Study finds female Supreme Court justices are interrupted more than male justices

Nope. It’s not just you.  It’s Justice Ginsberg, Justice Sotomayor, and Justice Kagan, too.  

It’s all of us, and we need to be aware of how and when these interruptions happen, so that we can better COMBAT against them. “Combat” you say (question)…”yep,” I respond, unapologetically.  

Even if the folks around us are not actually targeting women to keep us quiet – the context I am referring to, is a/the battlefield to-be-heard.  There are so many voices, so many perspectives, so many outlets – we women need to be intentional about making sure we are ready and committed to getting our voices (our ENTIRE sentences) heard. 

Game on, ladies.

Love to you all, SCC

From CBS Evening News authored by By JIM AXELROD:

“‘Here we have subordinates, clear subordinates, i.e. lawyers, interrupting justices who have reached the highest pinnacle of a very high status profession,’ Jacobi says.

‘There are a few strategies,’ says Heidi Moore, who runs the digital magazine Ladders, which explores workplace issues. She says all women can learn from those on the court.”

Read the full story, for the strategies employed by the women of our highest Court, you may by FOLLOWING THIS LINK.

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The incredible story of Bobbi Gibb, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon

What’s not to love about a woman who, well…..JUST DID IT.

I only stumbled across knowledge of Ms. Gibb within the past decade.  Only recently did I learn she was a lawyer.  What a fabulous role model she is for us, for our girls, and for anyone – really – who has been told, “but, not you.” 

May her hard work, courage, and utter lack of Lululemon workout attire inspire you today and this week!

Love to you all, SCC

From Women in the World, in association with the New York Times authored by By BRIGIT KATZ:

“Bobbi Gibb is seventy-two years old. At various points in her life, she has worked as a horse-riding instructor, a sculptor, a lawyer, and an associate in a neuroscience laboratory. She has written a book about inflation, and one about economics. She is putting together a collection of essays and a children’s book. She is collaborating on a film project. She is a mother, which she says is “the best thing” she ever did. And in 1966, Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.”

More on the incredible life and contributions of Ms. Bobbi Gibb, by CLICKING THIS LINK.

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Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, first African American woman on New York’s top court, found dead in Hudson River

 

Heartbreaking loss in this week leading up to the religious holiday that honors when Jesus laid down his life for ALL people.  

Loving, not hating.  Sacrificing, and giving – even His life.

I cannot even comprehend why anyone would take the life of a woman who has contributed so much power, grace, justice, empowerment and life to others.  Of course, it’s too early to know who, what, when, and why – for SURE. But, at a minimum, we can and should embrace that serving others in the legal profession comes at a cost.  At times, of life itself.  

Love to you all, SCC

From the Washington Post, authored by By SAMANTHA SCHMIDT:

“Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first African American woman to serve on New York’s top court and the first female Muslim judge in the United States, was found dead in the Hudson River on Wednesday, police said. She was 65.

The body of Abdus-Salaam, a native of Washington, D.C., was found fully clothed in the river in Upper Manhattan at 1:45 p.m., a day after her husband had reported her missing, according to the New York Police Department. There were no signs of trauma or injury on the body, and the cause of death is still under investigation.

It is not yet known how Abdus-Salaam, who lived in Harlem, ended up in the river, or how long her body had been there. Her death shook the New York legal community, prompting responses from colleagues, judges, and state and local political leaders.”

More on those responses from those colleagues, judges and state and local political leaders – and about Ms. Abdus-Salaam, by CLICKING THIS LINK.

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Women Plaintiffs Lawyers Fight to End MDL ‘Boys Club’

GA-Curated for you from the National Law Journal, Authored by Meredith Hobbs:

“Alvare analyzed 145 cases with 102 male judges and 43 female judges making appointments—and found that men were five times more likely than women to be appointed to a lead counsel spot, regardless of the gender of the judge. The subject matter of the cases didn’t make much difference either, she said.

…While only half of the cases had women among the lead counsel, fully 98 percent had men in those positions.” (Emphasis added.)

Read more about the work of these forward-thinking women…changing the landscape, so you have more to look forward to, CLICK HERE.

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Nebraska wins Client Counseling Competition

I was such a lucky duck.  First of all, this National-level competition happened just “down the street” (well, 30 minute drive away) from my office.

Truth is, I’d never even heard of such a thing: Client Counseling Competition.  Have you?  Well, it is a thing – an ABA thing, at least – and it is not the first year, either.

