Robinson ♦ Thatcher, LLP

Posts Tagged ‘Legal News’

This month marks several milestones in the history of women in the legal profession.  On July 7, 1981 President Ronald Regan nominated Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first female Supreme Court Justice.  This week, the senate is conducting  hearings to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the third female Supreme Court Justice in history. And today I officially and formally open the doors of my solo practice, The Law Offices of Laura L.Thatcher.  So, in honor of these milestones, I thought it an appropriate time to share my thoughts on women in the law.

When I went to law school in the 1990s, at least half of my graduating class were women.  It seemed to me at the time that there was, and should be, no difference between my male colleagues and myself.  What a remarkable difference from Justice O’Conner’s experience.   Although Justice O’Connor graduated third in a class of 102 from Stanford Law School in 1952, no law firm in California was willing to hire her as a lawyer due to her gender, although one firm did offer her a position as a legal secretary!

Although my experience as a new lawyer coming out of law school was far different from Justice O’Connor’s, I still faced challenges due to my gender. My first job  as an associate attorney was working for a small law firm. Of the three partners, one was a woman and three of the four associates were female. Great, I thought, I’ll certainly find a fantastic mentoring experience here.  This was not the case.  The partner had risen through the ranks of male dominated firms and learned through hazing and trials by fire.  My partner thought that if she had to do it, so should I.  (I should note that I did  find a fantastic fellow female associate at that firm who did mentor me through the challenges of my first year of practice).

I recently read an interesting article by Patricia Gillette regarding the “Dorothy Principle” named after the leadership qualities possessed by Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.   http://tiny.cc/r5gHI Although women are natural leaders, we do not take enough credit for our leadership skills or our accomplishments or ask for promotion when deserved. Therefore, we are often overlooked when it comes to career advancements or assignments to key cases for prominent clients. It seems that females in the legal profession (and probably throughout all walks of life) do ourselves a disservice.  Those in positions of authority are often reluctant or non-existent mentors and we often fail to promote our own accomplishments.  We also continue to face prejudice from our male counterparts.

Even President Obama has added fuel to this fiery problem.  In seeking a nominee for the Supreme Court, he announced that empathy is one of the qualities which would be a litmus test for his nomination.  His pick for a nominee – 2^ndDistrict Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor.  Judge Sotomayer has received criticism because of this empathy standard. However, as the New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote:  “People without social emotions like empathy are not objective decision-makers. They are sociopaths who sometimes end up on death row.” http://tiny.cc/yf1Ht

The saddest comment of all came courtesy of G. Gordon Liddy who said on his radio broadcast:  “Let’s hope that the key conferences aren’t when she’s menstruating or something, or just before she’s going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.”  Do I need to say anything more than this is simply inappropriate and offensive?

Where has this brief discourse brought us?  Back to the Law Offices of Laura L. Thatcher.  Women and men, while equally capable and skilled, are simply different.  When I set out to create my own firm, I recognized that I have to be true to myself.  One of the most basic qualities is that I am a woman; a mother, a wife and a daughter – in other words my family ties are part of what defines me.  Another defining, timely, quality is empathy.  The fact that I am an attorney is also very descriptive of who I am.  Given these qualities the type of firm I wanted became very clear.

The Law Offices of Laura L. Thatcher was founded on the principle that my community is an extension of my friends, family and neighbors. As such, I strive to provide quality legal representation as if each of my clients are friends, family and neighbors whether I have known you for years or we have only just met for an initial interview.  Please contact me if you have any legal concerns, from prenuptial agreements to estate planning to litigation, I’m happy to help and provide an empathetic ear to your problems.  I can be reached at (310) 725-0972 or lthatcher@lltlaw.net

A California Court of Appeals recently held that social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook are immune from civil liability.  In the case of Doe v. MySpace, Inc. (filed June 30, 2009, Second District, Div. Eight,Cite as B205643O), the California Appellate Court, Second District, ruled that the social networking website could not held liable when a minor is sexually assaulted by an adult she met on its social networking website.