The Good Wife: Week 5 (or the week the lady lawyer played the pregnancy card)

Submitted by jessie on 21 October 2009 - 6:26pm.

This week found TGW acorss the negotiating table from a very pregnant adversary, who wasn't afraid to use her condition to her advantage. No joke: she faked labor pains when a deposition went south. Talk about your zealous advocacy.

This actually isn't the first time I've seen something like this. Not long ago I was prepping a panelist for a program on how to handle the professional challenges that can arise with pregnancy and it was her experience that her pregnancies worked to her advantage. People were more afraid to piss her off and more likely to give her the work she wanted.

But this is not the norm I think. I more often hear about folks who are treated differently to their detriment once they make their pregnancy known.

So Ms. JDers, what do you think? Can you use a pregnancy to your advantage. Is it ethical to do so? Does any advantage you might gain pale in comparison to the impact pregnancy has on your colleagues and superiors' perception of your commitment to your work and your competency as an attorney?

Topic: Women and Law in the Media

Comments

I just don't see it

On October 22nd, 2009 Peg says:

Caveat: I don't watch the show but this topic is just so juicy and so personal that I feel I have to comment.

I don't see any professional advantage to being pregnant. With that said, I am not a litigator so I have nothing to gain from the other side somehow feeling sorry for me or wanting to be paternal or protective of me.

I have two related thoughts that I'll throw out there for others to comment on:

First, I have a real problem with using something like pregnancy to your advantage and then turning around and saying that it works to your disadvantage. This is related, I guess to my aversion to affirmative action, in any form. Why should it be okay to win a case (for example) because you used your pregnancy as part of your strategy (e.g. the jury felt sorry for you) but not okay to lose the next case (for example) because others used your pregnancy against you (e.g. the jury saw you as a weak motherly figure)? This sort of double standard bothers me to no end and I don't think it is okay to use something to your advantage just to offset the disadvantages that are outside your control.

Second, I think the disadvantages of being pregnant in the office far outweigh any advantage that you could squeeze out of it. I have been a working pregnant woman on two occassions and each time the treatment I got from male colleagues, superiors and subordinates was disturbing. They can't help (or don't help) but be too sensitive to your condition. Their husband, father, son instincts kick in and all they see is a MOM. I just don't see how this is good for a professional woman. Luckily, at the time, I was in a career where I could transition to a new job location and new co-workers right after both pregnancies so I was able to avoid all of the aftermath (e.g. questions like "how is it being a new mom," "how are you handling being back to work with a newborn at home" and other post-pregnancy awkward and non-professional situations).

OK with using whatever advantage you can muster ... sort of

On October 23rd, 2009 jessie says:

I always look forward to your comments, Peg, because you and I have really different takes on things, but your views are always thoughtful and interesting to me.

In the case of TGW - the opposing counsel's behavior struck me as inappropriate, but that was mostly because it was so disengenuous. She only faked pregnancy-related interruptions when it suited her client. Not a liekable quality. And the show emphasized this point with a side story about her assistant quitting and taking a job with TGW instead.

That said, if I were her client I probably would have appreciated the help. Zealous advocacy, right?

I understand what you mean about a double standard - but I'm also the girl who thinks the old boys club needs to go at the same time that I'm all about building an old girls club.

I try and be strategic about using my gender to my advantage. Just this week I was introduced to a female GC. I knew she and I weren't going to have much in common professionally. But after poking around a couple topics I hit on a good one: we both loved a recent chick flick. And we ended up laughing about it and retelling our favorite scenes for 30 minutes. Having taken advantage of that doesn't stop me from being grumpy when the guys in my working group meet up at a whiskey bar or chat endlessly about World of War Craft.

Maybe it's a bit hypocrytical, but this is a super competative industry and I will take what advantages I find both for myself and for whomever I represent.

Only if it also hurt you?

On October 28th, 2009 Manamana says:

I appreciate, and to a certain extent agree with, both comments on this thread thus far. Ultimately I think that while it would be nice for the pregnancy to be a non-issue (or at least a neutral issue), that is a world I think few of us live in.

Like Peg, I think that pregnancy probably has less impact on the corporate side, at when it comes to the substance of the work. Still, while litigation may be more impacted by a pregnancy, that's only on those occasions the pregnant lawyer is making a presentation of some kind (to a jury, judge, in an arbitration, etc.), and in my admittedly limited experience, for many lawyers that is kind of rare, especially earlier in the career. Honestly, I think I could probably be pregnant and at least some of the lawyers I work for would not know, simply because we communicate by email or phone exclusively.

I've seen pregnant lawyers on both the prosecution and defense sides of a trial, and I'm not sure that being pregnant really adds a huge benefit or weakened the presentation. If anything the pregnancy may have had a bigger effect on the individual--I think some pregnant lawyers might get a boost of confidence (sort of like thinking to yourself, "not only is my case great, who's going to vote against the pregnant side?!"). I've also seen a pregnant lawyer have to step down during a particularly stressful trial, but I've never decided whether I think that made her client more sympathetic, or if it prejudiced the jury against the client (i.e., weak lawyer = weak case).

I was irritated by the character in TGW because she was faking it, but I kind of liked that she was otherwise pretty tough and certainly very confident. I think Jessie is right that she was doing the best job she could to help her (icky) client. I wonder whether men, if they experienced a similar phenomenon as pregnancy, would ever hesitate to explooit it to the max, or have conversations about whether it is appropriate to do so. In the end, I think no one faults a pregnant woman who legitimately needs to slow down or take a break because of the pregnancy, but no one likes people who lie, regardless of what it's about (this goes to the point you hear a lot in law school: at the end of the day, all you have is your reputation).

As I said before, and in line with Jessie's point, maybe it is okay to dish it out if you've been taking it. That is, if you're being treated differently (paternatisically, pejoratively, as a womb and not a lawyer), I'm more comfortably with you flipping the situation around and using that to your advantage, within reason.