A little over a month ago, I had been asked to be a volunteer Judge for this event, by a gal who is at the University of Oklahoma Law School (whom I’d never met before, but who’d found me through the GIRL ATTORNEY, LLC Oklahoma Facebook Group). Since my schedule was open for the afternoon in question, and because I am a sucker for anything that involves helping law students to be and do better, I happily agreed.

But, that is STILL not even the lucky part.

It just so happens, that the two young women that WON the competition, were the winners of the three teams that my panel judged in that first round of the Nationals-level competition. So, naturally, beyond the fact that seeing this little story pop up on my GIRL ATTORNEY Twitter feed last week, was a thrill because I recognized, and voted as “first place” to move forward these GIRLS in the photo above – I was extra-pumped to learn too, that they had earned the distinction of being the National champs.

I am equal parts happy for, and proud of, Ms. Jenna L. Cope (left) and Ms. Kari Krier Schmitz – and, here it is, feel very lucky to have been a small part of their experience!

Love to you all, SCC

P.S. Follow the link below if you’d like to see who all the winners were – and, if you do, let me know if you agree with me that it appears that EVERY SINGLE winning team (I believe the last name, of the three, is the coach’s name) was made up of a pair of women?  I’d tweeted the ABA and asked, but they never responded.  hahahaha  😉

From the ABA’s BEFORE the BAR, By Law Student Division:

“The finals of the American Bar Association Law Student Division Client Counseling Competition took place on March 17-18 at the University of Oklahoma College of Law in Norman, Okla. Here were the results:”

More here, by CLICKING THIS LINK.

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Facebook Pushes Outside Law Firms to Become More Diverse

GA-Curated for you from the New York Times, Authored by: Ellen Rosen.

“Facebook is requiring that women and ethnic minorities account for at least 33 percent of law firm teams working on its matters.

Numbers alone, however, are not enough, under a policy that went in effect on Saturday. Law firms must also show that they ‘actively identify and create clear and measurable leadership opportunities for women and minorities’ when they represent the company in litigation and other legal matters.”

Read more on this self-described “carrot and stick” approach, and CLICK ON THIS LINK.

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Diving Back In: 4 Tips for Restarting a Legal Career

Whether you are a law student about to venture out into a law career for the first time, a not-recent graduate of law school seeking to enter the field of law for the first time, or seeking to return to the practice of law after some time away – this article gives a brief, but substantive, look into what’s ahead for you.  

The author, importantly, has navigated these “waters” herself, fairly recently, and offers some practical steps and encouraging words for you, as you venture forth.

If this might be relevant to you (or someone you know) I hope it is helpful! 

Love to you all, SCC

From the ABA’s BEFORE the BAR, By Thea Pitzen:

“The practice of law is not known for being particularly portable or forgiving of taking ‘time off’ from one’s career. But, for the future of our noble profession, I hope those things are changing. And I believe that they are. For example, as an increasing number of states adopt the Uniform Bar Exam and ease barriers to licensing for particularly mobile groups like military spouse attorneys, career portability becomes more possible. And, there are increasing opportunities for flex time work arrangements and reentry into the profession after time off.”

More here, by CLICKING THIS LINK.

 

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Guess which state has the worst quality of life for women?

Stop being a women-aren’t-being-treated-equally denier. No one wins. The only way we can improve things, for EVERYONE, is by starting with accepting reality. Even sucky reality.

Sincerely,

Your loving Admin….who happens to be living squarely in the center of the state with the WORST quality of life for women

From Daily Mail.com, By CARLY STERN:

“The worst state for women was determined to be Oklahoma — the state which recently passed a bill referring to women as ‘hosts’ for unborn babies.Oklahoma also has one of the largest wage gaps (at 73.2 cents) and actually saw its wage gap grow more than any other state from 2007 to 2015, by 5.57 per cent.”

More on these disturbing facts, for reality-check AND inspiration by CLICKING THIS LINK.

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MILITARY SPOUSE ATTORNEY LICENSING BECOMES MICHIGAN LAW

As a former so-called “Army Brat” I know at least a little about what it means to be a non-military member of a military member’s family.

Thankfully, as a kiddo in the 70’s, I WAS the kiddo in my military family. My mom’s experience, as military spouse, was not as fun nor marked with as much freedom we kids had (you know, as long as we didn’t get in trouble and mess up our dad’s chances at the next promotion).  Bottom line, WAY back then she did NOT feel the freedom to be employed – and even if she wanted to work outside the home – getting a job with the I’m-leaving-in-a-few-years (or sooner, who knows) military-spouse situation sure made it even harder.   

