Leading and Guiding: Women Government Lawyers

Ellen F. Rosenblum, Oregon Attorney General

Ellen F. Rosenblum has had a varied career in both the public and private sectors.

Right out of law school, she practiced in a small firm, representing juveniles, criminal defendants and civil plaintiffs. “I took court appointments to get trial experience and went to court nearly every day for the first four years after graduating,” she said. “I even got to write appellate briefs and argue appeals in the Oregon appellate courts before most young lawyers did.”

Eventually, she was offered a position as an assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting economic white-collar crimes. She loved being a federal prosecutor and appreciated a four-day-a-week schedule while her children were very young.

In 1989, she was appointed to the bench and served as an elected trial judge (district and circuit) for 16 years. Rosenblum enjoyed interacting with her court colleagues, trial lawyers and the jurors. “When you are a judge on a busy court as I was, you experience your community through a totally different lens,” she said. “You work on a range of difficult issues, and you truly feel that you are giving people, who have never experienced justice, their day in court. It’s exhilarating but also can be draining.”

In 2005 Rosenblum was appointed, and soon thereafter elected statewide, to the Oregon Court of Appeals and served as an appellate judge for six years.

She had not planned or seriously thought about partisan elected office; but shortly after her retirement from the bench in 2011 (after 22 years as a judge), the position of Oregon attorney general became available—and her retirement ended almost as soon as it began. She realized that she still had a yearning to serve the people of Oregon, ran for attorney general in 2012, and was elected. She is now in the middle of her second term.

Rosenblum graduated from law school in 1975, at a time when there were few women in law school and fewer female role models in the profession. “My class was the first with more than just a sprinkle of women students. There were no full-time women faculty members at the University of Oregon Law School, so the only available mentors were men,” she said. Fortunately, a few were very helpful to her, including her first employers and several judges before whom she appeared; for the most part, though, “. . . male lawyers and judges didn’t know what to make of us, but we kept at it,” she said. Rosenblum recalls that when she became a partner in her small law firm, her new partners took her to a celebratory lunch at a nearby country club — where she was promptly pushed out of the men’s grill. “Can you imagine that happening today?” she asks. “Thankfully, no!” (She adds that her new partners never again set foot in the country club.)

These days Oregon has many women legal role models, a fact that is gratifying to Rosenblum. “For the first time, the chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court is a woman. And my law school that didn’t have a single full-time female professor is now led by a female dean and many wonderful female faculty members—no longer just one adjunct professor teaching family law.”

“I have to remind myself that we have to do more with less as budgets tighten. That is part of the challenge of a job in the government.”

Rosenblum has found that serving on the bench prepared her well for her role as attorney general. “Now that I’m the attorney general, I realize that so much of what I practiced as a judge—like patience, deliberateness, independence and listening—are essential skills.” Rosenblum uses those same skills to tackle complex legal analysis:

Like a judge, I ask my [state] DOJ colleagues to chime in and give me both sides. Before I make a decision, even as an advocate again, I want to make sure I understand both sides of the issue. I believe that is essential if we are to succeed at the two tasks I consider most important to the Oregon Department of Justice: providing state agencies with the gold standard of legal advice and serving as a sort of people’s attorney for the most vulnerable people in our state.

Rosenblum enjoys all of the work that her office does to protect Oregonians, but she is most proud of efforts that involve consumer protection. “I see our job as advocates for Oregonians who don’t have a voice or have the resources to take on an industry or fraudulent practices on their own.” Rosenblum is also pleased with her office’s Elder Abuse Unit, which recently received funds from the Oregon legislature to handle criminal elder abuse cases statewide. “I’m so glad we can now offer our services to the 36 DAs and local law enforcement to investigate, prosecute, and, hopefully, stop elder abuse.”

For law students interested in a career in the public sector, Rosenblum recommends networking with those in practice areas of interest and taking advantage of any opportunities, including writing articles and volunteering for bar committees. “I always recommend clerking for a judge, state or federal, trial or appellate, to get a head start. Clerking is a great way to get hands-on experience. And it gives you a career mentor (and maybe even a pretty good reference) for life!”

