ABA Article – What Women Lawyers Really Think of Each Other

Read the complete article at: What Women Lawyers Really Think of Each Other

What Women Lawyers Really Think of Each Other

We asked who they’d rather work with—men or women. The answers were surprising

February 2008 Issue By Stephanie Francis Ward

Would women lawyers prefer to work with men or other women? The answer may depend on the age of the female lawyer you’re asking, an ABA Journal survey has found.

Of more than 1,400 respondents who answered the question, 58 percent said the gender of their colleagues made no difference, while 42 percent expressed a preference for working either with men or women.

Female supervisors age 40 and over who said gender mattered to them preferred working with women. About 80 percent said female lawyers take direction better, take constructive criticism better (59 percent) and have more discretion (79 percent).

But younger female attorneys who are following in the footsteps of that trailblazing generation don’t hold their older colleagues in such high regard. Among female lawyers under 40 who thought gender matters, 58 percent said male supervisors give better direction, give more constructive criticism (56 percent) and are better at keeping confidential information private (64 percent).

A total of 4,449 individuals who identified themselves as female attorneys answered all or part of the survey. The survey was co-authored by Linda Marks, director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

Why do opinions about the role of gender in the workplace depend on the age of the female attorney?

Some experts cite generational tension: Female lawyers entering the profession often don’t want to make the same personal sacrifices as their predecessors, and they question whether such sacrifices are even necessary to succeed. Senior women may not understand this mindset, much less realize that the playing field has changed, experts suggest. And that can block useful dialogue.

“I’m concerned that more senior women don’t fully understand the profound demographic changes taking place,” says Lauren Stiller Rikleen. A senior partner at Bowditch & Dewey in Framingham, Mass., she advises law firms about workplace issues. She also wrote Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women’s Success in the Law.

Rikleen says female partners often tell her that there will always be associates who, like themselves, will sacrifice their personal lives for successful careers. But she says younger men are also less willing to make the personal sacrifices of their predecessors.

“It’s not purely gender-based,” says Rikleen, a member of the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession. “That says to me that if I’m a leader of a workplace, I need to think about what’s happening here in the future—and how to position this place.”

When Rikleen talks to younger women lawyers, she says, they’re often relieved that she understands their complaints. Women closer to her age are often surprised that she doesn’t share their perspective.

Arin Reeves, a Chicago lawyer who focuses on diversity consulting, also sees differing views between women younger than 35 and those older than 45. She mentions that when female partners develop a women’s initiative, the female associates generally don’t find it useful.

“There’s no such thing anymore of all the women being in the same boat, who need a particular set of strategies to be kept afloat. Now that women have a lot more models to choose from, they are becoming more selective as to which women they identify with.”

Women can be one another’s best advocates, but senior women lawyers need to understand that younger women can build careers differently, says Deborah Epstein Henry, an attorney who advises law firms on the retention and promotion of female lawyers. And younger women, Henry says, need to think about how they can have better relationships with senior female lawyers.

“They don’t have to be a role model in every capacity, but the junior women can select different things from different people,” Henry says. Her company, Flex-Time Lawyers, has chapters in New York City and Philadelphia, where members meet to network, share information and effect change in the workplace. “I really do believe that women need to move away from placing judgment on other women,” she says, “and accept more diversity among ourselves.”

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ABA Article: ‘Woman Thing’: Some Attire is Career-Limiting

Read the complete article at:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/woman_thing_some_attire_is_career_limiting/

‘Woman Thing’: Some Attire is Career-Limiting Posted Jan 24, 2008, 03:21 pm CST By Martha Neil

As Hillary Clinton’s presence in the presidential race is once again demonstrating, far more attention often is paid to the way women in positions of power dress, compared to their male counterparts.

A woman who fails to dress to impress will pay a high price in politics, just as she does in the business world, writes the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). However, standing out too much—say, by wearing a red suit—can be problematic, too.Consequently, a modern-day version of a style your well-to-do mother or grandmother might have worn—think a St. John knit suit, for instance—carries quite a bit of cachet among the women who look to Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and others in their realm for fashion cues.Women in positions of power express frustration with the extreme, almost comical attention paid to the way they look

—but recognize the importance of dressing appropriately, the newspaper writes. Helpful feedback, however, can be hard to obtain, because many prominent women are reluctant to address the subject of dress publicly.“You hate even talking about it because it’s such a woman thing,” says Kathryn Marinello, Ceridan Corp.’s chairman and chief executive.

