Sheila Boston Participated in Major Diversity Initiative in South Africa with New York City Bar Association’s Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice

Sheila S. Boston, Partner in the Litigation Department, was in Johannesburg, South Africa on business for the New York City Bar Association. Sheila is working with the City Bar's Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice on one of its major diversity initiatives, the South African Visiting Lawyer Program. The program seeks to promote equal opportunity and diversity in the international legal profession by providing black South African attorneys with one-year working fellowships in leading NYC law firms and in-house corporate legal departments. She interviewed South African attorney candidates and determining who will be selected to participate in the prestigious program.

She was also a panelist participant, as well as a workshop leader in a seminar exploring "Glass Ceiling" issues and comparing the U.S. minority lawyer experience with that of black South African attorneys. The seminar's goal was to educate and empower "black" South African attorneys (e.g., those designated as black and coloured persons under the country's former apartheid system, abolished 16 years ago.) Partners from two of South Africa's leading law firms — Bowman Gilfillan and Webber Wentzel, a Partner from Skadden Arps' New York office, and Sheila were the seminar speakers. The seminar was sponsored by the Vance Center. Sheila is the Secretary of the City Bar and is thus participated as its Executive Committee liaison to the Association's affiliate, the Vance Center.