Women in Law Daily: Legal News

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs

Legal News

Women in Law Daily

Daily news and links to information and discussions about women in the practice of law.

Post Frequency: 0.1/day

Last Entry: December 01, 2008 at 13:21:09

?Mommy penalty? and ?Daddy bonus? in law firms

Posted on December 01, 2008
I haven’t heard of those terms before, but apparently they exist. See http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=article&articleid=820&rssid=4

Glass ceiling?

Posted on November 18, 2008
Interesting discussion in the comments on the new NAPL study here: http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2008/11/17/women-in-biglaw-pounding-against-the-glass-ceiling/ I’m glad I’m not in Biglaw.

Spend X amount on your law degree?then stay home

Posted on August 28, 2008
Between work, being pregnant and studying for my licence, I haven’t had much time to post, but a new study caught my eye. This study showed, among other professions, that 21% of Harvard women who became lawyers chose to stay home with their children ...

?Feminist Law Firm??

Posted on July 22, 2008
A law firm that only represents women? I can see both pros and cons with that idea… http://www.law.com/jsp/law/sfb/lawArticleSFB.jsp?id=1202423108430

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

First trimester craziness continues

Posted on June 06, 2008
This might not be news, but it appears that we working women like to share our trials and tribulations, so I’m going to occasionally post about my pregnancy and work days here. I’m almost at 9 weeks. The nausea is horrible. I had an arbitration on monday and tuesday during which I was on mediation for [...

Working Women And Pregnancy

Posted on May 21, 2008
Anyone reading this blog ever throw up at work due to nausea from pregnancy? Anyone have the experience of telling their boss the “great news” and asking the senior partner for maternity leave? Anyone have tips on how to juggle preparing for an arbitration, drafting a statement of defence, and holding a plastic throw-up bag [...

Funding for maternity leave for small firms?

Posted on May 16, 2008
Some ideas are just brilliant. Even me, critic of the year, can’t say bad things about this idea: http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=article&articleid=682&rssid=4 Lawyers going on mat leave is a popular topic around the water cooler in law firms big and small...

Appointments and Disappointments

Posted on May 04, 2008
Do you think you would make a good judge? What are the qualities that a judge should have? What skills are needed? Do female candidates have what it takes. Here is a great commentary in The Herald by Alistair Bonnington, a soliciter advocate in Scotland...

W.I.L.D. Woman: Bella Abzug

Posted on April 27, 2008
Bella Abzug. What an inspiration!!! We need more women worldwide to heed her call (used in her successful 1970 campaign): ?This woman?s place is in the House ? the House of Representatives? See Wiki and this tribute.

Chatelaine 80th Anniversary

Posted on April 10, 2008
Congrats to Chatelaine magazine on their 80th anniversary issue. For those who have not heard of it before, Chatelaine is a magazine “for Canadian women.” I couldn’t find the piece I just read online, but in the magazine, there is a feature called “80 women to watch” which was a fantastic read...

How many hours constitutes ?full time? now?

Posted on April 07, 2008
The Blawgshere is abuzz with comments on this American Lawyer article “On Life Support.” Here is the passage that caught my eye: “In the 1970s, my dad, who was a partner at a respected California firm, made sure that our family spent most of each August river rafting, and that we took some fishing trips during the [...

Another lawyer and hairstyle scandal

Posted on March 19, 2008
Did you read the news about Heather Mills tossing/pouring/hurling a jug(?) of water over the head of Paul McCartney’s lawyer? The lawyer’s name is Fiona Shackleton and she is famous for representing Prince Charles in his divorce. I’m sure she appreciates what Sir Paul had to go through now! Here is a follow up article in the [...

Lawyers as ?Political Wives?

Posted on March 12, 2008
Canada’s National Post has an article about political wives in the US and Canada. The author leads with the topical nod to Silda Wall Spitzer, the wife of NY governor Eliot Spitzer, then comments on other famous political wives such as Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, etc...

Lawyers and Gambling

Posted on March 09, 2008
It’s sad to read about lawyers who have lost their practice. I know how hard all of us have worked in order to pass the bar, build a practice, and establish a name in the community. Here is an article describing what the media is calling a “fallen lawyer”...

