Jurist — continued from Page 18
In talking to a number of women
about their experience as trial lawyers, there were the expected tough stories about being treated with disrespect and dismissiveness. They came most often from the private sector and the stories tended not to be very recent. Not seeing what happens outside of
the courtroom, I cannot speak to com- ments about women not being treated equally by clients, colleagues or bosses. Once in the courtroom, male and female attorneys make or break themselves. There are as many advantages as there are disadvantages to either gender, and the smartest trial lawyers minimize the downside while riding high on the upside.
Certainly there are far smaller num-
bers of women represented in the unique world of trial lawyers. This is not startling due to the very tough and exacting demands of this profession. When in trial, the commitment is 110 percent and the work is all-consuming. A trial lawyer is not in trial just during court hours. It is a 24-7 operation, if not in body, cer- tainly in spirit. With traditional responsi- bilities of children, family and home undertaken by women, the demands of such an unrelenting schedule are virtual- ly impossible to manage. To the extent that no woman or man can “have it all,” the balancing of costs makes it complete- ly predictable that there would be fewer women in this arena. This is neither bad
nor good, but perhaps reflects a healthy perspective on what one deliberately chooses in life. It may also be that women are more
traditionally averse to frontal confronta- tions and are more skilled and comfort- able taking a case to successful resolution short of trial. Jury trials usually result in a “winner-take-all” ending. The losers (and often the winners as well) turn out not always happy with “justice” as defined for them by 12 strangers who did not quite see the picture as either party saw it. In “real life,” outside of the kabuki staging of the trial, there are generally some good points offered by both sides. Jurors are usually permitted to pick only one.
See Jurist, Page 22
20 — The Advocate Magazine FEBRUARY 2012
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