'Ladies Day' issues remain tough to resolve

By Kris W. Scibiorski
Monday, December 3, 2007 3:57 PM EST Although the past few decades have seen women making incredible progress in the legal profession and rising to unprecedented heights, many obstacles remain and are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.

That was the general message from a diverse group of successful female lawyers who last week shared stories of their life in the profession with students, professors and administrators at Rutgers Law School-Newark's second annual "Ladies Day."

It is somewhat revealing in itself that the assessment that women in the profession have made progress but more is needed is a conclusion that's virtually universal at such events in recent years.  Last week was no different. The panel, hosted by the school's Women's Law Forum, highlighted the dramatic shifts in legal education and practice that have unfolded since the 1970s, but also acknowledged that such issues as work-life balance remain difficult, if not impossible, to completely resolve.

Panelist Catherine Weiss, director of the Division of Public Interest Advocacy in New Jersey, recalled that while attending Yale Law School in the mid-1980s, many female students "made the conscious and quite assertive decision to not be part of the cadre of people rushing the professor after every class" and trying to dominate discussion at every turn.

She said such voluntary reticence had its costs, namely, lesser contact with professors, which, in turn, hurt chances for coveted clerkships and other jobs.

Some students in the audience were interviewed afterward and their comments sometimes formed an interesting juxtaposition to panelists' views.

Rutgers-Newark first-year student Osato Chitou said that in her section, men no longer dominate the ranks of the so-called "gunners"- students who raise their hand before a professor even finishes posing the question.

"We have four people who talk all the time, and it's two guys and two girls who hang out together," Chitou noted.

Panelist and Rutgers-Newark professor Twila L. Perry agreed that women's classroom participation grew dramatically from the days of her studies at New York University Law School in the 1970s to when she joined the Rutgers-Newark faculty in 1984.

"Women participate much more now than in 1973 or even 1984," she said.

And those who have climbed the law firm ladder are increasingly organizing support groups for their younger counterparts.

Nicole Bearce Albano, a litigation partner at New Jersey's second-largest firm, Lowenstein Sandler in Roseland, said that while attracting women to big firms is not a problem, retaining them is. So to deal with that, the female partners, who number about 15 of the 90 partners, meet regularly to address issues affecting women there.

She did offer, though, that during partner meetings, if several women sit together, comments about the "chicks' table" still are uttered by some attorneys.

'Boys club'

The "boys club" issues are far less-prevalent in some practice areas and, to some extent, in the public-interest field.

Anne L. Clark, a partner at the New York City labor and employment law firm Vladeck, Waldman, Elias & Engelhard, noted that in her field, male attorneys often find themselves the "ill at ease" minority during meetings.

"At my firm, it's been a given that women would be in leadership positions," she added, saying the labor-side firm is an anomaly as it has more female partners and used to be run by the late Judith Pomarlen Vladeck, a labor lawyer dating back to the 1950s.

Another panelist, Deborah Fennelly of Legal Services of New Jersey and a veteran of two major New Jersey firms, said that while public-service law is generally viewed as being more woman- and lifestyle-friendly, that isn't a hard-and-fast rule.

After LSNJ's dramatic growth from 17 to 207 attorneys in the past decade, she said it's less dominated by female lawyers and a similar culture has evolved as at law firms.

"It's kind of disappointing that some of the same things ... are happening here, too," she noted.

A balanced life

As often occurs at such programs, the issue of work-life balance dominates the discussion on finding ways for women to advance in their legal careers, especially as women generally still continue to handle the bulk of family responsibilities.

"We failed to insist that men do their job and take care of their kids and families," Weiss told the audience.

The result, she said, is women have fewer opportunities to build relationships with clients at non-work events - a key consideration for advancement in partnerships.

However, the work-life balance issue also affects male lawyers, a point not lost on the audience or Weiss.

In the audience, Vivek Nayar, a male 2L observed, "They covered issues that cross gender lines. As men accept more responsibilities for their families, work-life balance becomes an issue" for men, too.

Perry, the Rutgers professor, stressed that despite the ongoing progress for women, some issues affecting them just aren't going away.

"There's no question that it is important that women continue to struggle to make their workplaces more accommodating to their family needs. ... However, women absolutely have to be realistic and understand that a big part of life is about making choices. The reality is that sometimes you can't have it all. ... There have to be some compromises."

That's a message today's female law students are increasingly aware of, including Chitou. Reflecting on how pre-exam stress has made her "push off" her husband a bit, she said she knows there will be trade-offs in her legal life.

"If you want to have it all, you're either going to be one of the very unhappy lawyers or a superwoman - and less than 1 percent of us are superwomen," she laughed knowingly. http://www.njlnews.com/articles/2007/12/03/news/a8-womenlawyers.txt