Swinton Wins Academy Award For Best Supporting Actress In Female Lawyer Role

Posted on February 25, 2008
Tilda Swinton, in a role that I previously talked about here, has just won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In the movie Michael Clayton, she plays the chief counsel for a large company. I wonder if anything I’ve done as a lawyer in my career so far can be Academy Awards material… Well, there’s always [...

What Happens When A Famous Mommy Lawyer Becomes A First Lady?

Posted on February 20, 2008
Hillary Clinton made the transition. And now, perhaps Michelle Obama will. The Globe and Mail has an interesting article about Michelle Obama and at the end of the article, brief bios of the accomplishments of previous First Ladies. I wonder what the typical American expects of a First mate...

W.I.L.D. Women: The Law School Pioneers

Posted on February 16, 2008
I know that many law schools admit equal numbers of men and women now, but it took time and effort to get to those numbers. Here’s one woman’s tale of the early years from the Washington Post…Patricia Schroeder, Former congresswoman and now president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, Washington...

High Court: Where Are The Women Candidates?

Posted on February 14, 2008
I just read an article from the Telegraph in the UK about the lack of women candidates in the pool for the selection of High Court judges. It seems to me that recruitment and nurturing candidates are good ideas when it comes to achieving diversity in the courts...

Lawyers And Image: The ?Hotness? Factor

Posted on February 13, 2008
The American Lawyer reports that an insider blog ran a contest recently to determine the hottest female associate at Skadden, a large firm based in the US. Due to the controversy, the hottest male associate contest has been suspended. I’m sure that people talk all about how “hot” the nominated associates are within the firm and [...

Is that what women lawyers think of each other? Really?

Posted on February 11, 2008
I just got my February 2008 issue of the ABA Journal which has an article with survey results purporting to show what women lawyers really think of each other. “The 4,449 who responded in this self-selecting survey were asked whether they perceived gender-related differences in workplace performance and behavior...

W.I.L.D. Woman: Anita Alvarez

Posted on February 07, 2008
As a minority and a women, I am always happy when the legal community makes strides towards looking more like the client base it represents. Anita Alvarez would be the first woman and the first Hispanic to lead the state’s attorney’s office if elected over Republican Tony Peraica in the November general election...

Does the gender of a judge matter?

Posted on February 06, 2008
I ran across an article in the Herald News today with this headline: ”Judicial subcircuit races to pit men vs. women” While it is true that the races highlighted have candidates of both genders running, I wonder what that headline is trying to tell us...

The judge said what?!?

Posted on February 04, 2008
Sometimes you have to read it to believe it.

Women lawyers and their ?dating quotient?

Posted on February 03, 2008
I’m reading a piece about a food editor/columnist who is being analyzed by “The Truth About Dating” columnist and author Steve Penner to determine her “dating quotient.” They talk about her age, her relationship history, blah blah blah, and then Penner gets to career: Profession-wise women lawyers are the worst...

Hillary Clinton at Yale

Posted on January 30, 2008
The Kansas City star has an article about Hillary Clinton’s years at Yale Law School and how it shaped her career afterwards. Since she met Bill there, I wonder if they ever studied together. I wonder if they made their own outlines and flashcards...

GE Class Action Gets The Go-Ahead

Posted on January 27, 2008
Class actions are important because people who otherwise don’t have the resources to bring a lawsuit can nonetheless be compensated. But from a defending company’s perspective, it can also mean that the heightened sense of systematic wrong-doing may lead to inflated damages or punitive damages...

A female prosecutor in real life and a couple in the movies

Posted on January 25, 2008
There is a list of female prosecutors in the movies if you scroll to the bottom of The Scotman’s profile on author and former assistant district attorney Linda Fairstein by Jackie McGlone. But if you don’t read the profile, you would be missing out because she has accomplished a lot in her career which began at a time [...

