Canada's First Woman Supreme Court Chief Justice, Beverley McLachlin, Celebrates Her Tenth Year as Top Judge

"I have always wanted to be known as a good jurist, as a serious jurist," said Canadian Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin in a recent interview with the Globe and Mail, marking her tenth year as top judge.  It appears that she has, without a doubt, succeeded. 

McLachlin has presided over thousands of cases in a 29-year career on the bench.  Lately, the Court has tackled difficult press freedom and free expression issues.  And McLachlin still feels the pressue of making difficult decisions.  "They are all really, really important issues at this level," she said.  "One does ponder them, and go back and forth agonizing about them.  I must say, it is a preoccupying thing."

Equally noteworthy is the fact that McLachlin presides over a Court where four of the nine seats are occupied by women.  "I think that's a wonderful situation for the court to be in," she said.  "It gives encouragement to people who might otherwise feel they ought not to try for whatever it is they want to try for."  As the Globe and Mail reported: "In her early years, Chief Justice McLachlin often found herself wondering whether colleagues were parsing her statements with the subconscious thought, 'Is that her hormones - or her women-ness - talking.'  That is no longer the case, she said.  'We just don't think in terms of gender on this court.  I don't think it is for the men on the court, either.'"

Rather, the challenge has become leading nine independent, brilliant minds in pursuit of making the best legal decisions possible.  As she tackles this challenge, McLauchlin moves closer to becoming the longest-serving chief justice in the 135-year history of the Court (she is three years away).  Yet, through it all, she continues to conduct herself with poise and intelligence, while maintaining perspective: "Whatever happens, happens.  It has been a great privilege, one I could never have imagined in my wildest imaginings when I started out in law."

To read the full Globe and Mail article click here.

Ms. JD at William & Mary: A Lunch with Justice O'Connor

Ed. note: This weekend Justice O'Connor participated in a round-table discussion with fifteen law students. Julie Silverbrook, Ms. JD's liaison to William & Mary's Women's Law Society had these reflections to share:

Fifteen lucky students arrived for Saturday’s lunch with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor with tickets in hand and questions on their minds. Questions ranged from the current state of the legal profession to judicial accountability.

Doris Brin Walker Dies at Age 90

Politically radical attorney Doris Brin Walker died at a San Francisco hospital last week. She was 90. 

Walker graduated from Boalt Hall in 1942, the only woman in her class. She was elected the first woman president of the National Lawyers Guild in 1970. She as fired from her first firm job, allegedly because she was a women.

In 1972, Walker defended Angela Davis in what Harvard University law professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. called "clearly the trial of the 20th century, and one that exemplified the vast and diverse talents of the true Dream Team of the legal profession." From the Los Angeles Times: 

[Walker's] most high-profile case was the sensational trial of Davis, an avowed Communist and recently fired UCLA professor who faced the death penalty because a gun registered in her name was linked to the 1970 slayings of a Marin County judge and three abductors. The mix of race, politics and murder drew international attention to the case. Walker, one of two women on the four-member defense team, prepared witnesses and helped the other attorneys plan novel strategies, which included using consultants to pick a jury and experts to debunk eyewitness testimony. 

Ogletree said that Walker "was a living example of the wonderful, critical and timely contribution of women to the legal profession."

Justice Ginsburg on Sotomayor, Gender & the Court, & Roe

This week's New York Times Magazine features Emily Bazelon's interview with Justice Ginsburg. It's relatively juicy stuff, given how guarded the Justices generally are. Ginsburg talks about Judge Sotomayor, feeling alone - even ignored - at conference, and how she thinks precedents on reproductive rights and discrimination should and will change.

My favorite tidbits were explanations of the Justice's work-out routine and her quip that if the court were mostly women "[t]he work would not be any easier. Some of the amenities might improve." Another highlight involved the impact O'Connor's retirement has had on Justice Ginsburg's experience. 

Q: What has [being the only woman on the court] been like?

JUSTICE GINSBURG: It’s almost like being back in law school in 1956, when there were 9 of us in a class of over 500, so that meant most sections had just 2 women, and you felt that every eye was on you. Every time you went to answer a question, you were answering for your entire sex. It may not have been true, but certainly you felt that way. You were different and the object of curiosity.

The Justice flip flops a bit on whether gender impacts the substance of the justices' opinions, first saying she resists giving credence to the research on the effect of sex on judging, but then imagining that a majority-women court would decide discrimination cases differently than the current lineup does.

After the jump: Ginsburg's take on Sotomayor's "wise latina woman" comment and what appears to be a politically incorrect misstep of her own.

