Lawyers Club Blog (ARCHIVE)

As many of you know, despite comprising half the population, women only make up thirty-six percent of judges in the Superior Court of California. Women are likewise underrepresented in leadership positions on the bench. Lawyers Club is excited to recognize that Judge Lorna Alksne was elected to serve as the new Presiding Judge for the San Diego Superior Court. Importantly, Judge Alksne is only the third woman to serve as Presiding Judge in San Diego County. The first woman to serve as presiding judge was Justice Judith McConnell, one of our founding mothers.
 

At Thomas Jefferson School of Law’s 19th Annual Women and the Law Conference, The Way Forward: Gender, LGBTQIA Rights, and Religious Liberties, on February 1, 2019, the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lecturer was former EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum. Feldblum was raised an Orthodox Jew, but at 18 lost her faith. She is also a “practicing lesbian” and joked that she would like to continue “practicing for as long as possible.”

As the youngest and scrawniest of six siblings, my fast talking was my best defense. As far back as I can remember, my family told me, “You talk so much, you should be a lawyer.” So it was determined. But when I finally decided to apply to law school, I planned on going to the local law school in Sacramento. Applying to the Ivy League law schools never even occurred to me, even after I received my LSAT scores and understood that I’d scored in the top 1%. But then my coworker’s sister, a Latina who attended Cornell Law School, heard about me and insisted that I apply to the Ivy Leagues. Still I resisted, counting all the reasons I wouldn’t get in. Once she helped me understand what was possible – because she was an example – I applied to and graduated from Yale Law School. This is the power of seeing someone like you ascend to positions you had not even considered for yourself. It is the power of the Lawyers Club Diverse Women’s Committee (DWC). This is true for whatever “like you” means to you. It is important that we all have role models that we can relate to, and that we can see ourselves emulating.
 

The mission of the Diverse Women’s Committee is to discuss how women as attorneys, particularly women of color, can become leaders and utilize their legal position to support human rights and demand equality and inclusivity for all. The keynote speaker for this year’s Diverse Women’s Committee luncheon is Mona Pasquil, an incredible woman who has spent her career in public service, most recently as California Governor Jerry Brown’s Appointments Secretary since 2011.
 

167 Years, No Women

Growing up in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, a kaleidoscope of race, ethnicities and culture was the norm. Being a “woman of color” was not even a phrase in my vocabulary until I became a lawyer. Being a woman of color and an attorney at the same time is no easy feat!

What’s Diversity Got to Do With It? 

      Throughout the history of feminism, women as a group have been the “other” gender fighting for equal rights and equal opportunities. While women make up almost half of total law school graduates, the data confirms that women are not equally represented in law firm partnership, in corporate counsel offices, on the bench or in other leadership positions in our profession. We are all familiar with the explanations and reasons given for this, and we continue to struggle to change this reality.

I have always strolled peacefully at the intersection of white and black, foreign and homegrown, poor and prosperous. I have heard about many injustices but experienced few.  So like you, I usually scroll through my news feed glancing over lives lost, vocalized racism, masked xenophobia and just plain bigotry. I usually feel sad but somewhat detached from that reality, so I shrug and move on to the puppy videos. But not today.