Women Lawyers Research Articles

In the Multiple Systems of Justice in Uganda Whither Justice for Women?

The conflict in Northern Uganda that lasted for more than twenty years between the Lord’s Resistance Army, the rebel group and the Uganda People’s Defense Force UPDF, ended with the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in 2006. The article is based on the rapid assessment survey undertaken by The Federacion Internacional de Abogadas (The Association of Women Lawyers, FIDA-Uganda). The survey revealed enormous challenges faced by survivors in accessing the different systems of justice in Northern Uganda. For women, justice remains an intangible dream. Justice at an international level did not take off and therefore could not address crimes against women. Justice from the courts in Northern Uganda is fraught with challenges that frustrate women at all levels – from reporting the violations to the filing of cases in court and the process in the courts itself. Traditional justice is inherently biased and anti-women. Other institutions and NGOs attempts to assist women access the justice system have had limited and short-lived success. The article concludes that while the multiple systems of justice functioning simultaneously and effectively complimenting each other had a critical role in sustaining peace, each of the systems have failed to include and address women’s views, interests and needs for justice.

Covering: Mutable Characteristics and Perceptions of Voice in the U.S. Supreme Court

The emphasis on “fit” as a hiring criterion has raised the spectrum of a new form of subtle discrimination (Yoshino 1998; Bertrand and Duflo 2016). Under complete markets, correlations between employee characteristics and outcomes persist only if there exists animus for the marginal employer (Becker 1957), but who is the marginal employer for mutable characteristics? Using data on 1,901 U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments between 1998 and 2012, we document that voice-based snap judgments based on lawyers’ identical introductory sentences, “Mr. Chief Justice, (and) may it please the Court?”, predict court outcomes. The connection between vocal characteristics and court outcomes is specific only to perceptions of masculinity and not other characteristics, even when judgment is based on less than three seconds of exposure to a lawyer’s speech sample. Consistent with employers irrationally favoring lawyers with masculine voices, perceived masculinity is negatively correlated with winning and the negative correlation is larger in more masculine-sounding industries. The first lawyer to speak is the main driver. Among these petitioners, males below median in masculinity are 7 percentage points more likely to win in the Supreme Court. Justices appointed by Democrats, but not Republicans, vote for less- masculine men. Female lawyers are also coached to be more masculine and women’s perceived femininity predict court outcomes. Republicans, more than Democrats, vote for more feminine-sounding females. A de-biasing strategy is tested and shown to reduce evaluators’ tendency to perceive masculine voices as more likely to win. Perceived masculinity explains 3-10% additional variance compared to the current best prediction model of Supreme Court votes.

Ethics begin at home

ABSTRACTOver recent years, lawyer misconduct and regulation of the profession have been topics of considerable interest. Yet, when the topic of legal ethics is raised, the focus tends to be on lawyer conduct external to the firm: lawyer conduct in court; lawyer conduct vis-a-vis client; or lawyer conduct vis-a-vis opposing counsel or the judiciary. The recent National Attrition and Re-engagement Study (NARS), however, raises a different aspect of legal professional ethics. This Report found a widespread incidence of bullying, intimidation, discrimination and harassment within law firms, primarily affecting though not confined to, female lawyers. Of course, bullying and associated behaviours are not confined to the legal profession. But these behaviours are at odds with a profession that purports to be deeply concerned with the ethical conduct of its members. Arguing that ‘ethics begins at home’, this paper suggests NARS raises uncomfortable questions about legal professional ethics: if law firms cannot treat their own staff members ethically, what does that say about the firm’s approach to ethical conduct more generally? And if this culture is as widespread as the report suggests, what does this say about the ethics of the legal profession as a whole?

Who Is Responsible for Work-Life Balance?

Who Is Responsible for Work-Life Balance?

Work/life or work/work? Corporate legal practice in the twenty-first century

This article problematises the rhetorical phrase of the moment—work/life balance (WLB)—with particular regard to large corporate law firms, many of which have recently become global conglomerates as a result of amalgamation. The principals and partners of these firms, like their corporate clients, are more concerned with cutting costs and maximising profits than whether the lawyers they employ are able to attain a ‘good life’. While flexible work has been sought by women lawyers for some time as the essential prerequisite to effecting gender equality, the reality has proved to be somewhat disappointing. Indeed, both men and women are stigmatised for seeking to work flexibly which poses a dilemma for the prospect of gender equality. Drawing on responses to a web-based survey and follow-up interviews with male and female lawyers in Australia in 2012–13, it is argued that, far from flexible work constituting a solution, it may not only entrench the masculinist identity of the ideal lawyer but it may also contribute to the dissolution of the boundary between law and life.

