Thought For The Week: “We turn not older with years, but newer every day.” Emily Dickinson

Posted on September 30, 2024
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Vacations are a MUST for All Young Lawyers

Posted on September 26, 2024

Above The Law reported recently about an American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division survey showing that 31 per cent of Big Law associates making $200K or more are afraid to take vacations.  Why?  Because they consider time away from the office as risky for promotions or salary increases.  This is shocking — and harmful to both young lawyers and law firms.

First, law firms should insist that young lawyers take vacations.  Law firms should not punish young lawyers for what was a condition of their employment.  Seasoned lawyers should know that vacations are necessary to restore and recharge individual lawyers and to assure the best work products for the benefit of the firm.

Some firms may not be sending this message clearly enough.  It is easy to talk the talk, but it needs to be more than lip service.  Or it may be just cheap rhetoric to compete for the best talent.

And second, young lawyers must become better at looking out for themselves.  My most recent book, New Lawyer Launch — The Handbook for Young Lawyers (Full Court Press, 2023), can help with that.  The book includes material under headings “Pay Attention to Work-Life Balance” and “Get a Grip on Your Wellness” within the larger context of career planning.  I emphasize paying close attention to time away from work as a long-range career strategy, and my book contributors agree.  However, had I known at the time I wrote New Lawyer Launch that nearly 1/3 of all experienced Big Law associates hesitate taking vacation for fear of the salary and promotion repercussions,  I would have devoted an entire chapter of that book to “TAKE VACATION!”  I might have included sample destinations and itineraries to make it easier for you.  I might have volunteered to drive you to the airport.

Seriously … just do it!  For your sake, for the sake of your family and loved ones, and for the sake of your career.  Not emphasizing your wellness can reflect poorly on your judgment, and a lawyer without good judgment is like a fish without water.  The long-range prospects are not good for either.

And you must dispel any notions that you are impressing supervisors and managers with a decision to forego vacation.  It just does not work that way.  They don’t even notice.

So, it is time to start planning your next vacation and to take it when the time comes.  Start planning next year’s vacation NOW.  And if you suffer the repercussions you fear after taking that vacation, consider the possibility that you may be in the wrong workplace.  Learning that lesson early is invaluable.

Bon voyage!  Happy hiking!  Embrace the waves!  Whatever suits you.  JUST DO IT!

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Thought For The Week: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anaïs Nin

Posted on September 23, 2024
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Criticizing Women for Not Having Children is Out of Bounds

Posted on September 18, 2024

Lately, my past and my present are getting mixed up.  It is a function of bad behaviors repeating themselves, and it is disappointing.

I am referring to recent attacks on women and their choices —- specifically women without children.  Hearing these heartless personal accusations threw me back to a time when young women lawyers reacted harshly on the Internet to one of my columns and accused me of having no credibility on the subject matter because I was a woman without children.

I remember thinking at the time how inappropriate that accusation was and how hurtful it would have been if I was, in fact, childless.  I am not.  My two children are testament to my very real motherhood.  But what if I had chosen to be childless?  And what if I had been childless but not by choice?  Who would have been entitled to be that judgmental about such a personal issue?  Even the suggestion that I had no children was hurtful because it lessened the importance of my children and ran counter to the reality that I have never taken for granted the precious gift of becoming a mother.

And that is the point.  For so many reasons, no one has the right to criticize a woman for not having children.  Not men, and especially not other women.  Many women have difficulty conceiving children, and some women choose not to have children for other reasons.  Those are personal problems and personal choices.  No one should be hurling such criticism at women for any reason.

And certainly not for political gain.  Yet, here we are today listening to disparaging attacks on “childless cat ladies” by a political candidate, and claims that women must have children “to be humble” by a female Governor/campaign surrogate.  It is hard to imagine what will come next.  And these are not uninformed young people on the Internet.  These are national leaders.

Disparaging remarks about childless women are heinous on their face.  But, even worse, they are extremely hurtful to women who do not have children or are unable to have children in spite of their most sincere hopes and prayers.  Even though many people may believe that having children brings out the most humble and caring qualities in a woman, it is in no way true that those qualities depend on motherhood.  There are just too many examples to the contrary.

These irresponsible negative judgments about women must be rejected.  There is no place in our society for such cruel and heartless behavior.

If we truly believe that “We are better than this,” it is time we insist that those who want our support remember it.

 

 

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Thought For The Week: “A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything.” Irish Proverb

Posted on September 16, 2024
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History Repeats Itself for Women Lawyers

Posted on September 12, 2024

Just when I think things are getting so much better for women lawyers, I experience something that makes me doubt that progress again.

That happened earlier this week when I read a story about a woman named Priscilla Wheeler, a law student in the early 1970’s at UC Hastings.  The article interested me because Ms. Wheeler started law school only a few years before I did, and we had similar experiences at our law schools.  However, there was one very big difference.  Priscilla Wheeler had a toddler, and I did not.  That undoubtedly made it much more challenging for her.

The article included information about a column Ms. Wheeler wrote for the Hastings Law News student newspaper titled Wonder Woman Revisited/Or Not Everyone Can Throw a Golden Lasso.  Ms. Wheeler wrote that “many women are tired of having to be superwoman in order to just be considered in the running” and “Perhaps a better symbol for feminism [than Wonder Woman] would be the earthy, less than perfect Ms. Caucus of Doonesbury fame. She’s a woman and feminist; one who has made mistakes and knows it. She will make more mistakes and she knows that too. … Ms. Caucus is a very human type person.”

Ms. Wheeler’s column also included a recitation of gender obstacles she faced in law school , which included unfair treatment by male Moot Court judges.  It brought back my memories of such a Moot Court judge admonishing me because he could smell my perfume from the bench — just before announcing that my partner and I had won the competition!

Fortunately, that kind of overt gender discrimination is so much less common in law school and law practice today.  However, Ms. Wheeler’s experience reminds us that women in general, women lawyers included, are too often still required to meet a higher bar.

That reality rings true especially as we witness another woman vying to be President of the United States.  No matter what your politics are, that reality must be clear when some commentators hold her to a higher bar for no other reason than that she is female.  That is unfortunate indeed.

But what is not unfortunate is the way Kamala Harris meets the challenge.  Everything about her says “bring it on” because she knows she can handle it.  And, like Doonesbury’s Ms. Caucus, she also knows and demonstrates that she is not infallible because she is very human.  And it is that humanity that drives her.

And that is the takeaway for all women lawyers.  The road may be rougher than we would like, but we can handle it!   And, we can, and will, work hard to make it better.

 

 

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Thought For The Week: “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” Dalai Lama

Posted on September 9, 2024
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