Young women finding work-life balance early in their careers

Posted on January 24, 2008
Law.com has an article this week about female lawyers making decisions to have the work-life balance they want earlier in their careers rather than forcing themselves to compete with the workaholics at large firms. I must say, working at 10 pm at night is way more enjoyable than being at work at 11 am...

W.I.L.D. Woman to Watch: Mayawati Kumari

Posted on January 22, 2008
I am always interested in learning about how other female lawyers have used their law degrees or legal education outside of litigation since litigation is basically all I know. Politicians often have a legal background. This Reuters article features someone to watch: Mayawati Kumari, the leader of India’s low-caste Bahujan Samaj party in Uttar Pradesh [...

Perfect gifts for lawyers

Posted on January 20, 2008
Here is an online store that prints slogans and logos on mugs, t-shirts, etc. They have a section for “lawyers” or “attorneys.” I personally think the “attorney work product” bibs are hilarious. This gift is great for your lawyer wife/mom/daughter/friend if they work with patents...

Are you getting the assignments you want?

Posted on January 16, 2008
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly has a short Q&A with the author of “Ending the Gauntlet: Removing Barriers to Women?s Success in the Law,” Lauren Stiller Rikleen. In her research, she found some gender differences: Q. Are there institutional impediments to the retention and advancement of women lawyers, and, if so, how can they be overcome? A...

Have you ever cried at work?

Posted on January 14, 2008
In this Boston.com article, women weigh in on Hillary Clinton’s “moment” before the New Hampshire primary. The women that the author of the article interviewed were sympathetic to the uncharacteristic showing of vulnerability that the candidate expressed and which commentators have said may have gained her some votes...

Using Business Intelligence In Law Firm To Track Diversity

Posted on January 11, 2008
There’s a new article on CIO’s website titled “How a Global Law Firm Used Business Intelligence to Fix Customer Billing Woes” that features how the global law firm Bryan Cave is using their billing data to track projects as part of their diversity efforts...

Are you a pretty lawyer?

Posted on January 09, 2008
A lot of legal news-watching blogs this week are discussing a story in The Economist which talks about research in the correlation between beauty and intelligence and financial success. The part of the article that has everyone’s keyboards clicking is this: …Dr [Daniel] Hamermesh looked at the careers of members of a particular (though discreetly anonymous) [...

Does gender matter in the judiciary and in negotiations?

Posted on January 07, 2008
In a follow up to my earlier post, I found this article in which the author quotes some reactions from male lawyers and a female lawyer about how female judges are now being trained in the UAE. The men stress that females are simply different in a way that would not allow them to be [...

Female Judges In UAE

Posted on January 07, 2008
The United Arabs Emirates is currently training female judges according to several online articles: here, here and here. I can’t seem to find more details that that, but news of this sort certain merits more coverage!

Female-only Law Schools?

Posted on January 03, 2008
Korea is going to create some new law schools according to an article in The Korea Times. The author states that there are three all female universities (Sookmyung Women’s University, Ewha Womans University and Sungshin Women’s University) which are interested in establishing a law program...

Vacation

Posted on December 21, 2007
Today is my last day at work before I start my much needed vacation. I’ll be back in the new year! Happy holidays!

Looking back on our careers

Posted on December 20, 2007
Here’s a Law Times article reporting on two women’s accomplishments and the paths they took to get to their prestigious positions today. Yola Grant and Sharon McIvor spoke on the theme ?What Can Feminists Do with the Law?” at the University of Windsor...

Talking and listening to female lawyers

Posted on December 13, 2007
New Law.com article today about what law firms are doing or not doing for their female lawyers. At the end of the day, it comes down to the lawyers themselves. Don’t just asked to be treated right, demand it. And if they don’t walk the talk, you should walk to greener pastures...

Civility Among Lawyers

Posted on December 12, 2007
A judge ordered court supervision for a lawyer, Thomas B. Decea of Danzig Fishman & Decea, over the course of the remaining depositions in a case after the lawyer exhibited “objectionable conduct” towards a female opposing counsel, Ms...

Related Law Bulletins

Women Appointed For First Time To Singapore's Sharia Appeal Board
In Singapore, for the first time three women have been appointed t...