Women Lawyers--Back on Track

Majority ownership of Toledo law firm is women

When this sort of thing is no longer "news", I'll be a happy camper.  Via the ABA Journal comes this article, Majority ownership of Toledo law firm is women.  From the article:

Margaret Lockhart, the firm's current president, said women were attracted to the firm because it offered "balance" between work and home life as well as a chance to advance.

"There's never been a glass ceiling here," Ms. Lockhart said. Women lawyers were attracted to Cooper & Walinski because "they looked to see where other women were successful."

The American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession reported in October, 2007, that 30 percent of lawyers are women, but women represent less than 18 percent of law partners nationwide.

Post-Emily Post, attorney offers women lawyers advice

From Lawyers Weekly, advice and opinions regarding navigating the workplace to your advantage as a female attorney.  An excerpt:

Q. Are there institutional impediments to the retention and advancement of women lawyers, and, if so, how can they be overcome?

A. We see gender differences in the assignment process; not that women don’t get good assignments, but when there are the less attractive assignments that invariably exist in any firm, women tend to get more of those assignments than their male colleagues do.

Another [impediment can be seen] in the evaluation process. Firms have to spend much more time learning how to do gender-neutral evaluations. There is a huge amount of research about how gender affects the evaluation process, and it’s really important for firms to start addressing that if they want to see changes in the numbers of women in leadership roles.

We also see disparities in business development, where men tend to inherit business in law firms so that they get credited for the work. As senior partners wind down their careers, they often will hand down billing credit to younger male colleagues.

Younger Female Lawyers Play By Their Own Rules

Because we have to in order to succeed...

Via Legal Times comes the following article, Younger Female Lawyers Play By Their Own Rules.  A telling excerpt:

So Leatham, a zoning and land use attorney, left Holland & Knight and, with some colleagues and friends, formed her own firm, Stark, Meyers, Eisler & Leatham, based in Rockville, Md. Ironically, she says, she puts in more hours now than she did at Holland & Knight. "But I can control it in a way I didn't before. It's just empowering," she says.

And, most importantly, says Leatham, she's infinitely happier now. She has a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old, and if she wants to take the afternoon off to run errands, nobody blinks. "The beauty of it is, I'm in control of my own schedule," she says.

If these younger women have a battle of their own, it's trying to make a distinction between the trappings of hard work and the effective use of time. Leatham, for instance, says she often reads of lawyers who work from home at 10 p.m., after their children have been tucked into bed. What that means, of course, is that they're still fitting their lives into slots that are convenient for their employer but maybe not for the women struggling to keep it all together.

"You should be able to work from home whenever you want," not just late at night, she says. But large law firms still operate on a different model. Not only do associates need to "bill a million hours a year," says Leatham, but they also need to do it in the office, so that firm managers can keep track of the work being done.

How Men and Women Can Work Together at Law Firms

Who knew that in order for us to work with the guys, they'd need a "how to"?  Via Law.com comes this "how-to" article,  How Men and Women Can Work Together at Law Firms.  An excerpt follows:

From numerous conversations with partners at various law firms, it is clear that men are committed to seeing women succeed. Men don't like to see the firm's investments disappear, either. Law firm leaders are hungry for guidance to retain their valuable women attorneys.

Managing partners, practice group chairs and senior partners can help women have the same chance of succeeding as the men do. First, women need mentors, just as men do. Second, women need flexibility and career choices, just as men do. Third, women need to be involved in building client relationships as part of succession-planning, just as men do. These three necessities are important for all attorneys; however, when these needs go unmet for women, it has a more negative impact.

Workplace Discrimination--Hitting the Maternal Wall

From Law.com comes this intriguing article regarding a cause of action for discrimination based on the decision to procreate, Workplace Discrimination: Hitting the 'Maternal Wall'.  An excerpt:

You've heard about the glass ceiling.

Welcome to the maternal wall.

Some labor attorneys in Florida say a lot of women are walking into their offices saying they are victims of workplace discrimination in family care-giving matters.

Maternal and care-giving discrimination comes in all flavors: outright termination because a mother cares for her sick or disabled child; derailing an employee on track for a promotion after she gets married or creating a hostile workplace environment for pregnant employees.

Men can find their careers reach dead ends if they take a larger role in child-rearing as well, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a report last year.

There is also the issue of elder care as many baby boomers find themselves taking care of those who once diapered them.

Welcome

Welcome to my newest blog.  My goal is to provide women lawyers with resources and information about the legal field and to explore how they do/can happily and successfully fit into it.

To that end I'll be aggregating articles relating to women in the legal profession and will provide a weekly round up of relevant and interesting posts from the legal blogosphere as well.

Finally, I'll post my own commentary on issues surrounding women lawyers in the form of a video blog (vlog) once each week.

Let me know what you think.