Justice Ginsburg Visits New England Law Boston, Recounts Career Roadblocks

Justice Ginsburg helped New England Law Boston celebrate its 100th year by speaking to a group of 180 law students last week.

Ginsburg recelled some of the challenges she faced as a woman in the profession, reported The Boston Globe:

Ginsburg said rising through the ranks in a legal profession that was almost the exclusive domain of men was challenging. She said that after she graduated from Columbia Law School in 1959, where she was at the top of her class, "there was not a single law firm in the city of New York that would give me a job."

First Women Series: Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw

Ed. Note: The following post is a First Women series submission by Judge Kim Wardlaw.

Judge Kim Wardlaw Biography: President William Jefferson Clinton nominated Judge Wardlaw to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on January 27, 1998. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 31, 1998, and appointed to the Court on August 3, 1998.  Judge Wardlaw had previously served on the United States District Court for the Central District of California since January 3, 1996. Before joining the district court, she was a litigation partner of the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers, and was based in Los Angeles. There she enjoyed a general business litigation practice, with special emphases in intellectual property and media defense law. While in private practice, Judge Wardlaw served in various offices of the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, the Women Lawyers Public Action Grant Foundation and the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, from which she resigned as an officer upon assuming the bench. Also while in private practice, Judge Wardlaw was involved in numerous community, political and governmental activities, taking leaves of absence from her practice to join the Clinton-Gore Presidential Transition Team, where she worked in the United States Justice Department, and serving as Mayor-elect Richard J. Riordan’s Government Liaison during his mayoral transition.

Judge Wardlaw graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from UCLA with an A.B. in Communication Studies in 1976. She obtained her J.D. in 1979 from UCLA Law School, where she was awarded Order of the Coif and named Outstanding Graduate of the Class of 1979. She was a legal extern during law school for the late Honorable Joseph T. Sneed, III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and upon graduation, clerked for Honorable William P. Gray of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling Abroad: Two Appointed as Palestine's First Female Judges

Khuload Faqih and Asmahan Wuheidi made history this month when they were appointed as the first female Islamic judges in Palentine, according to an article released by the AP. Judge Faqih believes that she has "opened a door for [herself] and other women."

The female judges say they can help their sisters obtain their rights under Islamic law. The decision affects only the West Bank, ruled by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. In the Gaza Strip, the ruling militant group Hamas has not made similar appointments, although Hamas women have become legislators and are slowly emerging in senior positions.

Dawn Johnson, Assistant Attorney General

In addition to his nomination of Elena Kagan for the position of Solicitor General, Barack Obama recently tapped Dawn Johnsen to be an assistant attorney general in his administration.

Johnsen is currently a Professor of Law and Ira C. Batman Faculty Fellow at the Indiana University School of Law—Bloomington. She spent several years as an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, serving as its Acting Assistant Attorney General in 1997 and 1998.

A Constitutional Law scholar, Johnsen has published extensively on Constitutional powers and authority.  Her recent law review articles include Faithfully Executing the Laws: Internal Legal Constraints on Executive Power and Lessons from the Right: Progressive Constitutionalism for the Twenty-First Century.

Elena Kagan, Solicitor General

President-elect Obama announced key Department of Justice posts today, including the nomination of Elena Kagan for Solictitor General. Currently the 11th Dean of Harvard Law School (and the first woman in that post), Kagan served in Bill Clinton's White House from 1995 to 1999. During the Clinton Adminstration she served first as Associate Counsel to the President and then as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council.

In addition to her current deanship at Obama's Alma Mater, Kagan and Obama taught at the University of Chicago Law School at the same time during the 1990s. Like Obama, Kagan was editor of the Harvard Law Review

 If confirmed, Elena Kagan will be the first woman solicitor general.

Justice Judith Kaye in the New Yorker: Special Kaye

Jeffrey Toobin penned a piece for the New Yorker this month on Justice Judith Kaye. The "Talk of the Town" profile, Special Kaye, reflects on a variety of Kaye's accomplishments, from the renovations of Foley Square courthouse that she championed to her promotion of jury service.

The jury room, with its dozing strangers awaiting the call to dispense justice, never fails to stir her soul. (Kaye always says “jury service,” not “jury duty.”) No detail is too small for her attention. The coffee stand, to her regret, can’t muster the technology for cappuccino; the in-house magazine for jurors has a crossword puzzle but, per her directive, no answers. “I want the jurors to learn to work together by figuring it out,” she said.

More recent articles on Justice Judith Kaye:

A sampling of the Kaye Court's rulings and dissents

Kaye exits 'role of a lifetime'

Justice Kaye's example