Women Lawyers or Ladies Who Lunch? Scenes From a Central Park Hat Party

It’s been a tough, tough year so may I take a break from the serious stuff about inequities in the legal profession and indulge in a minute of unabashed frivolity? I just got back from the famous Central Park Ladies Hat (the formal name is The Fredrick Law Olmsted Awards Luncheon hosted by the Women’s Committee—but that’s a mouthful) where society women and a few lucky working stiffs like me don extravagant hats and drink copious amounts of rosé while raising money for New York’s favorite park. (This year, the event raised over $2.5 million.)

Left to right, clockwise: Central Park Ladies Hat Party attendee; Marisa McGaughey, Linda Filardi and Jennifer Ezring; lunch table by Bethesda Fountain and Brande Stellings.

Central Park Conservancy

The hats were as riotous as ever, but this year’s luncheon was decidedly more subdued because of Covid. Instead of hundreds of women jam packed (happily) under a giant flower-bedecked tent, we were dispatched to various venues scattered around Central Park. You might call it a more “rustic” ambiance, though with tables draped in Scalamandre fabric, Oriental vases brimming with flowers, and hovering waiters, I wouldn’t exactly call it roughing it.

Of course, I sat at a table dominated by a bunch of hardworking female lawyers: Linda Filardi (my host who’s a senior counsel at a major financial institution), Jennifer Ezring (an executive committee member at Cahill, Gordon & Reindel), Marisa McGaughey (also a senior counsel at a major financial institution), Linda Rosen (an assistant attorney general in New York), and Brande Stellings (a gender and diversity consultant who also serves as an independent member of Fox News’s professionalism and inclusion council).

During a year in which everyone, but particularly working women, have felt so besieged on so many fronts, the event was a much needed respite. So what did these serious female lawyers have to say about partaking in a ladies lunch that seems almost a throwback to another era? It was unbridled joy.

“This is my first official in-person event in a year and it’s liberating,” says Stellings. “It’s revitalizing to share wine, lunch and conversation with smart, lively women and not stare at a bunch of faces on Zoom.”

McGaughey adds, “How fantastic to sit around a table full of fun, personable, hard-working women who appreciate pretty hats and good laughs as much as negotiating and closing tough deals.”

What did I tell you? Women lawyers just want to have fun. Anyone have a problem with that?