Featured Article

THE CHALLENGE OF BEING A FEMALE ASSOCIATE
Sexism in the legal profession is not dead, but there are professional ways of responding

By Karina B. Sterman

After years of education, much hard work, and mountains of loans, you have finally reached your chosen goal: you are an attorney. Congratulations and welcome to the profession. Now that you are at the beginning of your career, presumably you expect to commence reaping the fruits of your labor: a steady paycheck, benefits, no more exams, and the prestige of telling your friends and family what you do for a living. You also should be told the full story of what it often means to be a lawyer.

As associates, you are at the bottom of many totem poles. You frequently get assigned uninspiring work and usually too much of it. You are expected to drop weekend plans when some stacks of discovery demand the yellow highlighter treatment today for a case that may not be tried for years. You hear the accounts of legal journals and personal contacts about the mass flight of associates from their firms and even the law. If you are a female attorney, however, your experience is further marked by daily doses of sexism.

Some firms are sensitive and profess a commitment to acknowledging and eradicating sexism toward women lawyers. Many male attorney therefore believe that gender inequality among lawyers is a dead issue. These lawyers are wrong.

It has been more than 100 years since Clara Foltz became the first woman lawyer in California. Today there are women who are law professors and who occupy positions of influence in private and public practice. Two women sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. Much has been accomplished, but sexism against women lawyers persists, however. It is now more subtle—you may have been told it is all in your head.

That friend of the legal profession, research, helps women attorneys who are willing to question whether sexism in the law is truly dead. In 1998, 35 states and several federal judicial circuits released their reports of gender bias in the legal profession.¹ The reports concluded that overt discrimination in the courtroom has generally been replaced by more subtle forms of sexism, such as interrupting female counsel or simply ignoring her. The reports also noted that an old standby—stating outright that a woman does not belong in the courtroom—has not disappeared. Lest women think that they can escape by avoiding the courtroom, the reports also noted that female attorneys in law firms suffer from a dearth of mentoring relationships, exclusion from major cases, and excessive scrutiny that is based on presumptions of women's incompetence and frailty.²

Several female attorneys I know personally report of sitting in a conference room preparing to take a deposition and being mistaken by male opposing counsel for the reporter. On the telephone, I have often been asked by male opposing counsel and by various court administrators whose secretary or paralegal I am and whether I can pass their information along to an attorney. Secretaries, paralegals, and reporters are essential to any successful law practice; their value cannot be overstated. Nonetheless, I do not believe that the presumption that the women in the room is the most likely not to be an attorney is ever intended as a compliment. Rather, this sexist presumption is consistent with an outmoded view of women and the law: that women are nonconfrontational and ineffectual and that the practice of law is aggressive and combative.

What Can Be Done

I do not intend, however, to warn women to avoid careers in law. Only the presence of women in the field of law can—and, in time, will—change stereotypes of women lawyers. In the meantime, there are a number of ways male and female attorneys can improve the experience of women (and concomitantly of all attorneys) in the law:

• Look for and develop professional relationships with women attorneys as mentors, at the office and outside. They have much experience from which we can all learn and benefit. May I suggest a Barristers committee? Look for Barristers on the LACBA web site.
• Set an example—be a mentor to younger women attorneys.
• If you cannot be a mentor, at least do not treat other women as your enemy. Be supportive of other women attorneys.
• Challenge discriminatory treatment, misperception, and sexism.
• Develop your own style of practicing the law. Your reputation will soon be preceding you.
• Do not attempt to be one of the guys unless you are a guy.
• Finally, keep the future in mind. Your action or inaction today lays the groundwork for the future experience of women who become attorneys.

Your chosen goal is an eminently worthy one. From the beginning of your career to its end, you can expect to reap the rewards of being able to have a positive influence on people's lives. Perhaps no one told you in law school the many ways that the profession can be demanding, frustrating, and hidebound, but that does not diminish the fact that the profession cannot be changed but through engagement.

FOOTNOTES

¹ Cynthia Grant Bowman, Bibliographical Essay: Women and the Legal Profession, 7 Am. U. J. Gender Soc. Pol'y & L. 149, 166 (1998-99).

² Id. at 167.

* * *

Karina B. Sterman is an associate in the Litigation and Employment Law Departments, where her areas of practice include representation of employers in all types of employment matters, drafting employee policy manuals; counseling on wage, hour compliance and general business litigation.

This article appeared in the February 2000 issue of Los Angeles Lawyer magazine, and is reprinted with permission here. Others seeking to reprint this article should contact Los Angeles Lawyer.

* * *

Back to Home

Other ECJ Publications

Ervin, Cohen & Jessup LLP advises Internet and other technology businesses and entrepreneurs on trademark, copyright, licensing, contract, litigation and other matters affecting web sites, e-commerce and other aspects of their businesses.

For further information regarding what ECJ can do to help you, please contact either Ken Luer at kluer@ecjlaw.com (or 310.281.6329) or Howard Berman at hberman@ecjlaw.com (or 310.281.6369).

This article is published by the law firm of Ervin, Cohen & Jessup LLP. The topics discussed are intended to present an overview of current legal trends and should not be construed as representing advice on specific, individual matters, but rather as general commentary on the subject discussed. Articles are not a substitute for the sound advice of compentent legal counsel. Your questions and comments are always welcome. Articles may be reprinted with permission. Copyright © 2000 Ervin, Cohen & Jessup LLP.