Lawyers Club Blog (ARCHIVE)

It is the time of year when we ask our members to vote for our new cohort of Lawyers Club board members.  Our board members are the backbone of the organization who ensure that engaging and valuable programming fulfills our mission and values.  I have found serving on the board as an especially rewarding experience. Our board members are talented women who devote countless hours of their time and inspire others to continue to carry the torch of the fight for equality.
 

With the turmoil caused by the coronavirus, I wanted to reassure our members that Lawyers Club is looking for ways to pursue our mission during these difficult times.  This is especially important for our future members still in law school.  As you can imagine with the significant disruptions to business and the market, the immediate future for law students may be especially difficult.  Given the importance of increasing the pipeline of women attorneys in our community, providing mentorship and networking opportunities to local law students is imperative.  While Lawyers Club normally provides a Speed Mentoring event each year for local law students, this year’s event will not be cancelled but modified.
 

While Lawyers Club’s International Women’s Day luncheon was postponed, we can still acknowledge the importance of International Women’s Day by recognizing the struggles of women outside our country.  Women in Mexico marked International Women’s Day by joining in a nationwide protest and strike against the extraordinary level of violence perpetrated against women. 
 

Later this year, the United States will mark the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women’s constitutional right to vote. To celebrate this historical moment, I thought to share the importance of the event with my daughter. But explaining how long and how hard women fought for the right to vote to a 10-year-old girl is a little challenging. How am I to introduce her to Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton without her rolling her eyes and losing interest? 

We recognize Equal Pay Day, the date that women must work after the end of the previous year to achieve the same pay as men, on March 31. In other words, women must work an additional 90 days before they achieve the same pay for the same work as men. While the U.S. women’s soccer team has recently brought equal pay to the forefront of public discourse, disparate compensation affects all women, including women in the legal profession.
 

This month marks the first installment of The Money Confidante, a new series on money for women attorneys. Over the coming months, I’ll be covering everything you need to know about money but didn’t want to ask (at least not in public).

February marks the beginning of Black History Month, which provides an opportunity to create awareness of some of the inequalities that black women face in the workforce.  For example, black women earn only 65% of the wages earned by men and they will not achieve pay equity until August 13, 2020. In addition, black associates in the legal profession have been declining every year since 2009, and women of color are more likely to leave the practice of law than other women.  This data serves as a reminder of the importance for Lawyers Club to advocate for improving the outcomes for women of color in the legal field. 
 

San Diego is fortunate to have a judiciary that is active in the legal community and bar associations. Lawyers Club is especially fortunate to count so many members of the judiciary as strong supporters of Lawyers Club and our mission. We are proud to host the annual Bench-Bar Luncheon on February 20, 2020. This event provides an excellent opportunity for our members to interact with our judges. I especially encourage our younger members who may have little experience in the courtroom to introduce yourselves to our approachable and respected members of the bench.
 

Education has become reliant on technology and this can be expensive, especially for economically disadvantaged schools such as Central Elementary in City Heights. The twice-yearly Lawyers Club of San Diego’s Read-In is a powerful way for Lawyers Club members to share their career journey and act as role models. Read-In volunteers strive to inspire students and to instill the belief that with focus and determination, they can succeed in achieving a professional career of their choice.
 

To much fanfare, on January 15, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (“ERA”) to the Constitution, a proposed amendment guaranteeing equal rights to all citizens regardless of sex.