Lawyers Club Blog (ARCHIVE)

We cannot make people be nice, but we can certainly ask people to be accountable for trying to do better. If we make that commitment, we will make our workplaces better. These are the principles underlying the San Diego Lawyers Club Workplace Equity & Civility Initiative (“WE & CI”).

Like too many, I lived my entire law school career plus the first part of my professional career suppressing part of my identity in fear that my orientation, instead of my skill, would define me and distract prospective employers, or worse, clients. So, while I developed my knowledge of the law and sharpened my litigation skills, I also became an expert at avoiding questions that revealed the gender of my partner. 
 

Unlike most attorneys, military spouse attorneys straddle the divide between military and civilian life. While building meaningful careers, they face challenges unique to military life, including lengthy separations, geographic insecurity, and assignments to remote locations. Frequent moves across the country have a particularly negative effect on military spouse attorneys, for whom state licensing requirements create daunting obstacles to practice. This has a disparate impact on women in our profession, as over 90 percent of military spouse attorneys are women.

Yesterday’s Trial Advocacy Task Force meeting, Co-chaired by Christopher Todd and Deborah Wolfe, included an enriching conversation on the topic of the female figure of justice viewed through the lens of art and ancient gods and goddesses and what we can learn from that to improve our strengths as trial lawyers.

Have you ever thought about what kind of Muppet you are? I can admit, before learning that this year’s Annual Dinner speaker was Dahlia Lithwick, I had not. Dahlia Lithwick is an accomplished, experienced journalist, and, for lack of a better term, a downright cool woman. She has made her career as a journalist, covering law and politics. She was front and center in covering Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing, and was even the subject of one of her own columns when she bravely shared her own #metoo story. In 2018, Lithwick was awarded the 2018 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism and referred to as, “the nation’s best legal commentator for two decades.”
 

On October 31, 2018, the San Diego Lawyers Club’s Community Outreach Committee (COC) and San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association (SDLRLA) conducted the Halloween Read-In at Central Elementary, a pre-kindergarten through 5th grade school located in the heart of City Heights. San Diego Lawyers Club has a twenty-three-year Read-In partnership with Central Elementary, where students are among the most economically challenged in the district. This year’s Halloween Read-In event featured numerous memorable costumes and volunteers included many San Diego Lawyers Club members, SDLRLA members, judges, law students, and San Diego City Attorney, Mara Elliott. Both the Halloween and Spring Read-Ins are influential events, where volunteers serve as role models, and provide an opportunity for students to learn about different careers while inspiring them to dream big.

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.
 

One in four of us experience a mental illness. We are three times more likely to suffer from depression, and have one of the highest suicide rates of all professions. If we are female, we are twice as likely to get depressed as our male counterparts. We are lawyers, and we take the required MCLE for competency. We learn that mental illness and substance abuse run rampant among us; but, we never talk about the real problem—the fact that shame and stigma often deter us from seeking treatment.

I remember January 21, 2017, like it was yesterday. It was an emotional day. The new president had been sworn in just the day before. I was in a fog of confusion. I was depressed and disappointed in the results of the election. But a part of me hung on to hope, thinking I could be wrong in my assessment of an administration that was just about to begin. I hoped that the new administration would be different from what was advertised—more respectful of women and other diverse groups in America. Maybe it was just a tactic the new president had used just to get elected? But I wasn’t sure.