards during the association’s convention in New Orleans. She received a Presidential Award of Excellence from President Juan Thomas for her exemplary service to the National Bar Association and an Award of Appreciation for her Exemplary Leadership from the Women Lawyers Division.
“These awards are a testimonial to the National Bar Association’s commitment to celebrating the tremendous success of the women in this organization and in the legal profession,” said Henderson Myers. “I knew I was going out of office at the end of this convention and I wanted to help elevate the Women Lawyers Division to its highest level. The women on my board were an amazingly talented, cohesive and dedicated group of women. I learned so much working with them.”
As the division’s chair, Henderson-Myers increased membership by over 40 percent and publishing the division’s 45 Anniversary book entitled, “Twenty-Five Women Who Changed the World: Chairs of the National Bar Association Women Lawyers Division,” which is available in law libraries around the country. The division also published its first magazine this summer, the first of any division to do so.
Henderson-Myers also established the first-ever Women Lawyers Division Candidates Forum, providing a platform for women candidates running for office. “As women, I want to make sure we ask questions important to women in the association,” Henderson-Myers said. “We want to make sure we are relevant in the National Bar Association and that our vote is not taken for granted.”
With the support of Denny’s Inc., the division launched an annual signature community service project this year, giving 100 backpacks stuffed with school supplies to disadvantaged school children in New Orleans, host city for the association’s national conference. The division worked with New Orleans Juvenile Court Judge Ernestine Gray, a South Carolina native, for the project.
“Rosalyn’s commitment to her community and the legal profession is outstanding,” said April Kelly-Drummond, Denny’s senior director of diversity, inclusion and multicultural engagement. “Denny’s congratulates her on this prestigious award that truly recognizes all her hard work.”
Also, in New Orleans, the division held its first Achievement Awards Breakfast with TV Judge Penny Brown Reynolds as its speaker while honoring 18 attorneys and judges at the top of their careers. For the first time, the division live streamed the breakfast as well as its two seminars.
“We started raising the bar last year and just really kicked it into high gear this year,” Henderson-Myers said.
Henderson-Myers will still serve as an ex-officio member on the Women Lawyers Division board and will remain on the board of the American Bar Association Opportunities for Women in the Legal Profession.
“I’m looking forward to spending more time at home with my family, representing House District 31, and growing my law practice,” Henderson-Myers said.
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The National Bar Association was founded in 1925 and is the nation’s oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges. It represents the interests of approximately 60,000 lawyers, judges, law professors and law students, organized around 23 substantive law sections, nine divisions, 12 regions and 80 affiliate chapters nationally and globally.