Despite the challenges of the job, Rosenblum wakes up each morning eager to get to work. “I haven’t ever been more professionally fulfilled or challenged than I am today, with a great team to work with and an incredible state to protect and defend.”

It is well-known in ABA circles that Rosenblum was the secretary of the ABA from 2002 to 2005. She has also served over 25 years in the ABA House of Delegates; and even while serving as AG, she served as chair of the Section of State and Local Government Law. She has been a proud member of this Division for many years and is a past recipient of its Nelson Award for Public Service.

Donna Y. Frazier, Caddo Parish (Louisiana) Attorney

Donna Y. Frazier has been the Caddo Parish attorney in Shreveport, Louisiana, since her appointment in 2013. As the first female Caddo Parish attorney (equivalent to a county attorney), Frazier advises the Parish Commission and parish personnel on all legal matters. What makes the position interesting to her is that there is no typical day. She might spend time doing a legal review of grant applications or meeting with judges who are requesting a legal interpretation regarding a statute outlining how court funds are to be administered. If the Parish Commission is about to meet, she will spend time fielding questions from commissioners about certain ordinances and resolutions that may be on the agenda. In addition, she attends all Parish Commission meetings to answer legal questions that may arise.

Frazier’s staff is small with only one assistant parish attorney and a paralegal. They have their hands full handling most of the litigation in-house. Frazier finds it satisfying when the parish prevails in litigation. “We don’t have some of the resources that large law firms do; and because we work in government, we don’t often have the same amount of time to devote to our cases that private counsel has,” she said. “Additionally, a lot of the current sentiment in my community and the country at large is antigovernment. So, each time we successfully defend the honor in the hard work of our colleagues and elected officials, it affirms to me that I’m in the right field.”

Frazier’s first legal job out of law school was as a clerk to a state appellate judge. She landed the job because when she was in high school and the judge was still in private practice, she had performed clerical work for the judge. Frazier took a bit of a gamble by sending her resume to the judge while still in law school. As it happened, the judge had an opening the December after she graduated. Frazier learned several important skills while clerking for the judge, including how to construct a lower court record that would withstand an appeal. “Most importantly, I learned how to believe in myself and my abilities. At the time, I couldn’t understand why [the judge] constantly challenged my research and made me verbally defend my conclusions,” she said. “But I am forever grateful because it let me know that I had what it took to be a good attorney and do well in the field.”

Throughout the years, Frazier has been challenged by those who would like competing interests to influence legal outcomes. She often encounters several factions that would like her to decide a certain way on an issue. Frazier is steadfast in her belief in the rule of law. “The law must decide the issue, not the attorney, and sometimes it is difficult to get others to see that the law cannot and should not be twisted to meet a certain desire.” Frazier also notes that because the parish has a commission-administrator form of government, the “who is the client” issue regularly rears its head.

Frazier does not dwell too much on those who may have discounted her because she is female or black. She believes that in those instances where she may have been underestimated or taken less seriously, the best approach was to let her work product speak for itself.

In her spare time, Frazier loves reading historical romance novels and is an avid Marvel comic film fan. Frazier also is involved with the ABA — she chaired the State and Local Government Law Section in 2015, an accomplishment of which she is quite proud, as well as local bar groups, including the Louisiana Parish Attorney’s Association. Frazier finds that being involved in bar associations has given her a network of unimaginable resources. Just recently, she was able to draw on that network to contact another former State and Local Government Law chair to get a referral in another state. “Also, being a parish attorney means I deal with all types of issues, from employment issues to personal injury. Through these associations, I have access to colleagues in just about any area of law I encounter. That is invaluable.”

Frazier’s advice for young attorneys is to stay flexible. “Never lose sight of your initial career goals, but realize that there is usually more than one path to achieve those goals,” she said. “Additionally, there are career paths you may be unfamiliar with, but that may be perfect for you. Don’t be so afraid of change that you never explore them.”