Honor And Thank Your Lawyer Role Models Before They’re Gone

As I’m writing this, it’s a little before 10 p.m. on the West Coast and polls here have been closed for almost two hours. It’s already tomorrow east of the Mississippi. I’m not going to comment on the midterms except to say that I trust everyone voted. And please don’t give me any excuse, lame or otherwise, that you were too busy with a loan closing, it was the final day to file a dispositive motion, there was a pitch meeting with a prospective client, you needed to finalize last month’s billing, whatever. I don’t buy what you’re selling and neither will anyone else, nor should they. If you didn’t vote, then you have no voice.

It’s no fun getting old, and I see dinosaur heads nodding in agreement. While I don’t believe in capital punishment, whoever said that these are the ‘golden years” should be summarily executed. Getting old is not for sissies, and as I read about the illnesses and deaths of those I have admired in the legal community, I realize how many times we don’t appreciate the contributions made to our profession by those who no longer can participate. Thanks that come too late aren’t really thanks, but apologies for not expressing gratitude previously.

Everyone should know that retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has announced that she has dementia and is retiring from public life.

For those of us female dinosaur lawyers, we remember how excited we were when President Ronald Reagan nominated her as the first woman justice to the United States Supreme Court back in 1981. Her nomination wasn’t all that long ago. How thrilling it was for a newbie lawyer like me to see that a woman’s place was anywhere she wanted it to be, including on the highest court in the land.

Justice O’Connor was not the cookie-cutter conservative justice that everyone expected her to be. Her life as a woman lawyer experiencing discrimination in her chosen profession informed her decision making. (She graduated at the top of her class at Stanford Law and was only offered a legal secretary position and not a lawyer job. Although that incident was about 60 years ago, in the grand scheme of things, it could have been yesterday and I would imagine that such incidents still happen, although cloaked in much more subtle ways.) Her memoir about growing up in the Southwest on a cattle ranch informed her judicial philosophy.

Even after retiring from the court to take care of her ailing husband, who ironically preceded her diagnosis of dementia with his own diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, she took as her cause civics education and the need for an informed citizenry especially in these times.  Any millennial ever take a civics course? That course was required for us dinosaurs in high school. Hopefully, someone equally distinguished and thoughtful as Justice O’Connor will take up her cause, as we need it now more than ever.

As she closed her farewell letter, she hoped that she has helped “pave the pathway for women who may have faced obstacles pursuing their careers.” We women lawyers have all faced obstacles of one sort or another pursuing our careers, and her presence on the Supreme Court gave us all hope that we could rise above those obstacles and pursue our careers in whatever ways, shapes, and forms we thought best. Thank you, Justice O’Connor.

A holiday celebrated both north and south of our border (and I’m not talking about the Sierra Nevada) is the annual Day of the Dead on November 2. This Mexican holiday honors the lives of the deceased with a variety of activities and events.

Given that the border is only 130 miles from Los Angeles, I celebrate the Day of the Dead with friends. Who to celebrate? The late judge of the Ninth Circuit, Stephen Reinhardt, who died earlier this year in April. I can already hear derisive snorts. Whatever your personal feelings about him, what everyone should acknowledge about him was that he was a man of principle. He stuck to his guns throughout his judicial career, and I think that in these days of wishy-washy, flip-flopping, sticking your finger in the air to see which way the wind blows behaviors, that is something to be admired and not disparaged. We have too few among us who think that people are their principles.

His wife, Ramona Ripston, longtime executive director of the ACLU of Southern California (and I hear more derisive snorts), just died. Again, whether you agreed with her or thought she was the devil incarnate, she fought for what she believed.

Another life of a lawyer to celebrate — but his name is probably unknown to all except those in the mental health advocacy community and perhaps those in the larger Los Angeles legal community — is Jim Preis.  He died recently after running the private nonprofit Mental Health Advocacy Services here in Los Angeles for approximately 40 years.  Jim was a warrior advocate for those with mental disabilities and his unceasing efforts on their behalf leave huge shoes to fill, especially because Jim almost always wore flip-flops.

Jim said that everyone should be fighting for people who need advocates. That’s our job as lawyers to fight for people who need advocates, not just fight for people who can afford them.

So, whether you agree or disagree with the opinions of Justice O’Connor and Judge Reinhardt, whether you agree or disagree with the idea that people with mental disabilities should have the right to vigorous advocacy as Jim Preis believed, these three should be honored, thanked, and celebrated for their commitment to the rule of law and to equal justice under law. Many, many lawyers pay lip service to these principles. They didn’t.

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Jill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for more than 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].