SNAWA celebrates 30th anniversary

My Living Las Vegas post this week focuses on SNAWA's celebration of its 30th anniversary.  Shelley Berkley, the first president of SNAWA, was the speaker.  In addition to war stories about being one of the few women attorneys in the bad old days of hte 70s, Shelley spoke about current issues.  It was a great luncheon, and I was very happy to see that the turnout was so huge, a different room had to be used.

Thanks to the success of SNAWA's programs and the generosity of its members, SNAWA was able to award three $2500 scholarships to BSL students for this year.

Congratulations SNAWA!

Female Lawyers Earn Less than Male Counterparts.

That headline is comparable to “Dog Bites Man.” Nothing surprising there.

The latest proof that times haven’t changed comes from the newly released Report of the Third Annual National Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms, showing results ofa survey conducted by the National Association of Women lawyers and the NAWL Foundation.. 

The income disparity exists at all career levels, with the greatest disparity at the equity partner level, with an difference of  $87,000. At the associate level, the difference averaged "only" $7000. 

Women lag in leadership roles, as well. Even though females make up 48% of 1st and 2d year associates, they make up only 27% of non-equity partners and 17% of equity partners.

The disparity is attributed to women’s comparable reluctance to self-promote, as well as the tendency to value contributions such as mentoring and firm leadership less than business generation.

 

One interesting finding, however, is that lateral moves, once viewed with skepticism, now tend to benefit the mover, regardless of gender. 

 

Hat tips to WSJ’s Law Blog and the ABA Journal.

Dressing for the holidays

One of the joys of working being a lawyer in Nevada this yearis the fact that Nevada Day and Halloween coincide. In other words, the office is closed.  

No need to worry this year about whether it would be politic to dress up for the holiday. Anyone who saw Boston Legal this week, understands the dilemma. 

But lawyers elsewhere are not so fortunate. Consider the question How Do I Handle Halloween at the Firm? at Sweet Hot Justice

Even better consider the comments, wherein there is a suggestion that female lawyers and paralegals dressing up in sexually suggestive ways is a good way to be appreciated “at an entirely different level.”

Right. 

Dressing up could be fun, of course. Not that I would take the time or money to get quite into as much spirit as they do at Boston Legal’s Crane Pool and Schmid. I wouldn’t be caught dead in a Bo Peep costume. 

But I have been known to dress up as Zorro now and again. As it happens, I own a lot of black clothing and a sword. I do not, however, have a  light-up cowboy hat.

The next question, of course, is how to dress for the annual holiday (aka Christmas) party? This is the true annual dilemma for female attorneys.   

Real Women Lawyers Do Blog

C.C Holland at Law.com asks  Where Are All the Female Law Bloggers?  Noting that “the majority of high-profile legal blogs, whether in academia or the practice of law, are helmed by me,” she wonders why. The article contains some interesting statistics showing that, compared to the number of women practicing law,  women are underrepresented among law bloggers.   CC offers these theories.:

Theory #1: Women law bloggers are out there, you just don't see them. 

 

One possibility is that female law bloggers dominate in more practical blog venues – i.e., devote themselves to specific, practice oriented blogs, as opposed to topics of wider social or political commentary.   Additionally, women may have more difficulty getting media attention.

 

Theory #2: Women don't have the same time to blog as men. 

 

This is true in my world, certainly, and I don’t even have the excuse of having children still in the home. I suspect, too, that a lack of time to present meaningful posts  contributes to the lack of media attention. However, this is likely everything else – you have to make time, if you want to do it. 

 

Theory #3: Women are more prone to professional or personal attack, so they avoid blogging.

 

This is a reference to personal safety; some female bloggers have been the recipient of death threats.  Just as a woman is more likely to hesitate to walk down a dark alley than a man might, she might also hesitate to engage in an activity has the potential to bring her to the attention of a world full of crazies

 

 

All of this might be true, but the only way to increase the presentation of women law bloggers is for more women to blog.  So just do it.

 

 

Holland also offered a list of strong female voices in the blawgosphere.  In the interest of supporting sister bloggers, and offering inspiration to whose who want to put themselves out intothe blogging world, I repeat the list below,

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Four Law Firms Make Working Mother's List of 100 Best Companies

A few weeks ago, I noted the two local firms that had made Working Mother magazine’s  Best Law Firm list.  

