Rebels at the Bar The Fascinating, Forgotten Stories of America’s First Women Lawyers by Jill Norgren

I've just started reading Jill Nogren's recently released book, Rebels at the Bar, and couldn't wait to share. The book gives us an in-depth look at the careers of eight notable women--the first female attorneys in the United States. I want to  invite Ms. JD readers, volunteers, and program participants to read along with me--and to share reviews, general thoughts, and questions!

As an added bonus, Ms. JD readers will receive 20% off when purchasing the book from NYU Press. The promo code is REBEL13

Here's a little more about the book:

In Rebels at the Bar, prize-winning legal historian Jill Norgren recounts the life stories of a small group of nineteenth century women who were among the first female attorneys in the United States. Beginning in the late 1860s, these determined rebels pursued the radical ambition of entering the then all-male profession of law. They were motivated by a love of learning. They believed in fair play and equal opportunity. They desired recognition as professionals and the ability to earn a good living.

Deborah Rhode on Women in Law

Editor's note: The thirtieth anniversary edition of Women in Law by Dr. Cynthia Fuchs Epstein is now available in paperback from Quid Pro Books. The book features a new foreward by Deborah Rhode, Ernest W. McFarland Professor of Law, Stanford University. We are excited to share the foreward with you today on Ms. JD.  For an exceprt from the book, click here.

When Cynthia Fuchs Epstein published her pathbreaking account of Women in Law, their status in the profession was separate and anything but equal. They constituted less than 15 percent of lawyers and 5 percent of partners, earned about 40 percent less than their male colleagues, and were often relegated to low-prestige practice settings. With penetrating insight and painstaking detail, Epstein chronicled the biases that helped account for those inequalities.

Over the last three decades, much has changed but too much has remained the same. Now, about half of new lawyers in the United States are women and they are fairly evenly distributed across substantive areas. Yet significant gender disparities persist. Women constitute about a third of the lawyers in large firms, but only about 17 percent of equity partners. Attrition rates are almost twice as high among female associates as among comparable male associates. Women are also underrepresented in leadership positions such as chairs and members of management and compensation committees. Gender disparities are similarly apparent in compensation, even when controlling for productivity. Although female lawyers report about the same overall career satisfaction as their male colleagues, women also experience greater dissatisfaction with most specific dimensions of practice: salary, level of responsibility, recognition for work, content of work, chances for advancement, and control over their work lives. For women of color, all of these disparities are still more pronounced. Their attrition rates are the highest and their compensation and satisfaction rates are the lowest of any demographic group.

Book Review: Rebuilding Justice: Civil Courts in Jeopardy and Why You Should Care

As someone who spent time representing low income clients during law school, I’ve always been a little (ok,  more than a little) skeptical of who the “justice system” was set up to work for. I’ve been perceived by judges and court administrators as both a client and an attorney, and the difference in treatment I received in each of those roles was startling. When I read a synopsis of Rebuilding Justice: Civil Courts in Jeopardy and Why You Should Care, I knew I had to get my hands on a copy. When page two proclaimed, “The only person in the room who benefited from the docket method [used by the courts on my first day as a judge] was the judge. Everyone else waited, spent money on attorneys, and wasted their time. The system was a court-centric model – not a user-centric model,” I was sold.

Book Review: The Road to Independence

She just couldn’t hack it. Let’s be honest, we’ve all thought it. When a woman leaves BigLaw (or even MediumLaw) and goes out on her own…we think it. We think that she couldn’t make it. Sure, maybe she was just looking for a change; but, maybe she just need to work harder.

If you’ve ever thought those things…This is the book that will prove you wrong.

Released earlier this year, The Road to Independence: 101 Women’s Journeys to Starting Their Own Law Firms is a series a letters from women who have started their own firms. Each of the women had her own reasons for starting her own firm. But none of those reasons were because a former job was just too hard. This book definitively dispels the myth that women leave law firms because of the hard work.

In fact, as many of the letters point out, running your own firm is often harder. Many of the writers suddenly had a number of roles to add to their already busy schedule. Business strategist, real estate agent, decorator, marketing department, and copy room technician were all roles that had to be filled without a large corporate support staff.