Among the tips the WSJ offers for women: spend money on good, closed-toe shoes and avoid French manicures and shiny lip gloss.

The article offers a bit of advice, for men, too. Tassels on shoes are just as controversial as bow ties, it says. And one can seldom go wrong by wearing a good, dark suit.

Bucking The Trend, Having A Baby Before 30

Cadwalader Associate Among Those Bucking Trend, Having a Baby Before 30 

By Debra Cassens Weiss

Read the complete article at: http://www.abajournal.com/news/cadwalader_associate_among_those_bucking_the_trend_having_a_baby_before_30/

College grads living in metropolitan areas who decide to have children before the age of 30 are bucking the demographic trend. That leaves the women who decide to have babies feeling alone and out of the mainstream, the Washington Post reports. In metro areas, the percentage of college graduates between the ages of 25 and 29 who have children is 13 percent for men and 31 percent for women, according to the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. Women who are college grads usually have their first child at about the age of 30, reports the National Center for Health Statistics.

Among those who decided not to put off children is 28-year-old associate Erin Foley Lewis of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, who has twins.

“By the time I’m at a point in my career where I am going to be making partner, my kids are going to be old enough to be playing on their own and sleeping on their own,” Lewis told the newspaper. “If I had waited until 33 to have children, I’d have newborns at the time I would be up for partner.”

Another young mother is 28-year-old law student Amy Elliott, who attends George Washington University. “When I walk up to the day care with Emmett, I always feel like they are looking at me and thinking, ‘Oh, she’s the babysitter dropping off the kid, or whatever,’ ” she said.

Jan. 29th Meeting – “How To Have It All – The Career And The Family”

We are pleased to present the following panel for this month’s meeting to be held at noon, on January 29th, in the 10th Floor Board Room of the Bar Association’s Headquarters:

Jeniemae Almquist
Raynes, McCarty

Sharon L. Caffrey
Partner, Duane Morris LLP

Karen Detamore
Executive Director, Friends of Farmworkers, Inc.

Deborah Epstein Henry
Founder and President, Flex-Time Lawyers LLC

Moderators: 

Maria Feeley and Danielle Banks

Also, save the date for our next meeting – February 26, 2008.To register for the January 29, 2008 – Luncheon Program, go to www.philadelphiabar.org.  The cost of lunch is $7.50 per person and will only be prepared for those that have made reservations and paid in advance.  Checks should be made payable to the Philadelphia Bar Association.  All reservations that are not canceled 24 hours prior to the event will be subject to a cancellation fee of $7.50.  To cancel, please contact Dawn Burger at 215-238-6367 or dburger@philabar.org. 

Is Wasn’t That Long Ago – 1952 – No Women

From the 12/21/2007 ABA Weekly Newsletter:

Cravath in 1952: No Billables Pressure, No Fancy Offices and No Women

Posted Dec 17, 2007, 06:47 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss

An associate who went to work at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in 1952 experienced a more genteel law firm, with no pressure to bill and plenty of mentoring. He was expected to wear a Brooks Brothers suit and a hat. His office was stark, with no expensive furniture.

There was no dress code for women at the firm—because there were none. Charles Reich, the former Yale law professor who wrote The Greening of America, recounts his experiences as a young associate in a letter published by American Lawyer. It is addressed to a friend’s daughter going to work for the firm today.

Women weren’t allowed at Cravath in 1952 because they were considered a distraction. Assignment deadlines were important, but there were no billing pressures and no annual tally of billable hours.

Reich got little face time with the senior partner of his division. When he was ushered in to meetings, the partner was often talking on the phone while having his shoes signed. Two male secretaries often rushed in and out of the office. Meetings were brief.

Cravath partners did not call attention to themselves. “Their work was all that mattered,” Reich writes. “They did not do politics, they did not do public relations, they did not even go to court very often.”

