2015: Women In The Legal Profession Continue To Be Treated Like Crap
After reviewing research about the sorry state of women in the legal profession, from the overall percentage of women associates having dropped over the course of the past five years (per NALP) to the typical female equity partner earning about 80 percent of what the typical male equity partner earned (per NAWL), we decided to reach out to our readers to gauge their experience with sexism in the legal profession. The feedback we received was disheartening, and we saw just how poorly women in the legal profession are treated by their colleagues. Here are several choice selections from the responses we received:
• I wore dark purple suede heels to court. Opposing counsel asked, “Where are you dancing now?” in open court. Later that morning, he came to my office with cash in his mouth.
• My female friends and I are constantly asked to perform administrative tasks while men in the office are allowed to keep doing their work. I’ve heard some of them refer to us as the “binder bitches.”
• Female associates at my firm have to take the long way to the bathroom because they’d rather do that than walk by the office of a male partner who makes crude remarks about the way they look.
2015: The Pink Ghetto: Horror Stories About Sexism In The Law
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Given the tremendous response from readers we received about the terrible treatment that women regularly receive in the legal field, we decided to turn those horror stories into a recurring feature on Above the Law. Thus, The Pink Ghetto was born, a place where we take a look at some of the most appalling stories from one of the most sexist industries in the world: the legal profession. This series features real stories from real readers. Together, we can inspire the change necessary to stop this disturbing behavior from being so prevalent in the law. This story appeared in the inaugural column:
I’m a senior associate at a midsize firm. I had a call to take directly after a client meeting, and as I was walking down the hall from the conference room, I overheard one of the older male partners working on the matter assure our client (one of the partner’s close friends, from what I understand) that I was an “aggressive advocate” and that I’d stop at nothing to win his case.
When the partner thought I was out of earshot, he corrected himself by saying, “And by that, I mean that girl’s a crazy fucking bitch. I don’t think she’s too bright, but everyone else agrees those huge tits she’s got more than make up for it.”
It’s things like this that make me consider lateraling to another firm, but I’m so close to making partner it seems ill advised. Then again, why would I want to be a partner at a firm where my credentials are measured by my bra size instead of my accomplishments?
(Flip through the following pages to see the rest of the most depressing stories related to women in the law over the course of the last 10 years.)
Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.