Now the mag has released its 2008 list of 100 best companies. Four law firms are on it, but  and it includes four law firms.

Alas, none have a local presence.

But congrats to Arnold & Porter, Covington & Burling, Katten Muchin Rosenman,  and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman.

 

Among the benefits offered by these firms noted by Working Mother:

 

Arnold & Porter (Washington, D.C.) -- on-site child-care center; flexible schedules, telecommuting options, generous maternity and family leave policies. Women make up 50% of the top earners.

 

Covington & Burling (Washington, D.C) --General maternity an adoption leave; mentoring, advocacy programs. Women make up 38% of the top earners.

 

Katten Muchin Rosenman (Chicago). Sabbaticals, back-up child care; mentoring programs, Leadership Institute; space set aside for nursing mothers. Women make up 6% of the top earners.

 

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman (New York) – important assignments for part time lawyers; flextime; telecommuting; general maternity leave, personal leaves, back up child care, mentoring, leadership training. Women make up 31% of the top earners.

 

How does your firm compare?

The 50 Best Places for a Female Lawyer to Work

Well, OK.  Make that the 50 best law firms.  There could well be better places to work.   

Working Mother has announced its 2008 50 Best Law Firms for Women. 

 

Those who make the list allow flex time arrangements, host networking groups for female attorneys, mentor senior female associates, and/or offer management training to women.  As you might expect there tend to  be very large firms, with hundreds of lawyers, although there is a firm that has only about 150 attorneys.

 

Among those on the list are two firms with a presence in Nevada:  Fox Rothchild LLP, whose office Managing Partner is Deanna L. Forbush and Littler Mendelson,  whose local managing shareholder is Wendy Medura Krincek

 

Huh - notice of those managers are both women?

 

Congratulations to both of these firms for making the list!

 

Hmm.  I wonder of either of them are looking to add an appellate lawyer. . .

Are female judges ruder than male or just rated that way?

In a continuing series about responses to the survey on the judiciary, Franky Geary at the R-J reports that female judges did not fair well in the courtesy department.  In fact, the female judge ranked highest in courtesy (Judge Gonzales), achieved a ranking that was lower than all but two of the male judges.

The R-J does note that the results could be skewed; “One probable factor is that two-thirds of the attorneys surveyed were men and, according to experts who study judges and the courts, attorneys and litigants favor a judge similar to them, whether in age, ethnic makeup or gender.”  

Ya think? Haven’t there been studies showing that the exact same statement or conduct coming will be perceived one way if coming from a man, and very differently if coming from a woman?

Might a judge be perceived as “discourteous” simply because she is assertive enough to control her courtroom? 

See the R-J article at Lawyers rate female jurists as less courteous than men.

Tired of working a manly men law firms?

One solution to the frustrations of dealing with male-dominated firms is for women to start their own firms. 

Read about a group of women (pus one man) who did just that in Big-Firm Lawyers Partner to Open Women-Owned Boutique.

At least we don't have to practice law backwards

It is well known, of course, that Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels.  

 

I personally eschew the stilettos, but have certainly seen many a fashionably high heel on my sister attorneys.  So, is it harder to practice law in high heels?

 

The answer to that question is yes.  Or, at least, that is the title of a book offering the views of women who practice law.  It's Harder in Heels": Essays by Women Lawyers Achieving Work-Life Balance, edited by Prof. Jacquelyn H. Slotkin and Samatha Slotkin-Goodman.

 

This book contains essays by and about women lawyers.  Note that I haven’t put this up in the When Lawyers Write feature, and for good reason – most of the women who describe their career paths here are not blessed with story telling skills.

 

Nevertheless, this book offers some insights into the challenges women face in this profession, and a variety of responses to those challenges.

 

As women in this profession, we have bonded together to discuss the problems we face with online networking resources such as Ms. JD  or organizations such as the National Assocition of Women Lawyers-NAWL (formed in 1899!)   

We study the challenges we face through commissions such as  the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession 

We even hold summits on improving our lot, such as the LexisNexis Women in the Legal Profession Summit: Rainmaking, Negotiating and Collaborative Development.

 

But what a book like It’s Harder in Heels shows is that each of us will face challenges that may be superficially similar, but are ultimately unique and personal to us.  And each of us must decide how we personally will respond to those challenges.

