Queen's Bench Bar Association of the San Francisco Bay Area was formed in 1921 by a group of women lawyers frustrated by the resistance of male lawyers to their participation in the local bar association. Queen’s Bench seeks to advance the interests of women in law and society, and plays an integral part in furthering the progress of women in the legal profession. It is a non-profit voluntary membership organization made up of attorneys, judges and law students. It gains inspiration from its long and proud tradition of women lawyers standing up for equal rights and equal opportunity, and working together to achieve itsr goals. 

Mission 

The Mission of Queen’s Bench is to foster professional and social relationships among women lawyers and to promote equality and opportunity for all women through education, programs, and community outreach. 

Vision

The Queen’s Bench Bar, and its leadership team decisions and detailed planning, are guided by certain policies and priorities:

Service to Queen’s Bench Members.

It will strive for continued moderate upward growth in our membership numbers.

Continued and improved quality of its services to members is a higher priority than expanding the quantity of its member base or the services it offers to members.

It will focus on recruiting new members, and retaining existing members, with the following priorities:

• To recruit diversity candidates and improve the diversity mix of its membership on a broadly defined basis; i.e., race, sexual orientation, type of practice, economic profile.
• To improve its process of bridging the gap from initial recruitment of new members by actively welcoming them and encouraging their immediate assimilation into committees.

Service to and Role in the Legal Profession.

It will focus our resources on supporting the interests of women in the following major issues currently facing the legal profession at large:

• Retention of women in the profession;
• Work/life balance;
• Upgrading/modernizing the business and marketing management sophistication of law firms and other legal service organizations; 
• Sustaining high ethical standards in the practice of law; and
• Continued elimination of bias in the legal profession.

Its tools for accomplishing this will include a combination of committee work, MCLE and other programming, and building alliances with other bar associations.

Its alliance-building efforts will primarily focus on the following organizations:

California Women Lawyers

Minority Bar Coalition

Bar Association of San Francisco, including Barristers

National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations

Services to and Role in the San Francisco Bay Area Community.

It will continue to offer its members the opportunity to perform public/community service through Queen’s Bench in the areas of domestic violence, support to the girls’ unit of Juvenile Hall, and scholarships.

It will promote a positive profile for Queen’s Bench in the San Francisco Bay Area community at large by: 

• Disseminating information about the collective strength and connections of its member network (especially its Past Presidents);
• Emphasizing its wealth of mentoring and positive role modeling opportunities; and
• Highlighting the many and varied professional accomplishments of its members.

It will periodically assess and discuss public perceptions of Queen’s Bench to decide if such feedback indicates a need to revise its plans.