Janet Napolitano: Obama's Choice for Secretary of Homeland Security

Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona is President-elect Barack Obama’s choice for homeland security secretary.

Napolitano received her Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law. After law school she clerked for Judge Mary M. Schroeder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then joined Schroeder's former law firm, Lewis and Roca, where she became partner in 1989. 

Hillary Clinton: The Trailblazer

Dubbing her a "trailblazing political pioneer," Hillary Clinton was named a 2008 Woman of the Year by Glamour Magazine.

Although she did not reach the White House, Kati Marton writes that Hillary "won while losing."

She continues to be a huge force on every topic she cares about, and her stature remains undiminished throughout the world. “Hillary has emerged as an international symbol of the endeavor to give globalization a more human face,” says Michelle Bachelet, the president of Chile. Hillary’s famous “18 million cracks” in the glass ceiling—the number of votes cast for her in the primaries—represent the closest any woman has ever come to the greatest prize in the world, the presidency of the United States. Her candidacy defined the high-water mark of the women’s movement in American political life—so far.

Ms. JD Weekly Roundup: Week Ending November 14, 2008

11th Circuit Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch Blazed Path for Other Female Lawyers

Wall Street Journal Names Marcia Goldstein of Weil Gotshal Among '50 Women to Watch'

Kenyan Federation of Women Lawyers (Fida) Withdraws from Special Task Force Investigating Sexual Violence During the Post-Election Crisis

Author Carol Evans Sees Brighter Future for Working Women

Ackerman's Cecelia Bonifay and Theresa McLaughlin Named Two of Florida's 'Women of Influence' by Real Estate Florida Magazine

Perk of the Moment: Flextime

Holland and Knight's Top Chefettes

One Quarter of Chicago Firms Meet the "Call to Action"

in 2004, the Chicago Bar Association’s Alliance for Women the created the “Call to Action” project, a three year program to increase women in leadship roles. Forty-four Chicago firms signed the pledge, agreeing to foster diversity in the legal profession. Each law firm signatory's goal was to:

• increase the percent of its women partners by 3 percentage points from its 2004 levels by December 31, 2007.
• have women represented on every firm committee in the same proportion as the number of women partners at the firm by December 31, 2007.
• increase the number of women practice group leaders at the firm by December 31, 2007.
• review its flexible hours policy and its use in order to ensure that alternative schedules are an equitable and viable option by December 31, 2007.
• materially improve any disparity in the rates in which men and women are retained, promoted, and laterally recruited at the firm by December 31, 2007. 

Corporette Roundup

Recent columns and polls at Corporette:

Patterned Tights

Dressing Professionally if You’re Busty

Professional Women and Tattoos

Knee-high Boots in a Professional Capacity?

Alternative Legal Jobs Clearing House and Legal Recruiter Calls: Really? In this Market?

So, the market is in a downward spiral that seems to come up for air every so often but then turn-around and head right back down.  A lot of law firm associates that I know are worried.  They are worried about "stealth layoffs" and about head-count reductions and generally about the fact that work is REALLY slow these days.  They are worried because they have huge law school debt and are also losing thier shirts in the market turmoil.  Yet, among all of this concern I received two calls from a legal recruiter yesterday looking to set me up with some interviews with firms in town.  Huh?  I wanted to ask him "who is hiring?" but the conversation didn't go that way because I am happy where I am and am not all that good at being nosey or gossip-y with strangers.  So, I let him down easy and moved on with my not-so-busy day in law firm practice. 

Now, today, I found that the JDBlissblog has a post up about a new website that offers alternative career job postings for "Lawyers Who Want Something More".  The site appears to be a useful collection of law-related (but not private practice) jobs that are posted at places like craigslist and other classified-ad sites.  Check it out if you are looking!  However, I have to ask, "who is hiring"? and wonder if this site is actually some entrepreneurial lawyer's way to make money after he/she was laid off from private practice.

This Week at The Glass Hammer

Two posts at The Glass Hammer caught my eye this week as being particularly pertinent to women in the legal profession. 

Elizabeth Harrin on Work/Life Balance in the Law:

It’s not easy balancing work and a home life.  Throw in clients who need you to be available at all hours, managers who don’t believe in vacations and court dates that change at the drop of a hat and you have to wonder why anyone  chooses the legal profession at all...

Daddy Bonus, Mommy Penalty

Neil H. Buchanan's recent paper, Why Do Women Lawyers Earn Less than Men? Parenthood and Gender in a Survey of Law School Graduates, reveals a correlation between parental status and salary.

Using a dataset of survey responses from University of Michigan Law School graduates from the classes of 1970 through 1996, I find that fathers tend to receive higher salaries than non-fathers (a "daddy bonus"). In addition, mothers earn less than non-mothers (a "mommy penalty"). There is also some statistical support for the inference that there is a penalty associated purely with gender (women earning less than men, independent of parenthood), another result that is unique to the literature.

Minority Women Partners: Some Cities Fare Better Than Others

Recent analysis by NALP reports that minority women continue to be dramatically underrepresented at the partnership level, making up less than 2% of partners in the nation's major law firms. The findings also reveal that, nationally, women and minorities continue to be much better represented in associate and summer associate ranks than in the partnership ranks. The analysis goes on to report that some cities fare better than others in the represetation of women in both partnerships and associateships nationwide:

Analyses for the 46 cities with the most attorneys represented in the directory reveal considerable variations in these demographic measures. Among the largest of these cities (those with more than 1,000 partners represented), Los Angeles and San Francisco show the highest representation of women, minorities, and minority women among both partners and associates. Minorities account for 12.03% and 12.59% of partners in these cities, respectively, and women account for 19.42% and 23.17% of partners, respectively. About 4% of partners are minority women. Firms in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York, Seattle, and Washington, DC, also are close to or exceed national averages on most measures.

Anna Deavere Smith, Actor & Playwright, Writes One-Woman Play Celebrating Women in the Law

To commemorate the 2006 naming of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith wrote, and is now performing in, a one-woman play about women in the law.  Smith, known for her role as Nancy McNally, the National Security Advisor on NBC's The West Wing, wanted to pay a living tribute to women in the law through this play.

In order to write the play, Smith conducted interviews with a diverse group of women who have connections with the American legal system, including: attorneys, judges, political figures, activists, and convicts.

The play will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 8, at the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.  Sandra Day O'Connor is planning to attend the show, and will join Smith after at a reception.  For more information, visit the Herberger Theater website.