What Do Women Want?

For my part, the answer to that question has always been, “It depends on the woman.” 

(Does anyone ever ask “What do men want?” Not that I’ve noticed. But spare me any nonsense that this is because no one cares what men want. That’s not it at all. )

Personal rants aside, however, it is nice that the latest issue of The Complete Lawyer focuses on “What Do Women Really Want.”  The site offers a whole slew of articles that discuss progress, and lack thereof, in the situation of women in the legal profession. Among these:

Women Are Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands“We’ve been talking about gender issues for 20 years. Let’s see some progress!” By Holly English

The "Family-Friendly" Workplace Is Inadequate As currently practiced, they are mostly superficial, piecemeal and ultimately inadequate. By Ellen Ostrow

What Makes A "Best Law Firm For Women?" Analyzing 2007 trends of work/life balance and women at law firms. By Deborah Epstein Henry

Most interesting to me was Women Attorneys Share Work-Life Balance Tips. To counter the unrealistic “you-can-have-it-all” mindset, most women give themselves a heavy dose of reality. By Judi Craig

Nice, huh? We “want it all,” and therefore, have to be reminded that this is unrealistic. Frequently repeated tip: let your housework slide.  (There were variations on this – hire a maid, marry a house-husband, etc.)  

Now, anyone who has seen my house knows that this is advice to which I have long adhered.  I once successfully explained the mess in my house to a surprise visitor with the claim that my house had been ransacked and the police didn’t want me to touch anything until they came.  

But isn’t that advice just the perfect example of how male and female lawyers experience life differently? Has there ever an article on achieving work/life balance   directed to lawyers in general (i.e., male lawyers), rather than to female lawyers, that suggested blowing off cleaning the toilet and doing dishes as a way to achieve some personal time? 

If so, point me to it!

New baby equals less billables for women; more for men

Well, it's official.  Having children affects the “productivity” of attorneys, (assuming productivity can be defined through billable hours.)

However, where your "productivity" goes up or down depends upon your gender.

Researchers Jean Wallace and Marisa Young (University of Calgary, Department of Sociology) conducted a study of 670 lawyers and found that having children leads to a decrease in billable hours for female lawyers. Hardly surprising, huh? 

But they also found that having children resulting an increase of billable hours for male lawyers.  

One reason for the difference between male and females, the researchers speculate,  is that men are more likely to have a spouse who stays home with the children, freeing the males to take on more work responsibilities.  

However, the study also found that men and women took advantage of family-friendly benefits offered by employers in different ways. Fathers were more likely to use flexible work policies in pursuit of leisure activities. Mothers, need it be said, took advantage of the policies to catch up on domestic tasks.

Note, however, that the “most productive” of all groups is childless female lawyers.

 See the abstract at Parenthood and Productivity: A Study of Demands, Resources and Family-Friendly Firms, 72 J. Vocational Behavior 110 (Feb. 2008).

Hat Tips to Legal Blog Watch and TaxProf Blog

Wednesdays are for Women Lawyers

Appealing in Nevada will henceforth devote Wednesdays to reporting on the world of women and the law – especially women lawyers, here in Nevada and elsewhere.

This is a subject near and dear to me, since, in case you hadn’t noticed, I happen to be both a woman and a lawyer.

Women who happen to be lawyers face challenges unlike those faced by men, resulting in a need to make choices that men simply don’t need to make. For example, I daresay very few men attend law school while pregnant, as I did.  Although the pregnancy did not have a negative effect my class rank (in fact, I advanced in rank), the birth of my daughter in June, between my second and third years of law school, did preclude my acceptance of a summer clerkship similar to those taken by my peers.  My subsequent employment choices: i.e., government and academia also reflected certain realities wrought by my status as a parent (including seven years as a single parent). 

I do not regret the choices I made. I have a wonderful daughter, now an adult, with whom I have a good relationship.  My employment choices enabled me to volunteer in her classroom, be an assistant Brownie leader for her troop, coach her sports teams, and for most days during middle and high school, be home when she came home from school. I was, and am, a terrific mom, as she tells me every now and again.

When she went to college, I went to work in a law firm. My employment choices also shaped the lawyer I am today, including what a lawyer with what I immodestly consider to be exemplary writing skills.

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