W.I.L.D. Woman: Bella Abzug

Bella Abzug.  What an inspiration!!!

We need more women worldwide to heed her call (used in her successful 1970 campaign):

“This woman’s place is in the House — the House of Representatives”

See Wiki and this tribute.

Chatelaine 80th Anniversary

Congrats to Chatelaine magazine on their 80th anniversary issue.  For those who have not heard of it before, Chatelaine is a magazine “for Canadian women.”  I couldn’t find the piece I just read online, but in the magazine, there is a feature called “80 women to watch” which was a fantastic read.  I found at least 3 lawyers/former lawyers in the mix.

It’s only $1.99 at the newstands this month, well worth the price!! 

Or, go to http://en.chatelaine.com/english/index.jsp and browse around.  They have a section (http://en.chatelaine.com/english/celebration/article.jsp?content=20080319_114414_6448) showing their past covers and I just LOVE the old illustrated ones.  Bring those back!!!!!

 

How many hours constitutes “full time” now?

The Blawgshere is abuzz with comments on this American Lawyer article “On Life Support.”

Here is the passage that caught my eye:

“In the 1970s, my dad, who was a partner at a respected California firm, made sure that our family spent most of each August river rafting, and that we took some fishing trips during the rest of the year. In 1963, the ABA considered 1,300 billable hours full-time.”

What?!?  1,300 hrs?!? 

As I tell myself all the time, if I really hated my hours, I can always quit.  There are no physical handcuffs keeping me at my job.  I hope that anyone who is unsatified with their legal job recognizes that truth.

W.I.L.D. Women: The Law School Pioneers

 I know that many law schools admit equal numbers of men and women now, but it took time and effort to get to those numbers.  Here’s one woman’s tale of the early years from the Washington Post…Patricia Schroeder, Former congresswoman and now president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, Washington.

A female prosecutor in real life and a couple in the movies

There is a list of female prosecutors in the movies if you scroll to the bottom of The Scotman’s profile on author and former assistant district attorney Linda Fairstein by Jackie McGlone.  But if you don’t read the profile, you would be missing out because she has accomplished a lot in her career which began at a time when female prosecutors were few in numbers. 

For Law & Order fans out there, this excerpt may interest you:

If all of this sounds like an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, then that’s because the excellent TV series is based on the ground-breaking work and distinguished career of Fairstein, who pioneered the use of DNA evidence to identify sex offenders. Her unique Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit (SCPU) was established in 1974 for victims of domestic, sexual and child abuse and she was its director for more than 25 years.

Indeed, Fairstein’s alter ego in Law & Order – Assistant DA Alex Cabot, whose initials are a homage to Fairstein’s own fictional heroine, Alex Cooper – is played by the icily glamorous Stephanie March, who shadowed Fairstein to see how her work was done.

After reading this article, I plan on looking for her books right away!  She, and her protagonist, seem like feisty and empowered women. 

The olden days were not alway the good days

Law Times has an article describing a recent speech by Constance Backhouse, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa and president-elect of the American Society for Legal History, which related a story about a law class in the 1970s.  The author of the article, Gary Lloyd Gottlieb, provided a summary:

“A prominent practitioner and instructor in the course on law office administration was lecturing on legal secretaries.

His written teaching text advised new lawyers to post help wanted ads “[Seeking] a beautiful young and confidential secretary . . . . Unless very beautiful you should be able to take shorthand on machine dictation . . . . You should be a whiz at making good coffee . . . .”

A group of female students objected to the sexist and manipulative course content. When one of them stood up and strode down to the instructor’s podium, ripped the offending pages out of the loose-leaf text and threw them into the garbage as she left the room, the instructor bellowed that she could send the pages back along with her brassieres.”

Good gosh!