old fat lawyer interested in talking online with young women lawyers
Posted in October 2007. I graduated law school in 1977, was a law clerk, and then started job hunting. I wanted to be a litigator. At this point in history, male litigators were very frank about not wanting to hire women. I finally got a job at a small but high rated plaintiff's pi firm where the partners were willing to give a newcomer a chance. I was genuinely bad at the job (clerkship experience didn't translate into private practice street smarts) and the partner I was working for travelled all the time and didn't have time or energy to mentor me. So they fired me (they were kind, but I was out) and I couldn't get another job with any private firm (the scarlet letter of termination plus being female was enough to eliminate any chance I might otherwise have had). I hung out my shingle, got a part time gig with the public defender's office to pay the bills, and went grimly to work building a practice. This worked out okay. I eventually recognized that I was a decent trial lawyer but no Clarence Darrow and I wanted kids, so I shifted to appellate work and lived happily ever after. Today I'm in my fifties, have two teenagers, and work from a home office as a sole practitioner. I work about 3/4 of full time and make about $80,000/year net of overhead which is pretty good for where I live (deep south, not major metropolitan area). I do about half plaintiff pi and about half commercial litigation, mostly appeals but I still do an occasional deposition or court appearance.
When I was battling the male chauvinist pigs of my generation, I always assumed that once I pried the door open, younger women would storm in. But it didn't happen. When I go to court today, there are women lawyers, all right. But the women lawyers consist of a few young lawyerettes in their twenties - and me. I used to be the only woman and now I'm the only ugly old woman ... sigh.
I've apparently busted some kind of glass ceiling but I'm not quite sure what I did or how I did it, Most people don't think of me as "successful" because I work at home, don't have a lot of spare cash cause I'm a single parent and all my money goes to my teenagers (private schools cost a FORTUNE), and I wear jeans and a t shirt except when I have to go to court.
I've been wondering what goes on with young women lawyers. What do the law firms do with young women lawyers these days, kill them and eat them on their thirtieth birthday? Because that seems to be when they all disappear ... It's like some kind of science fiction movie.
So this website is quite fascinating to me. Who are you, where are you, what's going on with you, and can I help?
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life as a lawyerette
I think I'm probably what you're talking about when you refer to "laweryettes." I'm in my mid-twenties, I just graduated from law school, and I take great joy from my shoe collection. I hope my appearance wouldn't lead you to believe I'm not serious about my legal career and about following in your footsteps as a woman not afraid to pursue my own goals regardless of discrimination or expectations.
I'm clerking for a federal judge in Memphis this year. After this I'm hoping to pursue a career in the public sector doing public finance work (stilettos aside, I'm a tax nerd at heart). I went to law school to do anti-poverty policy work, and I see tax as a field in which you can do that, but few liberal women like me have tried. I'm hoping to have a family, but right now my career comes first.
So that's me. I agree that there are more visible examples of 20-something and 50-something female attorneys than anything in between. Maybe the "opt-out" is partially to blame? It seems to me that your generation really fought for career advancement, but that those who came directly after you not only experienced a backlash but a sense of disappointment when "having it all" really just meant not sleeping. I feel like this newest generation of women is more realistic about the challenges of personal balance, hence this site.
For what it's worth, your story sound like a pretty great success. I hope you know how valuable and inspiring your example is.
How do you build a solo practice?
Thanks so much for offering to give advice! I have actually thought a lot about trying to go into solo practice, but it seems so daunting. If you go to work for a firm, everything is sort of done for you, and you have partners or older associates checking your work, so there is a safety net in place where you know you won't make any fatal errors. Solo practice always intimidated me because it seems like you would need to know a lot of things about a lot of different types of law. Did you start out only taking certain cases in certain disciplines? How did you figure out what to do? How did you find clients? I know a lot of this stuff may seem self-evident, but I assure you that it isn't, and a do-it-yourself guide to how to start a solo practice would be really useful to someone like me. Thanks so much for your time!
Getting Started
I think a lot of women would enjoy hearing your comments about your career and the choices you made. I'm wondering about your observation of either lawywerettes or old-fogies being in the courtroom. Do you, or other readers, think that might be indicative of the choices women have to make when they have a family? So maybe lawyers in their 30-40s are staying out of the courtroom on purpose to spend time with familes? Comments anyone?
not quite young...
OFL - I am ten years behind you - but only ten - a 1987 grad. I live in Nevada, the land of opportunity for lawyers. I spent 20 years choosing positions that allowed me time with my daughter. Now that she's grown, I've gone the big firm route (big by my standads - 50-60 lawyers), where my writing ability has gained me of counsel status.
Like you, however, I notice that female lawyers my age are the exception, not the rule. My c lass was more than 50% women - where did they all go?