Book Review: In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate by Nancy Gertner

One of my favorite spoken word poets once recited a line that has stuck with me. “I’ve seen too much injustice,” he shouted “to believe in chance.” This could have been the subtitle to Gertner’s book. A seasoned advocate, not believing in chance could be her motto. In 246 pages Gertner writes about her experience of institutionalized inequities as well as the value of old fashioned hard work. In Defense of Women details Gertner’s dedication to her work as an advocate on behalf of women as well has her commitment to the practice of law. Based on the tales in this autobiography, it sounds like her passion was matched only by her work ethic.

In Defense of Women is an autobiography detailing Gertner’s journey from a 29 year old “lapsed radical” and defender of accused cop killer Susan Saxe to Federal District Judge.  As a young woman still somewhat disenchanted by law school, I found Gertner’s book refreshing. Someone who had made it! More importantly, someone who had made it without buying into all the unwritten rules of the male dominated legal profession. Woman lawyer! Red suits! Militant lesbian clients! Take that gender norms of 1975.

Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz

This Summer, I am finally getting to a book that's been on my to-read list for months, ever since it was sent to me as a birthday gift from fellow Writer in Residence Jen Ward. The book is Woman Lawyer: The Trials of Clara Foltz by Barbara Babcock. Here's the synopsis:

Woman Lawyer tells the story of Clara Foltz, the first woman admitted to the California Bar. Famous in her time as a public intellectual, leader of the women's movement, and legal reformer, Foltz faced terrific prejudice and well-organized opposition to women lawyers as she tried cases in front of all-male juries, raised five children as a single mother, and stumped for political candidates. She was the first to propose the creation of a public defender to balance the public prosecutor. Woman Lawyer uncovers the legal reforms and societal contributions of a woman celebrated in her day, but lost to history until now. It casts new light on the turbulent history and politics of California in a period of phenomenal growth and highlights the interconnection of the suffragists and other movements for civil rights and legal reforms.

The author is a First Women, herself, having served as the first director of the Public Defender Service in Washington D.C. and appointed as the first woman  to Stanford Law School’s regular faculty.

Doesn't it sound like an inspiring read? I'll report back with a review, but thought some of you might like to add it to your summer reading list and read it along with me.

Book Review: Success Strategies for Women Lawyers by Lauren Stiller Rikleen

Out this month from the British ARK Group is a new book by the Bowditch Institute' Lauren Stiller Rikleen, Success Strategies for Women Lawyers.  Ms. Rikleen is also the author of Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Success in Law, and she has been interviewed for this site and spoken at Ms. JD's Chicago conference.

The tone of the book is more self-help than treatise, which is great. It's an easy, entertaining read, with personal anecdotes from lawyers peppering each chapter. The advice is on soft skills, like branding, networking, mentoring, and self-promotion. Balance is addressed, but not as the main attraction and the focus of the conversation is on flexibility as opposed to sacrifice - an important distinction.

What separates this from alot of comparable work is that the views reflect a global perspective with contributions from lawyers in the Americas, Europe and Asia. This would be a great read on the flight home for Christmas break. It's inspiring, motivating, and digestible. Highlights include:

• The case for why new lawyers MUST develop a specialty/area of expertise and the case for why this development must begin with passion for the subject area in question
• How to use community service or "extra-curricular activities" to develop leadership skills and experience
• How to identify administrative tasks with networking opportunities: Quoting NYC attorney Jennifer Klausner, "“At a strategic point in my career, I took it upon myself to offer to do certain firm related tasks that would help me develop a relationship with in-house counsel at key clients. Specifically, I agreed to prepare and regularly update a summary of active litigation of the firms’ biggest clients. This project was useful to the clients as well as key management in the firm, and it opened the door for me to have regular communication with both clients and firm management."
• Why mentors need not be role models: Quoting Barbara Dawson, "“Because I’ve found that mentors come in all types of unusual packaging, I would discourage young women from thinking that the best mentor would necessarily be a woman whose own life would serve as a good model. For example, the person who gave me the most valuable experience early in my career was a man who was known for his colorful character and salty language (as well as his legal brilliance)."
  

Debbie Epstein Henry's Law & Reorder

Debbie Epstein Henry, of Flex-Time Lawyers, has been a champion for Ms. JD since the very beginning. She has been a speaker at almost every major event Ms. JD has hosted, a constant supporter of new programs, and -for lack of a better word - a cheerleader in the industry for Ms. JD's fledgling efforts.

So it is with great pride and excitement that I write about Debbie's new book Law & Reorder: Legal Industry Solutions for Restructure, Retention, Promotion & Work/Life Balance. The book is a remarkable undertaking. Debbie makes a thorough review of the the structural shifts forcing change in the industry before going about making suggestions for institutional and individual success.