Reich looks back fondly on the experience, if only because the focus on business provided “satisfying relief from the uncertainties and ambiguities of human relationships.”

“For me, it was a great experience to be a man of few words and no personality, not amusing, no philosophy of life or law, no nonsense, no time to spare and All Business—two initial caps,” he writes.

Link: Cravath in 1952: No Billables Pressure, No Fancy Offices and No Women

Nominations Sought For Alice Stoke Paul Award

Do you know a woman who is a leader in business, academics, public service, the law or her community?  If so, consider nominating her to be recognized with The Alice Paul Equality Award.   

The awards are named in memory of Alice Stokes Paul (1885-1977). Born in Mt. Laurel, New Jersey, Alice Paul dedicated her life to the single cause of securing equal rights for all women by:

• Leading the final campaign for women’s right to vote
• Authoring the Equal Rights Amendment
• Initiating gender equality principles in both the United Nations Charter and the 1964 Civil Rights Act

 This year, the Alice Paul Institute, which educates and empowers women and girls to take leadership roles in their communities, will again honor several outstanding women who have contributed significantly to the goal Alice pursued throughout her life:  equality for women in all areas of our lives.   WIP his co-sponsoring the event this year.  

The awards dinner will be held on April 30, 2008 at the Princeton Hyatt.  Nominations are being sought  from WIP, as well as several other groups including lawyers, business people, academics, legislators, and community leaders. The deadline for nominations is February 15, 2008.   For more information, visit www.alicepaul.org. 

Article about Work/Life Choices for Law Firm Lawyers

One of our upcoming speakers, Deborah Epstein Henry wrote an article last month introducing a new work/life methodology called FACTS aimed at enabling law firm lawyers to meet firms’ demands while also giving them new work/life balance choices within the billable hour structure.  The article, entitled “Facing the FACTS: Introducing Work/Life Choices for All Firm Lawyers Within the Billable Hour Model,” which can be viewed at http://www.flextimelawyers.com/pdf/art10.pdf, was featured in Friday’s Shifting Careers New York Times online column by Marci Alboher and has generated some interesting commentary.  See http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/fridays-links-redefining-success/. Legal Blog Watch also did a post on Friday, which can be viewed at http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2007/12/just-the-facts.html.  Debbie will introduce FACTS this Thursday at a Flex-Time Lawyers LLC meeting in Philadelphia and further presentations are scheduled in 2008.

Save the date: Janury 29, 2008 Meeting

Save the date: The first WIP meeting of 2008 will be held on Tuesday, January 29, 2008. If you would like to get involved, now is the time! We are looking for topics for monthly meetings, and we are seeking your input. Come and tell us what issues are important to you, or start off the New Year by getting involved in a WIP Sub-Committee or Task Force. At the January 29th meeting, WIP will provide details about a new joint task force in which WIP is partnering with Flex-Time Lawyers LLC. Among other things, the joint task force will conduct a survey of Philadelphia firms with respect to their maternity leave policies, and publish a report on its findings. Deborah Epstein Henry, Esq., Founder & President of Flex-Time Lawyers LLC, will attend the meeting and provide more details about the joint project. Co-chairs Maria Feeley and Danny Banks will also moderate a panel discussion on “How To Have It All – The Career And The Family.” In addition to Deborah Epstein Henry, Jenimae Almquist, with Raynes McCarty, and Sharon Caffrey, with Duane Morris, will serve as panelists. We hope to see you at the meeting!

Gender Pay Gap Continues

The November 19th issue if the National Law Journal reported that
“[t]he income gap between men and women grows as attorneys move up the partnership ranks at the nation’s 200 largest firms, according to the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL).” NAWL published its second annual survey on the retention and promotion of women lawyers, and reported that at each level of promotion, women earn less than men. On average, firms pay male non-equity partners about $27,000 more per year than women non-equity partners, and male equity partners approximately $90,000 more than women equity partners. NAWL reported a similar gap in pay for in-house counsel. Law departments pay men about $20,000 more than women.

Networking

Is there an event you would like our members to know about?  Are you  invovled in an organization or project our members might be interested in?  Tell us about!