Women of the Courts Symposium: It may not be Easy to Hold on to What We’ve Achieved

... I went straight to law school from college and became one of a handful of women attorneys in Colorado in the late 1960s. ... Applying for appointment to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1979 was taking a risk, the risk of not doing a competent job when lots of people were watching. ... In my seventh year, the court reversed a $ 1.4 million jury verdict that my husband had obtained for a client in a personal injury case. ... And I was tired of commuting every day from Boulder to Denver. ... The day after her funeral, a faculty delegation visited my husband, who had returned to Boulder ahead of me, to tell him that I had fallen one vote short of the two-thirds needed for a faculty appointment. ... In the process, I learned that if I wanted to represent a wide range of clients on all types of appellate issues, I would not be able to work in a setting where other cases or types of practices created potential conflicts. ... The plaintiffs obtained an injunction that blocked the amendment from going into effect, and the state appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court. ...

Print Location Jean Dubofsky, Women of the Courts Symposium: It May Not be Easy to Hold on to What We've Achieved, 36 U. Tol. L. Rev. 883 (2005).

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