Browse Topics
Gearing Up for LaddHer Up: Michelle Banks Gives the Inside Scoop on Ms. JD’s Upcoming Retreat
By Diana Stern • September 15, 2018 •Ms. JD, Careers, Firms and the Private Sector, Issues, Mentoring and Networking
“Women helping women has a positive impact. Powerful women helping women starting out in their law careers will be game-changing." Michelle Banks is one of the inaugural LaddHer Up Host Committee Co-Chairs who brought this empowering, unique retreat to life. As you may have seen around the web, the LaddHer Up retreat for general counsel and early career women associates is a distinctive professional development program hosted by Ms. JD on Thursday, October 18 and Friday, October 19, 2018. Keep reading to find out Michelle’s tips for associates attending LaddHer Up, what’s in it for law firms, the difference between mentoring…
Join Ms. JD’s Global Education Fund Program!
By Danielle Allison • August 12, 2018 •Ms. JD, Careers, Nonprofits and the Public Interest, Law School, Other Law School Issues, Issues, Other Issues
Interested in women’s issues, international development, fundraising and education? If yes, consider supporting us as our next part-time, unpaid, Global Education Fund program volunteer! Ms. JD created the Global Education Fund (“GEF”) to enable women in developing countries who otherwise would not have access to further education pursue a legal education. Each year, GEF has made it possible for two Ugandan women in each class year to pursue their dreams of becoming lawyers by attending the law program at Makerere University in Uganda. The part-time and unpaid Global Education Fund program volunteer will be responsible for: Helping to lead outreach and program development…
How to Deal with Microaggressions as a Female Attorney
By Claire Parsons • October 15, 2018 •Ms. JD, Writers in Residence, Issues, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination
“Are you the court reporter?” After 3 years of law school, 2 bar exams, and a little over 1 year of practice, that was the question I received upon arriving at a deposition I was set to defend. It also happens to be the same question many other female attorneys get at depositions. The question in my case was, I believe, an honest mistake. Yet, the frequency with which it and questions like it are asked suggests to me that it is not just a mistake. Indeed, I have also been asked whether I “work for” an attorney, I am…
Moving with the Military…and a Law License
By Megan Kelley • October 15, 2018 •Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
A lot of vacation days being taken at work to attend my husband’s important military events. Packing bags for both of us over and over again. Making lists at home-more than I ever made at work. Having the chance to explore an exciting new city. Networking with all types of awesome people near and far in various phases of their careers. Colorado Rule of Civil Procedure 204.4…I never thought I would want to even think of a numbered Rule of Civil Procedure after that course in law school that tells us what day you have to respond…
In Praise of Lawyer Moms
By Susan Smith Blakely • October 11, 2018 •Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life
I am a lawyer/mom. Although my children are grown now and have become lawyers themselves, the memories of struggles as a lawyer/mom are still very vivid for me --- as well as the joys and the successes. It is not an easy "row to hoe" as my own mom would have said. So, when I read several articles about another lawyer/mom, including one on Above the Lawby Grover Cleveland, author of Swimming Lessons for Baby Sharks, I surely identified with it. I found, however, that my identification with Michelle Travis, the woman lawyer/professor of law/mom in these articles, ran deeper than just…
What All Young Lawyers Want: Effective and Caring Mentors
By Susan Smith Blakely • October 11, 2018 •Issues, Mentoring and Networking
I just finished reading a memoir by one of my favorite writers, Dani Shapiro. Her book, Hourglass, is an exploration of relationships and how people interact and treat each other over the span of time. She is a wonderful writer, and I highly recommend her books to you. Hourglass explores what individuals need on the road to satisfaction, and it includes the following quote, "Be who you needed when you were younger." In my own writing and in many of my remarks to young lawyers and law firm leaders, I often say, "You cannot be who you cannot see." It makes the case…
Common Workplace Legality Issues
By Dennis Hung • October 05, 2018 •Issues
It’s hard to navigate the complex field of employment law. Throw in rapidly changing social norms and demographic shifts, and it can feel downright impossible to understand religion in the workplace. Don’t worry. You don’t have to cancel the holiday party. Here’s a basic primer on what you can and can’t do in the office. Civil Rights Act Why is it illegal to discriminate based on religion in the United States? You can thank 1964’s Civil Rights Act, which made many forms of discrimination illegal, including religion. You cannot treat an employee unfairly based on that person’s beliefs or how…
Pushed & Pulled: The Kavanaugh Effect
By Katherine Macfarlane • September 30, 2018 •Writers in Residence, Careers, Legal Academia, Politics and Government, Issues, Balancing Private and Professional Life, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination
It was not an easy week, last week. I don’t have it in me to tell you how my disability affected my work, because though it certainly did, as it always does, I was pulled in multiple directions by something else. I was both teacher and witness, professor and person. It was not an easy week to be all of those things. It was not easy to decide what to do on the day of the hearings. Should I cancel class, encouraging my students to watch history unfold, a history that speaks to their future as members of the legal…
When School Districts Undermine Title IX - On the Field: Women in Sports Law
By Tatum Wheeler • September 28, 2018 •Ms. JD, Writers in Residence, Issues, Sexism, Sexual Harassment, and Other Forms of Discrimination, Women and Law in the Media, Other Issues
In my hometown’s backyard, some girls were momentarily robbed of their opportunity to pursue sports. With a budget deficit looming overhead, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) cut ten high school sports programs, affecting roughly 500 students. The sports include bowling, girls’ badminton, girls’ lacrosse, golf, boys’ volleyball, swimming, and wrestling. Such cuts affected nearly twice as many girls as boys. Following the announcement, lawyers such as Elizabeth Kristen, Director of the Legal Aid At Work’s Gender Equity & LGBT Rights Program, have been working on Title IX cases against OUSD. There has also been an outpouring…