Women Underrepresented In Leadership Positions, Overrepresented In Law School Debt
It doesn’t take a genius to figure that it will still take decades for women lawyers to reach income parity while continuing to pay down law school debt.
Why am I not surprised? Even though women comprise the majority of law school students, they still don’t comprise (not even close) the majority of those in leadership positions in law firms and in corporations. And given the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action, that majority may never be reached, especially now that businesses with any kind of DEI policies are in the litigation crosshairs.
And what will happen to all the DEI initiatives such as the elimination of bias and the implicit bias training required of all California lawyers? Will such initiatives be canned? To be determined. One lawsuit against the Medical Board of California has already been filed.
The corollary to the majority of women in law schools is that women are also carrying the major portion of the law school debt.
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According to Bloomberg, 30% of the respondents to its most recent Law School Preparedness Survey reported having law school debt in the six-figure range, but a gender-based breakdown of the data shows that women make up a majority of those respondents. The same holds true for debt at or above $50,000. Not an easy amount to pay off, especially if women are not pulling down Biglaw salaries, and there’s still significant salary disparity.
All you need to do is to read this abstract about how women attorneys still continue to lag behind in income. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that it will still take decades for women lawyers to reach income parity while continuing to pay down law school debt. Not a pretty picture.
The conclusion is cringeworthy and discouraging: “discrimination in the legal profession operates partly by devaluing female attorneys’ human capital, such that sterling academic credentials and other traits that are valued in men are far less valued in women.” Is there any woman lawyer who doesn’t know that already?
And how many times have women lawyers been criticized for being aggressive, for being “shrill “(what’s the male counterpart to that adjective?), and/or for speaking up? For being “pushy?” Whatever that means. Too many times to count. Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at Wharton, thinks it’s time to normalize language so that “weak language” (e.g., language such as disclaimers, hedges, and tag questions) can be a strategic advantage and an untapped source of strength.
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We all confront at some point whether we should have a “passion” for what we do. We like to think that we are passionate about what we do, otherwise, why do it, except for the lifestyle that it can afford some, but not all, of us. But what if passion is overrated? Given all that we have endured during the past three years of COVID-19 and now the post-COVID era, many lawyers have come to realize that passion for the work is not necessarily all that we think it is. WFH, hybrid work schedules, and being able to make time for the people and activities that make life worthwhile may well have put the brakes on the constant need to be indispensable, to be available 24/7, to make all the sacrifices that some peeps think are worth making, only to find that they aren’t worth it. That realization comes to everyone, eventually.
What may be an unintended consequence of associate deferral dates at some Biglaw firms may be the chance to think about whether the passion you have is worth the physical, emotional, and mental costs. Stress accompanies every single job, whether a lawyer, first responder, or tradesperson, especially HVAC peeps, the last of which would seem to be in the highest demand right now, given the weather. However, using passion as the keystone to how you regard what you do and who you are can backfire.
What does “judgment” mean? The Orange County legal community here in SoCal is stunned at the arrest of Orange County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Ferguson who is alleged to have killed his wife in their home in northern Orange County. He’s presently free on a $1 million bond.
In 2017, the California Commission on Judicial Performance publicly admonished him for two matters, including being Facebook friends with attorneys who appeared before him. He also had made false claims about a prosecutor running for a judicial office. The commission was not happy, especially given the “seriousness of his misconduct in accusing a judicial candidate of ethical impropriety with a reckless disregard for the truth. The judge’s post was not only potentially injurious to the candidate, but also undermined public respect for the judiciary and the integrity of the electoral process.”
Is judgment an oxymoron? In another matter, a judge in the Eastern District of Michigan commented that a defendant appearing in his courtroom “looked like a criminal” to him. He refused to recuse himself, saying that he could be fair, and guess what? The defendant was convicted. No surprise there. The Sixth Circuit benchslapped that district court judge and reversed the conviction. Also, no surprise that the retrial would be before a different judge.
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Why can’t judges behave? What exactly is “judicial temperament”? That’s a question that every judicial evaluation questionnaire asks, at least here in California. Shouldn’t such temperament be like counting to 10 and then counting to 10 again? Maybe that 10 should be multiplied.
UPDATE: Prior version incorrectly identified that California Medical Association which is distinct from the California Medical Board.
Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for over 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.
