Upon Being Honored

Last night, on March 10, 2026, at the New York City Bar, I received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Law Conference on the Status of Women.

I have rarely been publicly honored, but how many people on earth have been honored for the important work that they do? Being recognized for one’s work is very fine indeed but for me, my real joy and my primary reward consist in doing the work itself. I have been honored almost every single day since 1972 by my readers who still, to this day, turn to me for advice and to praise my work. Recognition, even fame, is fleeting; what matters is if my written work endures, enlightens, uplifts, strengthens those who may read my words.

And yet, I admit it--I was still pleased to have been honored during International Women’s Day/Month. (Like Mother’s Day, it should take place every day of the year.)

Here’s what I said:

“Thank you for recognizing my work. It means a great deal to me. As you know, what remains to be done will require many generations, many torch-bearers, in order to “bend the arc” of justice towards womankind. I am so grateful to have been part of this process for the last sixty years.”

I spoke from my table without a microphone because the stairs to the podium seemed too risky and too many for me, at least at that moment.

But there I was, happily surrounded by the most powerful and amazing women: lawyers, judges, including those who serve in American Indian Tribal Courts, who hunt for the “disappeared,” who represent indigenous women and children; and there I sat, surrounded by the heads of foundations, presidents of Bar Associations and Associations of Women Judges, documentary filmmakers, feminist anti-trafficking and anti-domestic-violence activists--a retired Air Force colonel who served as a military trial judge for decades all over the Middle East and in Africa. We came from all over the country. Many of us rose from enormous poverty into positions of power.

Katharine E. Van Kampen, the Managing Director of Staff of a very large and distinguished law firm (Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger, and Grossman), rather miraculously and efficiently gathered us all together.

Our keynote speaker was the Honorable Esther Salas, who spoke about the violence and death threats against judges merely for “doing their jobs”; her son Daniel was murdered by an “anti-feminist” men’s-rights lawyer who had, days earlier, shot another lawyer in California, then traveled to New Jersey, where he wounded Salas’s husband and murdered their son. The murderer committed suicide the next day. What an awful story! But Judge Salas turned tragedy into ground-breaking legislation meant to secure greater security for other Judges. She spoke emotionally, personally, and beautifully. Among other things, she said:

“Without an independent judiciary, you don’t stand a chance if your adversary is stronger, more powerful, richer than you. You don’t stand a chance in the courtroom.”

I want to thank my dear friend and ally Mandy Sanghera, OBE, a former honoree who probably nominated me; Catherine van Kampen for organizing it so brilliantly; and the two guests who accompanied me: my son, Supreme Court Judge Ariel Chesler, and my partner, Susan L. Bender.