Women Lawyers and the Struggle for Change in Conflict and Transition

.This article examines the particular experiences of female ‘cause-lawyers’ in conflicted and transitional societies. Drawn from an ongoing comparative project which involved fieldwork in Cambodia, Chile, Israel, Palestine, Tunisia and South Africa, the paper looks at opportunities, obstacles and the obduracy required from such lawyers to ‘make a difference’ in these challenging contexts. Drawing upon the theoretical literature on the sociology of the legal profession, cause-lawyers, gender and transitional justice, and the structure/agency nexus, the article considers in turn the conflict/cause-lawyering intersection and the work of cause-lawyers in transitional contexts. It concludes by arguing that the case study of cause-lawyers offers a rebuttal to the charge that transitional justice is just like ‘ordinary justice’. It also contends that, notwithstanding the durability of patriarchal power in transitional contexts, law remains a site of struggle, not acquiescence, and many of these cause-lawyers have and continue to exercise both agency and responsibility in ‘taking on’ that power.

“A pit to put women in”: professionalism, work intensification, sexualisation and work–life balance in the legal profession in England and Wales

Today, the rhetorical commitment to diversity and inclusion is almost universally espoused across the legal profession in England and Wales, and issues such as the position of women lawyers and alternative ways of working are recurring themes in the trade press. Yet statistical evidence clearly reveals a profession segmented by gender: its powerful and well remunerated positions remain overwhelmingly occupied by white men, and its working practices continue to require a professional identity unencumbered by responsibility for social reproduction. This paper draws on qualitative research to flesh out this picture and to reflect on some of the mechanisms which produce women's sub-professional status – which, it is argued, include the discourse of professionalism. Some themes identified by respondents – such as hyper-masculine work cultures in which women figure as backrooms technicians – are longstanding. Other themes concern either new developments or a deepening of trends already under way, which appear to be having a particularly adverse impact on women's working conditions. These trends include the intensification of work; the heightened significance of client care, leading to the development of ‘boundary spanning roles’ that generate even greater demands in terms of time and emotional labour, and the accentuation of misogyny and harassment consequent on the eclipse of traditional gentlemanly professionalism by a sexualised corporate culture. Under these conditions the possibility of the profession developing working conditions which offer work–life balance appears remote.

Impression Management and Perceptions about Advancement of Black Female Corporate Lawyers

This paper closely examines the perceived barriers to recruitment, professional development and advancement to partnership for black female lawyers (N=20) in elite corporate law firms. Partnership in law firms is granted to those associates who demonstrate professional excellence in practice after a 7-8 year apprenticeship. Black female lawyers confront numerous obstacles as they seek to rise to partnership (lack of mentorship, sponsorship and substantive assignments, rote assignments and limited exposure to quality training and networking opportunities). All associates suffer from the demands of corporate law firms such as working long hours, exclusion from social activities, and limited family contact. These factors inevitably contribute to high attrition rates. However, the accounts of black female lawyers within this study are richly pronounced by how their particular experiences tend to be shaped by the intersection, combination and overlap of race and gender. This unique difference brings a nuanced ...

Does Gender Raise the Ethical Bar? Exploring the Punishment of Ethical Violations at Work

We investigate whether women are targets of more severe punishment than men following ethical violations at work. Using an experimental design, Study 1 finds evidence that ethical behavior is more strongly prescribed for women than for men, even when they occupy an identical professional role. Study 2 manipulates the gender of a manager in a hypothetical scenario and finds that women are punished more severely than men for ethical violations at work. It also tests the scope of our theory by asking whether women are punished more for errors in general, or only for intentional ethical violations. Using field data, Study 3 examines how severely attorneys are punished for violating the American Bar Association’s ethical rules. Female attorneys are punished more severely than male attorneys, after accounting for a variety of factors. Greater representation of women among decision-makers diminishes the gender disparity in punishment. Our research documents a new prescriptive stereotype faced by women and helps to explain the persistence of gender disparities in organizations. It highlights punishment severity as a novel mechanism by which institutions may derail women’s careers more than men’s.

Does Gender Raise the Ethical Bar? Exploring the Punishment of Ethical Violations at Work

We investigate whether women are targets of more severe punishment than men following ethical violations at work. Using a large sample of working adults, Study 1 finds that ethical behavior is more strongly prescribed for women than for men. Women face intensified ethical prescriptions, relative to a gender-neutral person. Study 2 experimentally tests whether women are punished more severely than men. Study 2 also tests the scope of our theory by asking whether women are punished more for errors in general, or only for ethical violations. Study 3 examines our effect in the field by examining how severely attorneys are punished for violating the American Bar Association’s ethical rules. Female attorneys are punished more severely than male attorneys, after accounting for a variety of factors. Study 3 also provides evidence that the gender make-up of the decision-making group that allots punishment serves to moderate the extent of discriminatory punishments. When a larger percentage of women sat on the judges’ panels overseeing attorney disciplinary hearings, disparities in allotted punishment between men and women were smaller. Our research documents a new prescriptive stereotype faced by women and helps to explain gender disparities in organizations. It highlights punishment severity as a novel mechanism by which institutions derail women’s careers more than men’s.

