All the Single Ladies: A Chance to Share Your Experiences and Get Published by the ABA!

The ABA Commission on Women in the Profession is developing a new book entitled, "The Road to Independence: A Woman's Guide to Forming Her Own Law Firm." This volume will be a collection of letters (maximum 4 pages double-spaced) focusing on the experiences, challenges, and opportunities of women-owned law firms.  The Commission is seeking women who have formed their own firms -- whether as a solo, with other women, or with men; it is not necessary that the women currently be owners of their firms.  The book's audience is primarily women who are thinking about starting their own law firms as well as those who already have taken that step.

If you are interested in offering your insight into these important issues -- or know someone else who has started her own firm -- please send name/contact
information to Barbara Leff, Commission on Women Communications and Publications Manager, at leffb@staff.abanet.org.  Invitation letters will start to be sent in early April.  For more information about the book and the procedures for submitting letters, please visit http://www.abanet.org/women/independence.html.

New Courtroom Capers Contest @ Overheard in Court

The folks at Overheard in Court are offering a $150 prize to posters on their site this month.  The site functions as a lovely tribute to Judge Buchmeyer and his long running, much loved, column in The Texas Bar Journal.

February's contest winner Nathalie Pettit submitted this gem:

Employer supervisor testifying in gender discrimination claim:
Supervisor: "I don't discriminate against them - them women - just because they have them - them things."
Attorney: "What? Breasts?"
Supervisor: "No! Them kids - I know they can't do the same job because they have to take off work all the time..."

The Good Wife: Week 13

Previously on The Good Wife: The Good Wife married The Bad Husband and took a 13-year hiaitus before reclaiming her career as an attorney.  This week's episode raised two topics for discussion:

1. Professional Rewards Based on Personal Connections, e.g. The Old Boys Club

TGW's firm is representing a high profile client and TGW gets to second chair the trial. Wahoo! Except the water cooler wisdom explains this is because her husband was on the original criminal case that led to this civil suit.

My first reaction was, Poor TGW. It's always one step forward two steps back: she gets an opportunity but only because of who she knows. And then I thought, well of course she does. Everyone does! That's the point of networking and professional associations and half the advice I give women about how to compete with the Old Boys Club!

Recently a law firm partner told me she never would have made partner after she started a family if her husband hadn't been a partner at the firm already and able to give her good work so she could continue to grow her practice when no one else would.  

And so then perhaps this is the upside of the two-lawyer household that doesn't have the flexibility or time to find balance: when all else fails and old norms persist your husband is there creating career opportunities and serving as a defense against discrimination. 

After the jump, lessons from a damsel in distress and Power Suit's awesome name for her dog...

The Good Wife: Weeks 11 & 12

A bit behind on our TGW updates here. But the last two weeks had two gems for discussion:

1. Female associates being relegated to clerical work.  I can't tell you how often I hear this.  The example I hear most often is from junior associates who become "experts" at handling the logistics of court filings (which are a pain in the butt by all accounts) and continue to be tasked with that tedious work even when more junior associates join a case because of this "expertise."

In week 11, TGW, notes that she's continually tasked with client hand holding, but then the hot shot junior male associate manages to take all the credit for the benefits of the relationships she develops. Her super slick female investigator's response: "'It's not a conspiracy; you're good at it.' That's what my brother used to tell me to get me to do his chores." Love this assessment. 

I think a key survival tactic in any successful firm life is finding a balance between saying no when peers ask you to do thankless work and still being able to ask those same peers to back you up when you need it. 

2. Strategic reporting to senior partners.  I like to refer to this as "the politics of the reply all." Choosing when and how to inform senior and supervising attorneys of news in a case is no small matter. And the decision is about more than basic CYA.  Your work is the subject of constant evaluation the results of which can reverberate for many years to come. I have a friend who's been at a firm for 5 years. In his first performance review he received criticism on an assignment. All his other feedback has been positive and constructive, but he continues to hear about that early assignment every single year. 

In week 12, TGW has game-changing information about her client. After some hesitation she decides to take the news to Power Suit, the female named partner, rather than Will her normal internal champion. She knows she's about to get a kudos, and she takes the opportunity to get the good opinion of someone with whom she's not as close, someone whose good opinion she still seeks. Smart. 

Getting Inside the Male Mind: Lessons from 'The Male Factor,' by Shaunti Feldhahn

In her new book 'The Male Factor: The Unwritten Rules, Misperceptions, and Secret Beliefs of Men in the Workplace,' author Shaunti Feldhahn asserts that in order for women to really get ahead in the workplace, they need to think like a man.  In a recent interview with Canada's 'The Globe and Mail,' Feldhahn walks readers through the major points of her theory:

1. In fields that are still male-dominated, where men tend to be gatekeepers for upward career movements, there is a significant impact on women if they do not understand the internal male culture.

2. Women need to recognize that there are certain things that men are privately thinking and expecting from their colleagues.  Because these things can be different from what women are privately thinking, women have to actively look for these private expectations.

3. While women's brains are specifically wired to process a strong emotion and to think clearly at the same time, women have to keep emotions in check.  This is because the male brain is not so wired, so men assume that the presence of an emotion means a lack of thinking.

The Good Wife: Week 10

This week on The Good Wife: the BigLaw v. Public Service debate. The twist: the choice is before PowerSuit, the firm's female rainmaker, not a graduating 3L.  And this is television so the handsome, young, liberal crusader is taking kickbacks from corrupt juvenile prison contractors and the corporate defense attorneys are seeking justice for young at-risk children.