These days, a working spouse has many of the same hurdles – and finding work as an attorney in these circumstances is made exponentially more difficult by the fact that taking a new bar exam almost always meets the spouse with every new station. I was thrilled to see this new provision out of Michigan which is a SIGNIFICANT game-changer for military spouse attorneys.

Love to you all, SCC

From Military Spouse J.D. Network, By ELIZABETH JAMISON:

“The new provision provides that a military spouse attorney licensed to practice in another jurisdiction and in good standing, and whose service member spouse is assigned to a duty station in Michigan, may apply for admission without an additional bar examination and practice in the jurisdiction until (1) the service member spouse is no longer on active duty; (2) the military spouse attorney is no longer married to the service member spouse; or (3) the service member spouse receives a permanent change of duty station outside of the state.”

More on this exciting new development by CLICKING THIS LINK.

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Road Blocks: Mail Chimp and Personal Limits

“Dang it!” – ME

Today. Yesterday. Last week. Etc…

There’s a lot of that going on these days.

While I do have a firm grasp on my lack of perfection, it doesn’t stop me from boldly [and at times, blindly] seeking to do stuff perfectly EVERY time – THE FIRST TIME.  Naturally, any and all things associated with GIRL ATTORNEY, LLC are no different from the rest of my life, accordingly.

Still, I have been confronted with the stark contrast between my earnest intentions and reality much more often than usual – even for me – lately.  The latest such “Dang it!” moment is represented in the image, above.  “Default text content” Right. I don’t even know what that means.  Also, “Resolve” is a lie perpetrated by the good people of Mail Chimp who have failed to make this issue noticeable-enough to the developers I hired to address this issue before they told me the Template for my email Newsletter was ready-to-go, AND/OR have failed to make this issue easily-resolveable enough for me to handle on my own.  As stated above, I know I’m not perfect – but if I can’t actually follow the “Resolve” button to a corner of Mail Chimp’s place on the internet, read the instructions in my native language, and actually resolve the issue….well, “Resolve” is a misnomer at best, and Mail Chimp’s a liar at worst.

But enough about the latest reminder of my humanity (and my interest in blaming it on Mail Chimp).  We’ll get these Newsletter issues worked out next week, and shoot for next Saturday, instead.

The fact is, whether it is the unfamiliar territory of handling a mass mail Newsletter Template – resulting in a delayed performance, speaking to a jury for the first time, arguing your first Motion to a Judge, or arguing your 1,000th Motion – but on an area of law that is wholly brand new to you, etc….it’s all the same, really.

Each is an opportunity to do what your mama told you: YOUR BEST.

Never forget, GIRLS: you are good enough, smart enough, got-what-it-takes enough, standing-up-straight enough, ATTORNEY enough, and GIRL enough to do what you have to do.  YOU are the one for the job you’ve been given. Beyond your knowledge base and your experience, give what you’ve got – give YOU. Under every circumstance, do YOUR BEST, and under no circumstance do you beat yourself up when you’re not perfect.

Actually, about ten years ago I was given the opportunity to give a TEDx talk on the topic of “Resiliency” (which, embarrassingly, I still cannot spell correctly without looking it up first). I presented on this topic from the perspective of how learning to be accepting of my imperfections, enabled me to achieve beyond and in spite of them.  The title of my Talk (and you may click on the title to view the Talk) was, The Imperfect Path to Peace.  Apparently, for better or worse, this is a central theme of my life.

Yes, of course I wish the first Newsletter could have gone out today – as planned. However, perhaps this message…seeing value in acknowledging the lack of perfection both honestly, and with hope about and for the “next steps,” in spite of your imperfection…is of more value to one, or some, than a re-hash of last week’s posts and a yet another “Welcome to Girl Attorney” would have been.

Yeah, pretty sure (at a minimum) no actual harm was done to ANYONE (merely my ego) in the delaying of this Newsletter – and I’ve decided to choose to hope that some better good was done from spreading this message, instead:

YOU, IMPERFECT AND ALL, are PERFECTLY YOU, and you ARE GOOD ENOUGH.

Love you all,

Susan Carns Curtiss, Founder and CEO GIRL ATTORNEY, LLC, Owner Carns Curtiss Law, PLLC, TEDx Speaker

 

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