Monsters & Madwomen? Neurosis, Ambition and Mothering in Women Lawyers in Film

In this article we engage with the writings of feminist scholars Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, whose landmark work, The Madwoman in the Attic, critiques the image of the female madwoman or monster. We use Gilbert and Gubar’s thesis of the female monster as the primary analytical framework for excavating three variants of female madness as depicted in three films: madness as neurosis using Laws of Attraction; monstrosity as ambition using Michael Clayton; and madness/monstrosity as failed motherhood using I Am Sam. Our goals for this article are to explore the ways in which popular films featuring female lawyers channel the “madwoman/monster” metaphor; trace those characters in terms of neuroses, ambition, and motherhood; and argue for the possibility of reconfiguring the notion of “madwoman” as a valid and meaningful mode of female subjectivity that expands the field of possibilities for women lawyers.

Sexual Assault on Women: The Role of Police

Cases of sexual violence are on rise against women in India. Rape, murder, eve-teasing, acid attack, stalking and molestation of women have become a matter of serious concern for women organisations, lawyers, academicians, students and other civil organisations. These agencies are persistently demanding to strengthen the institutional and legal system to check the violence against women. Police is the most visible organ of state entrusted with the responsibility for maintaining safety and security of women. However, its role to perform this task has been questioned due to poor maintenance of law and order, apathetic and insensitive handling of cases of violence against women, arrogant attitude and prevalent image of police as corrupt and unhelpful. Consequently, women organisations, legal luminaries and academia clamour to reform the structure and functioning of police are still governed by Indian Police Act, 1861, which was enacted by colonial rulers to perpetuate their rule in India. Police needs a holistic approach to check violence against women. Measures like strengthening and expediting the investigation system, investigating and treating the cases of rape victim in a responsible and sensitive manner, fixing accountability of police for non-registration of cases and proper implementation of the laws relating to safety of women are urgent requisites for these purposes. There is also an imperative need for coordination among police and academic institutions, transport authorities and offices of various companies and corporations to detect and monitor the crimes against women. Stressing the need for better policing, reformed criminal justice system, reliable public transport and overall good governance are vital as much for safety and security of women as for functional democracy of India.

Why Fighting Structural Inequalities Requires Institutionalizing Difference: A Response to Nienke Grossman

People ask me sometimes, when—when do you think it will be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is when there are nine.Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme CourtNienke Grossman offers a much needed overview of the statistical patterns behind the substantial underrepresentation of women in international courts benches. As her inquiry reveals, despite the growing proportion of female qualified lawyers, sex representativeness has hardly improved in recent years. On the contrary, in the absence of special requirements in courts’ statutes or judicial selection procedures, the percentage of women judges has actually stagnated or even declined in some cases. Such acute sex imbalance cannot be attributed to the (contingent) fact that not enough qualified women are available for such highly prestigious positions. Grossman persuasively contests the plausibility of this widespread assumption. Not only is the limited-pool argument fallacious, but, as her analysis suggests, part of the problem might actually be that judicial selection procedures lack transparency and arenotdriven by merit. Instead, nominations of international judges are often used “to reward political loyalty or to advance political agendas”; this practice seriously impinges on the chances of women to be appointed as international judges, as politics (both domestic and international) remains very much a male-dominated sphere.

Women Lawyers on TV – the British Experience

This paper examines the portrayal on British television of women as protagonists in TV dramas and how this has altered in the past half century. It focuses particularly on two series which follow the fortunes of two Junior barristers and their career paths, each over two separate series. Harriet Peterson and Martha Costello are both women lawyers who appear on behalf of clients in the courts. The barrister branch of the legal profession in England and Wales has always been regarded as the more prestigious branch of the profession from which, traditionally, judges have been selected. The characters are experienced and successful. They have reached that crucial time when they are hoping to be selected as Queen’s Counsel. This step into the top echelon of the elite branch of the split British legal profession is a major marker in a lawyer’s career. It is from the ranks of Q.C.s that the senior judiciary are chosen and where possible fame lies. This paper looks at their contrasting experiences - the context of women lawyers , the style and nature of the work they are shown as undertaking, the characterisation of the legal profession and in particular the principal protagonists. It also provides the crucial context in which these series were produced. It takes note of the ways in which their male counterparts are portrayed in comparable series The major thing which separates the struggles of Peterson and Costello is the passage of time of some 40 years. The paper explores what changes are found in the way the first and second women lawyer major protagonist appear and the context for these changes. In amongst an extensive roster of drama series centred on lawyers, it should be noted that the series Justice with Harriet Peterson ran between 1971 and 1974 and that of Silk with Martha Costello between 2011 and 2014.1 This is a long gap which requires to be looked at in some depth.

