For the past few years, I’ve been involved in representing the U.S. District Courts for the District of Idaho in the Ninth Circuit, first as a Lawyer Representative (3 year term) and more recently being elected to serve as an officer of the group that oversees all 170+ lawyer representatives in the Ninth Circuit.  It has been an amazing opportunity that has allowed me great access to our federal bench in Idaho and throughout the Circuit.  Our court is currently soliciting applications from the 4th District for a lawyer representative — this person will take over for out-going lawyer rep Steve Anderson.  A lawyer rep serves for 3 years and is expected to: (1) attend quarterly meetings with the Board of Judges of the federal court; (2) help plan and execute the annual federal court road show; and (3) attend the Ninth Circuit’s annual judicial conference (and, as a senior lawyer rep, help plan some of the programs).  All of your expenses are reimbursed by the court.  This year the Ninth Circuit’s conference is in Maui and next year its in San Diego — it’s a good gig!

If you have any interest in applying, feel free to talk to me about it and/or check out this website:

http://www.id.uscourts.gov/announcements/LawRepNotice2010.pdf

Thanks!

Deb Kristensen

Givens Pursley, LLP

208.388-1200

Assistant United States Attorney Vacancy Announcement - Immigration

Congratulations Wendy!

View Article Here.

Just a week after the Shriver Report’s release, Joanne Lipman reacted with a rather frank and insightful New York Times Op-Ed piece, “The Mismeasure of Woman”, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/24/opinion/24lipman.html.  Ms. Lipman takes issue with the suggestion that we are now living in a woman’s world because, as she sees it, progress for women has stalled and even taken a step backward in recent years.  After citing a litany of examples (women still earn 77 cents for each dollar earned by a man, only 15 women run Fortune 500 companies, women make up almost half of all associates but only 18.3% of the partners in law firms), she explores why this has happened. 

Ms. Lipman traces the root of the decline to the aftermath of 9/11.  She contends that, as the “war in Iraq tore America apart” and the “Internet gave everyone a soapbox” in which the “louder, the more offensive the better”, the online and then mainstream conversation about women degenerated.  She backs up this accusation with several examples - examples which, admittedly, I am shocked by, now that I see them assembled in print, but which I very well wouldn’t have even noticed hearing them live.  What this all reveals, Ms. Lipman concludes, is that while the numbers might have improved, the attitudes have not.

Perhaps Ms. Lipman’s comments offer some new insight into the questions that IWL (along with numerous other organizations and commentators) has been exploring for the last several years.  Questions like, why are there so few women judges, equity partners, rainmakers, Bar Commissioners, etc.?  For decades, women attorneys have made up a significant portion of the legal workforce, yet they occupy a much smaller fraction of the positions at the top of the legal career path.

 A recent survey by the National Association of Women Lawyers confirms that little to no progress has been made in the last year: “Fourth Annual Survey on Retention and Promotion of Women in Law Firms” http://www.nawl.org/Assets/Documents/2009+Survey.pdf (survey);
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS134533+26-Oct-2009+BW20091026 (article summarizing survey findings). The survey’s findings include:

• Women were much more likely to be affected by recent layoffs because they were more likely to hold part-time jobs;
• Pay disparity between men and women still exists at all levels;
• Few women are significant rainmakers;
• Women are still under-represented in the upper levels of law firms. (”For over 20 years women have graduated from law schools and started careers in private practice at roughly the same rate as men, yet women continue to be markedly under-represented in the leadership ranks of firms. Women constitute fewer than 16% of equity partners, only 6% of firm managing partners, and barely 15% of the members of a firm’s highest governing committee - percentages which have not changed from 2008 and have barely advanced since the Survey began exploring these data in 2006.”)

There are so many partial explanations for this phenomenon, and they all have some legitimacy:  the mommy track; the reluctance of women-versus men-to promote themselves; the catch 22 of too few women leader role models; remaining vestiges of overt discrimination; and others. 

I think we need to add to this list:  our own attitudes toward women.

Have we individually and as a society become numb to demeaning comments about women?  Do we laugh politely when we hear a gender-based criticism of opposing counsel?  Do we unwittingly attribute unfair stereotypes to women attorneys-like indecisive, flighty or bitchy?  Do we subconsciously start with the assumption, barring evidence to the contrary, that a man is more qualified than a woman to be a judge, or Attorney General, or managing partner? 

All of us-men and women-need to carefully examine our own prejudices and vigilantly guard against the casual intrusion of such prejudices (whether ours or others’) into our daily interactions.  This is essential to maintain the integrity of our legal profession.  And, it is essential to eliminate an unseen but ever-present impediment to women attorneys’ leadership track.

Submitted by Deborah Nelson
Member of the Board of Directors, Idaho Women Lawyers, Inc.
Partner, Givens Pursley LLP

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS134533+26-Oct-2009+BW20091026