Summer 2013

Career

Introduction: 25 Years of Blazing the Trail for Women in the Law

Jane Harper-Alport

In this issue commemorating the Commission’s 25th anniversary, the seven features below offer highlights of Perspectives’ interviews with pioneering women lawyers in seven major legal career arenas such as Academia, Advocacy, Bar Associations, and Law Firms, who share about their experiences, women’s advancements in the profession, and what remains to be achieved.

Career

Academia: “Learning” to Advance in Legal Education

G.M. Filisko

From professors to distinguished chairs and deans, women are still underrepresented at the top of our nation’s law schools.

Career

Advocacy: “Women’s Issues” Become Professional, Societal Issues

G.M. Filisko

Women’s law centers and judicial education programs are among the initiatives in which advocates are working toward pay equity and the elimination of implicit bias, and their efforts have paid huge dividends.

Career

Bar Associations: Gain Ground by Stepping Up to the Bar

G.M. Filisko

Women’s bars have helped eradicate biased practices in hiring, maternity leave, and compensation and have propelled women forward in leadership, as bar examiners, and as leaders of agendas for fairness and equality for all women.

Career

Law Firms: Storming the Private Practice Castle

G.M. Filisko

Women have made tremendous advances since the mid-1970s when they were discouraged from being litigators, part time and flextime were unheard of, and women in leadership were a rarity. But significant gains have required risk takers, and high achievers stress that the importance of women mentoring women should not be minimized.

Career

Public Interest: Passionate Leaders, Problem Solvers Rise in Nonprofit Sector

Hannah Hayes

Legal training helps develop advocates in the nonprofit sector, where managing budgets can be as important as managing people. More women and minorities enter public service law than men, but they still tackle implicit bias when it comes to gaining leadership positions.

Career

Corporations: Confronting the Glass Ceiling in the Corporate World

Hannah Hayes

The number of women GCs in Fortune 500 companies more than doubled in the past decade. The outlook for women in the C-suite may be rosier than ever as more corporations adapt to the changing expectations of a diverse population, and women in-house counsel understand more about how influential they can be.

Career

Government and Judiciary: On the Rise in Elected Office and Judicial Robes

Hannah Hayes

A record number of women now serve in Congress: 81 in the House and 20 in the Senate. Slightly over 41 percent of President Barack Obama’s confirmed nominees to the judiciary have been women, but women occupy only 27 percent of judicial positions at the state level.

Career

“Why Didn’t She Call?”: A Mentor and Mentee Share Their Story

Fernande R.V. "Nan" Duffly, Elizabeth Bailey

When a state supreme court justice and a Harvard law graduate, paired as mentor and mentee through the Ms. JD Fellowship, were asked to write about their experience, a curious thing happened: they talked to each other.

Career

Celebrating 25 Years of Leadership

Mary B. Cranston

While much work remains to be done before women lawyers achieve true parity with their male counterparts, opportunities are available to women if they get the training and education they need, do their homework, and have the discipline to stay on track and work their plans.

Career

Comission on Women News

A round up of news on events, books, and more.