The basic premise is that the market for legal work has changed but law firms, law schools and legal service providers haven't caught up.  How and when they catch up will have implications for women and minorities. The first half of Law &Reorder assesses these changes from the perspective of firms and other legal employers.  The second looks at the changing landscape from the perspective of an individual lawyer.

I agree with Debbie's assessment that the market has changed. I think the two greatest changes in legal practice in the last few decades are the rise of e-discovery and the entrance of women and minorities into the profession.  Both have served to undermine the credibility of the almighty billable hour as an organizing principle. Clients have reacted much more quickly to both factors than legal service providers have.

Law & Reorder is a remarkable contribution to the dialog on women in law. I love that there is both an indictment of the state of the profession and a concrete proscription for change and success. And I love that much of the indictment and solution are gender-neutral. Best of all, Debbie has lined up all the right supporters, with a long list of the country's most influential general counsels all reading and signing on to the thinking here. She's got the attention of the major players and that's very very good news for all the rest of us.

Gloria Feldt: No Excuses

N.Y. Times writer Adriana Gardella recently interviewed Gloria Feldt, author of No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change the Way We Think About Power and Leadership. Here's a snippet from the interview:

Q. How do women who flee the work force have an impact on those who do not?

Ms. Feldt: They make it harder for the rest of us to remedy the inequities that remain. We have to make young women aware of how their choices affect other women. It should be acceptable criticism to point out that, although everyone has the right to make their own life decisions, choosing to “opt out” reinforces stereotypes about women’s priorities that we’ve been working for decades to shatter, so just cut it out. And, the “individual choice” women have to become stay-at-home moms becomes precarious when they try to return to the workplace and find their earning power and options reduced. If we could see child-rearing as a necessary task and not an identity, and if we could collectively recognize that facilitating it benefits us all, we would go much further in guaranteeing women’s choices than we do when we are expected to uncritically celebrate every individual’s decisions.

Q. Is it realistic to hope that an individual woman will act for the good of all women?

Ms. Feldt: Well, you can’t beat people over the head with it, but there needs to be a discussion. At the rate we’re going, it will take 70 years for women to reach parity with men in influential leadership roles.

The rest of the interview is here and an excerpt from the book is available here. Have any Ms. JD readers read the book? I am interested to hear your thoughts!

Recommended Reading: Necessary Dreams by Anna Fels

Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women's Changing Lives struck a chord with me.  I spend a lot of time hearing about women who reign in their professional horizons. I have caught myself doing it too. I remember a day in high school when I thought, "Maybe I should be a psychologist. They get to set their own schedules and can have a flexible work day." That's how strong the pressure was on my teenage self to find a career that accommodated a certain kind of personal life. I am a terrible listener. And I have known I wanted to go to law school and be a civil rights advocate for almost as long as I can remember. At least since I studied American history in the 5th grade. And yet there I was, 16 and thinking about abandoning every ambition in favor of a career I wasn't suited to for a hypothetical work/life balance I didn't yet need. So. Messed. Up.

So when I read this review on Slate.com I found myself nodding my head and heading over to Amazon:

For 30 years, America has been turning out gifted girls—athletes, student leaders, artists and writers, science whizzes. Cheered on by parents, teachers, and coaches, they go to college and universities and do brilliantly. Routinely, they head off from graduate and professional schools to demanding positions in business, philanthropy, medicine, the law. They do everything asked of them and more, but unaccountably, as they draw closer to the vocations for which they've long been preparing, a cloud gathers over them. By turns hectoring and anxious, a gloomy chorus announces that success will deplete their romantic prospects and cheat them out of the families they want to have. It seems that Virginia Woolf's imagined adversary, the Victorian Angel in the House—she who always put her own needs second—rises to flap triumphantly over the times, despite Woolf's hope that modern women would kill her.

I had heard Anna Fels speak once.  Like Linda Hirshmann, she was talking about resources, and how women are wasting them. But this book goes much deeper into the issue. There's quantitative analysis of women's changing ambitions and fascinating anecdotes from women who continue to undersell themselves despite remarkable successes.  There's also really heartening evidence that the women who juggle and live to tell the tale score significantly higher on the various happiness and satisfaction measures than those who never attempt to raise a family and work. All in all a very worthwhile read.