To me the most interesting - and for that matter realistic - storyline was PowerSuit's. In order to leave private practice and get party endorsement for a judicial post she has to relinquish her position in her firm. And her credit for her biggest cases. By the end of the episode maintaining her hard-won status in the private sector as well as an honest portrayal of her client relationships looks like the path of righteous indignation. The personal is political. And for PowerSuit that means keeping her clients, her control, and her name on the letterhead.  For this BigLaw woman, it's all about power. Love it.

This episode aired the same week as a number of relevant news items. First, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been busy crusading against the continued practice in many states of electing judges.  It also came during a weekin which at least three high profile entertainment industry journalists weighed in on the portrayal and influence of women in television and film

Hillary Clinton’s “Tough Love” Diplomatic Style

The December issue of Vogue features an up-close-and-personal of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she completed a twelve-day trip through Africa earlier this year.  Much of the article focuses on how being a woman influences her style of diplomacy and communication.  One section in particular, about her motherly “tough love” attitude (a theme that the author uses to describe her interactions throughout the article) struck me:

This was Clinton's message all over Africa: Stop complaining and get organized. It was a tough-love message delivered most forcefully (and successfully) in Kenya, in private with the leaders of the country; and she delivered it at the University of Nairobi, where the crowds outside were perhaps the biggest of the entire trip and where the students inside received the message with enthusiasm. In that auditorium, I was struck by Clinton's tone. It sounded like a speech that only a mother could give. Clinton has this innate ability to be almost but not quite hectoring, the sort of "Come on, get your act together, let's go!" that mothers deliver to children so effectively. Perhaps some countries are prepared to hear certain things only from a woman?”

The Good Wife: Week 9

This week TGW found herself asserting her authority over a more senior man. That made for a series of interesting moments. Meanwhile her husband's former lover was on tv calling her "frigid." Everyone's favorite adjective for professional women.

For all that, the moment I most sympathized with TGW was when she had to walk through the office feeling like everyone was looking at (and judging) her. She's just learned about the new media circus surrounding her husband's infidelity. As she walks to her partner's office it seems like everyone is staring, turning to watch, and making knowing eyes at her. It's pretty brutal. 

Other noteworthy scenes:

Symbolic represtentation v. actual representation:  Her client chooses her to sit as a vassel through which he can make his own arguments. Nothing wrong with that in the abstract but it reminded me of stories I hear about clients asking for more diverse representation and being given symbolic, not real diversity. Law firms will produce a women to handle client relations, but not give her client credit or new work. The client thinks they've met their own internal requirement to diversify outside counsel, the firm has satisfied the client, but women haven't actually been promoted or advanced. Here TGW gets the privilege of a high profile client without any of the actual benefits. Of course this is television not real life so TGW quickly impresses her client with her talent and mind and gets to actually represent him as well.

The Good Wife: Week 8

Another light recap this week thanks to a relatively gender-neutral episode:

Excessive Apologies: This is a troublesome communication issue for some women. In this case we've got a female scientist who can't help but apologize automatically in response to almost everything that's said to her. It's bad enough her defense attorneys can't put her on the stand.Women in science arguably have it worse than women in law, so we can assume that this would be the kind of hang-up that would negatively impact more than her defense strategy. 

Hubby's Homecoming? This episode explored the possibility that TGW's incarcerated husband might be extended bail while his conviction went up on appeal. The episode left TGW's feelings about her husband's potential homecoming a bit ambiguous. I couldn't help but watch and think that for the first time in a long time TGW's work has provided her a kind of satisfaction and identity she missed while supporting her husband and children full-time. And it's not clear what impact the bad husband's return might have on that.

I thought this again, after TGW took the stand in her husband's defense and schooled the cross-examining attorney, when her son told her she "kicked ass" and she made the biggest grin of the night. 

I thought about it too when she opened her closet and there was no room in it for her husband's things. She's not just looking at the end of a different kind of self-identity and self-worth but a loss of independence.

Speaking of The Closet! It was organized by color in the order of the rainbow. So pleased there are appealing television protagonists as finicky about that stuff as I am.

The Good Wife: Week 7

I just deleted my copious notes from this week's episode. Awesome. Here's what I remember:

Fatherhood Bias: Reality finally catches up with TGW's big firm and it's time for layoffs. Reviewing mid-level associates, Power Suit and Will choose not to fire "Bayer" because "his wife is pregnant."  So is this humanity or sexism creeping in? Do we think a pregnant woman on the chopping block would fare as well? 

Intra-Firm Political Mentoring: Will gets TGW on a case with Named Partner's daughter. An opportunity for her to make good with the guy who holds the swing voteon who stays and who goes. This is a pretty frank explanation of the firm's power politics. A conversation all new associates need in order to advance through a firm's ranks strategically and rarely get. Another good example of how TGW benefits from Will's mentorship. 

"So this is what idealism looks like."  TGW second chair's a small solo practitioner on Named Partner's daughter's case. He's got a one room office, low income clients with diverse needs, and plenty of righteousness. Best line of the night came in response to his commenting on TGW's fancy BigLaw office having so much glass inside: "Every time we sell our souls we buy glass." These exchanges reminded me of the back and forth on this site on the various prejudices public interest lawyers elicit from and hold against corporate attorneys.