“Find Your Jill,” NJ Gov. Mikie Sherrill Urges Women

Photo by Sean Sime

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill electrified the audience at the Women’s Leadership Summit, delivering remarks that blended personal experience, policy urgency and a call to action. Drawing on her path through male-dominated institutions, she urged attorneys, judges and students to reject the myth of “having it all,” confront persistent barriers and actively lift the next generation of women leaders. 
 

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New Jersey’s 57th governor, Mikie Sherrill, commanded a packed Rodino Library at Seton Hall School of Law on March 20 with remarks at the Women’s Leadership Summit. Marking Women’s History Month and the law school’s 75th anniversary, Dean Ronald Weich said the event drew one of its largest audiences, crediting the guest of honor—a former Navy pilot, federal prosecutor, congresswoman and now governor. 
 
“This is a law school that has graduated pioneering women,” Weich said. “Those women paved the way for the next generation of leaders, including the new attorney general of New Jersey, Jennifer Davenport. I have to thank our special guest speaker for that excellent appointment.” 
 
Weich traced the school’s trailblazing history: founding dean Miriam T. Rooney was the first female dean of an ABA-accredited law school in the U.S.; three of the deans in the school’s 75 years have been women; and nearly 55% of current students are women, many leading the law review, legislation journal and moot court team. 
 
He highlighted alumnae who broke barriers: Judge Katherine Hayden, the first Seton Hall graduate appointed to the federal bench; Paulette Brown, the first African American president of the American Bar Association; and Karol Corbin Walker, the first African American president of both the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Association of the Federal Bar of New Jersey. 
 
“A law degree is a license to help people,” Weich said. “Governor Sherrill is using hers to defend institutions and help the people of this state thrive.” 
 
Sherrill opened with candor and humor, reflecting on her early career in the male-dominated Navy. “I knew I would be graduating in a class with under 10% women and going out into the fleet with very few women,” she said. That experience shaped her entry into another male-dominated arena—the law firm—after attending Georgetown Law. 
 
She drew laughter recounting tone-deaf advice at firm events, including a partner telling women they could “have it all” while employing three round-the-clock nannies. “It didn’t sound like having it all to me,” Sherrill said. She offered a more honest take: “Sometimes I’m a great parent, and sometimes I’m really good at my job. And oftentimes, those two things don’t intersect very well.” 
 
Tying her personal story to broader national themes, Sherrill spoke of opportunity and mobility. Drawing on her Irish American family roots—immigrants who lost everything in the Great Depression and rebuilt through unions and pensions—she said the country’s promise rests on keeping the ladder accessible. “It was that opportunity available to him that went from my family having nothing to me being the governor of New Jersey in just two generations,” she said of her grandfather. “That’s what this country has traditionally offered.” 
 
She warned of forces narrowing opportunity, recounting an exchange in Congress with Defense Secretary Mark Esper over dismissals of senior military officials—accusing him of targeting one because he was Black and another because she was a woman, leaving him silent. 
 
The story underscored her central argument: that having women, especially mothers, in positions of legal and political authority is vital. During COVID, it was the mothers in the House of Representatives who best understood families’ struggles, she said. “If you are going to legislate for families, you need to have an understanding of what’s going on in people’s lives.” 
 
Sherrill concluded with a call to mentorship, sharing the story of her neighbor Jill, a fellow lawyer she recruited as her campaign’s first supporter when she ran for Congress—a race everyone told her she couldn’t win. Jill became her district director and now leads the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority as the state prepares to host the FIFA World Cup at the Meadowlands. 

“Find your Jill,” Sherrill urged. “Look around and find her, because that is going to be the person who grows with you.” 

She closed with a charge to law students: “The practice of law is not a job, it’s a calling. And when you do it right, it truly is.” 
 
The summit drew practitioners, judges and students from across the state to explore leadership, work-life balance, mentorship and the evolving landscape for women in law through panels and workshops organized by committee chair Suzanne Midlige. Pavithra Angara and Megan Monson were honored at the Woman of Substance awards. 
 
“Every woman I speak to says, I want to make sure that the people coming up behind me have it better than I had it,” Sherrill said. “There’s no one path, no how-to book, but all of us together can make sure everyone has a seat at the table.” 
 
Seton Hall Law’s Women’s Leadership Summit is an annual event celebrating women in law and public service. Information on the Women of Substance program is available through the university’s GiveCampus platform.