Lawyers? Women? Women Lawyers in Zimbabwe?

Lawyers? Women? Women Lawyers in Zimbabwe?

Hail Patriarchy! Of Supreme Judges and Elite Law

The discussion around NJAC judgement was focused on sharing power, making decisions about the important aspects and relates to supremacy, authority and control of judiciary, female exclusion therefore becomes inevitable. The trend, as always, is to fiercely up keep the male prerogative. And when several of the female lawyers got the opportunity to raise this issue it was trivialized, marginalized, normalized and refuted while drawing the focus on the ratio of male and female advocates on bar. Tokenism and backlash operate to exclude those women who dare to raise their voice against male domination and highlights the manner in which gender bias is ingrained in the judiciary.

Flexible Work Practices and Private Law Firm Culture: A Complex Quagmire for Australian Women Lawyers

<em>In this article, we examine gender and the work culture in Australian private law firms. Our primary focus is the extent to which flexible work practices remain a quagmire for female lawyers. We consider the systemic barriers affecting women lawyers, including hidden attitudes, the persistence of a gendered division of labour in the private sphere, the ongoing gender pay gap in Australia, and the ways in which the law firm ethos of long working hours disadvantages women. We then present some practical steps to remedy this situation, including accommodating working mothers’ time constraints, mentoring and networking, and training for managers and support staff. It is proposed that more needs to be done to encourage employers to implement these methods with confidence that flexible work arrangements can provide benefit to the firm as a whole, as well as individual employees. To achieve this, we put forward a reform of the framework in order to implement these practical steps. We also discuss some ways to possibly effect attitudinal change in law firm culture and conclude with some observations about the future of legal practice in this context. Finally, further involvement of the Law Council of Australia is proposed, to impose conditions on the practising certificates of lawyers in supervisory roles to assist them in complying with the framework. This would also ensure that flexible work arrangements are accessible to both employers and employees, which in turn will assist in dissolving the systematic discrimination that female lawyers face in private law firms.</em>

Gendered Expertise

Based on in-depth interviews with policymakers and archival data, we examine the policy debates over court reform in family law and criminal law in Chile after the democratic transition. We introduce the concept of “gendered expertise” to capture the set of competences and claims organized around perceived gender differences and mobilized through gendered networks that we found in these debates. We show how gender structured and valorized lawyers’ expertise and shaped the differing outcomes in these two reforms. In the power struggles among law reformers, both men and women lawyers used gendered expertise as a resource for characterizing themselves and their opponents. In the end, criminal law reform not only received far more political and economic support for its implementation than any other Chilean judicial reform, but defined the appropriate political reforms in relation to gendered meanings of law and political reconciliation.

Henry Button

AbstractKate Faulkner introduces a collection of material left to the Squire Law Library by veteran historian, Henry Button. Her article discusses the sorting through of this small collection of books, pamphlets and correspondence that was gathered during his research. It looks at how Button's interests developed to include the first female lawyers and the longest-serving legal professionals. It concludes with some information about Henry Button himself and provides a list of the books that were part of the collection.

The Women and Men of Harvard Law School: The Preliminary Results from the HLS Career Study

There is widespread consensus that the legal profession stands at an important inflection point. Traditional models of professional organization, practice, and education are under increasing pressure to adapt to important changes in the environments in which lawyers work. At the same time, these same forces make the profession’s commitment to its traditional ideals of equality and the rule of law more relevant and important than ever.The current status of women in the legal profession mirrors this complex duality. On the one hand, the number of women entering the profession has increased dramatically in recent decades, and women lawyers can now be found in leadership positions in virtually every major legal institution in the country, including three female justices on the United States Supreme Court. And yet, the percentage of women in these top positions remains far below their representation in the profession, even when adjusted for the fact that women did not begin to enter legal practice in significant numbers until the 1970s. To make matters worse, even women who have achieved important career success appear to be leaving their prestigious positions - and the profession as a whole - in alarming numbers.It is against this background that we offer this Preliminary Report on The Women and Men of Harvard Law School. The Preliminary Report presents the results of the Harvard Law School Career Study (HLSCS), conducted by the school’s Center on the Legal Profession (CLP). Begun with a generous grant from a visionary group of women alumnae in connection with the 55th celebration of the graduation of the school’s first female students in 1953, the study seeks to deepen the understanding of the career choices made by HLS graduates by providing for the first time systematic empirical information about the careers trajectories of graduates from different points in the school’s history. In this Preliminary Report, we offer a first look at the Study’s findings about the salient similarities and differences between the careers of the school’s female and male graduates.