MEDIA CONTACT: Patricia Tremmel at 847-491-4892 or p-tremmel@northwestern.edu

February 15, 2005

Janet Reno to Deliver Address at Leadership Symposium

CHICAGO --- Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno will deliver the keynote speech March 8 for the 2005 Women’s Symposium at Northwestern University School of Law. “Women Finding Their Voices” is the theme for this year’s week-long symposium.

Reno will talk about women and leadership, telling her own story and paying tribute to her role model, her mother.

Her speech will take place at noon March 8 in Lincoln Hall at the School of Law, 357 E. Chicago Ave., and is free and open to the public.

The Women’s Leadership Coalition, made up of law students, organized the symposium, which brings together attorneys and scholars from around the nation to speak on issues of interest to women in the law.

Nominated by President Bill Clinton, Reno became the first female attorney general of the United States. She held the position from March 1993 until the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001.

As attorney general, Reno enforced policies on civil rights, race relations, corruption, the environment, gun control and immigration. A major goal of hers was to give ordinary citizens greater access to the justice system, while ensuring that the federal government consistently accorded strict principles of due process. She also pushed for reforms to provide assistance to troubled youths.

Today, Reno continues to be involved with efforts regarding dispute resolution, advocacy for children and the elderly and law enforcement reform. She has been recognized by a number of organizations for her public service. In 2000 she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, and in 2003 she received the distinguished Stennis Center’s Lindy Boggs Award, for demonstrating the ideals of patriotism, courage, integrity and leadership through public service.

During the keynote address Reno delivered at the 2000 convocation ceremony at Northwestern University School of Law, she urged graduates to go beyond narrow specialties to help address the overall problems of crime and unequal treatment in this country. She cited laudable efforts that were undertaken by the School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions, Children and Family Justice Center and Center for International Human Rights.

Reno received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and in 1960, she was one of 16 women enrolled at Harvard Law School, where she received her LLB.