The Employability Of Older Women Has Struck A Nerve

How many times have we all heard the phrase “But wait! There’s more!” while fast-forwarding through an infomercial on TV or hearing one on radio (unless you have Sirius XM)? I’m saying the same thing here, as email responses to my column last week on the employability (or not) of older women (lawyers) generated lots of comments across the country and even across the pond. Nerves were touched. Thanks to all those who took the time to read — the column made Above the Law’s top 10 most-read posts of the week — and then to write.

I thought I would share some of those responses. They are from “women of a certain age,” who have encountered and still encounter bias in our profession. Ageism, sexism, just for starters.

A solo here in SoCal:

“You hit the nail on the head that women are better off running their own realms than trying to play by rules and patterns that are entrenched in patriarchal bias. It’s a much more efficient use of time to start one’s own practice and grow it, rather than keep beating one’s head against the wall. That’s what I did, and I’ve never looked back.”

This comment from a woman lawyer who was older when she started practicing:

“I read your column on older women lawyers and was nodding my head. I was forty when I got out of law school. I had neither the ambition nor the ability to put [up] with male bullshit to make partner.” In her view, “old lady lawyers are redefining the practice of law, Biglaw especially, and men just don’t realize it yet.”

Agree?

Many old lady lawyers (and even young lady lawyers) can relate to these remarks by a women lawyer in her fifties:

“I am in my fifties (although I lie and say I am in my forties) and I can see the wall coming quickly. Experience, age and wisdom are not desirable qualities in women attorneys as they are in male attorneys. If I am aggressive, I am criticized. If I am polite, I am criticized. If I am overly confident and challenge a man in the room, I am criticized. If I am a team player and allow everyone their say, I am criticized. Managing younger attorneys, especially younger male attorneys, is a joke. They think nothing of blatant and abject disrespect of me and what I know, and that’s because they see that attitude from the top.”

Sound familiar? Raise your hand. I see way too many hands to get an accurate count. I had hoped that the younger generation of male lawyers would have learned better, but I think what they’re doing is modeling the behavior of older male lawyers in order to get ahead. One old lady lawyer friend of mine who has decades of experience and knowledge in a particular industry is routinely dismissed by younger male colleagues who don’t have anywhere near the practical, hands-on expertise that she has. Sad to say, her experience is not unique.

Another woman lawyer wrote that there was a big companywide celebration, which included a journey to a strip club (no, I am not making this up.) When the woman lawyer declined to join, she was called out for not being a team player. Really? A woman lawyer has to watch strip club goings-on in order to be “one of the boys?” Can you say “hostile work environment?”

A woman partner who has been in Biglaw for most of her forty year career:

“I very much thought back then things would be different in Biglaw in only a few years, and where there has certainly been change from when I first went into Biglaw in 1976, it’s startling to me to see how far we still have to go. It is really the last great frontier in the bastion of law world male dominance. Firms cannot give much more than lip service to diversity programs; doing otherwise would require then to change their ‘eat what you kill’ culture, something I do not expect to happen. The change will come about through a combination of continued pressure from outside clients to increase the number of women lawyers, and inroads made at those clients by women business executives. So unfortunately, we still have a long way to go.”

Until there are more women general counsels and more women in C-suites and on corporate boards who believe that women lawyers are just as good as men, then we’re still pushing that rock up the mountain, just like Sisyphus.

Another comment:

“I have been fortunate to date but I see and feel the trends, too. I am beginning to see the “old girls network” helping somewhat, but we still have centuries of catching up to do on that front, too.”

Here’s one from an old lady lawyer in waiting:

“I am waiting for February bar results but experienced feeling like all of those adjectives — invisible, unattractive, undesirable, and unemployable in law school. I was only cold-called in class by one professor and in general felt completely inconsequential in class although I was engaged and motivated to succeed.”

She goes on:

“I don’t think that the professors thought I belonged in law school. Perhaps they felt like I was wasting their time and that they should devote themselves to a person with a longer career horizon. The first semester one professor, who was retiring soon, told me that I could make better use of my money buying a house in Florida than spending it on tuition.”

Ageism and sexism in one swell foop (not typos). 

And last, but certainly not least, this comment from an old lady lawyer about “diversity” in law:

“I worked for over twenty years as a regulatory/enforcement attorney. I was pushed out with fabricated and exaggerated written performance reviews when I didn’t take a buy-out and I haven’t been able to get another job in the industry for over a year and a half. There were a number of open positions that were perfect for my experience and legal skill but nothing ever happened with any of them. A prominent headhunter and friends in the industry told me off the record that companies in my industry were not hiring, especially women of a certain age and even younger.”

So, even younger women lawyers, beware.

This old lady lawyer is now looking for work in the non-profit sector now, but, as she notes “It has been difficult to convince people that I can transfer my skill set to another area.” It’s typecasting in another form.

She, like so many other old lady lawyers, “has a vast amount of experience and enhanced legal skills and I want to work to earn a much needed paycheck, but so far, there have been no takers.” She, like many others who wrote, doesn’t see the situation changing any time soon. Depressing, but true. That’s why many women lawyers of a certain age are striking out on their own or in partnership with other women similarly situated. Many millennial women lawyers are doing exactly that.

Isn’t it ironic? 

Older male lawyers are distinguished; older women lawyers are extinguished.

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Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for 40 years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at [email protected].