Lawyer’s Lantern
TO A YOUNG WOMAN LAWYER... BY SHERRY WILLIAMS
As I embark on my 18th year of practicing law, I marvel at how the legal profession has changed, and yet stayed the same.
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in the legal profession, especially in the largest law firms. Tis is so even though this country is on pace to become majority-minority. I have said for many years that for diverse lawyers, big
remember with great fondness both my desktop and portable Dictaphones, the requirement to get Motions and Pleadings “on the fax machine” by 5 p.m., and having the courier wait at 3:30
p.m. to get filings to court before the cut-off time. With today’s technology, those issues are distant memories. What has not changed as much is the racial, gender, and ethic makeup of law firms. I still recall feeling not- quite-part of the team in my first five years of practice, not because I lacked experience, but because I was both African American and a woman, and was often the only one of my kind. Today, after 20-plus years of
diversity efforts, racial and ethnic groups, sexual and gender minorities, and lawyers with disabilities con- tinue to be vastly underrepresented
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law firm life is an insider’s game. It is an environment where although the playing field is not fair or level and everyone certainly does not get a chance at bat, there con- tinues to be expectations that everyone on the field achieve at the same level of competence or be released from the team. However, opportunities for those of us who are of a different race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation are often diminished by the disappointment of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia. Sometimes the “isms” and “phobias” are real, born of real bias and real prejudice to our differences. Other times we imagine the “isms” as the product of anxieties born from the isolation diverse lawyers impose on ourselves as we focus on being the best and earning our place—as we focus on being included. Earning our place and being included is no easy task when firm colleagues have a just-under-the-surface resentment of diversity efforts, and diverse lawyers, who often do not understand the political framework of the firm, and lack mentors, sponsors, and second chances. Many of these issues are certainly not unique to diverse lawyers; however, they have an exponentially greater negative impact on them. For women of difference, the “isms” and “phobias” are compounded by stacking race, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation on top of gender difference. I’ve thought a lot about the advice I would give other women, especially diverse women, in their first years of
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