WOMEN

In today’s San Francisco Chronicle, I came across an article that noted under the Federal Equal Pay Act an employer cannot base a salary based upon past salaries, which might have been discriminatory, but the Supreme Court sent the case back, because the writer of the opinion had died before the opinion was published. The article got me thinking about women lawyers and their position as lawyers, particularly local lawyers.

When I attended UCLA, I was required to take certain humanities courses, and one I chose was American Literature believing it would be a snap course. Not so. The course covered authors from the beginning of the colonial period, -and they were really dull- to the present. The tests were very difficult, and I was competing with brainy English majors. Solution was get some of the top students to basically help me get through the class and avoid failure. I did, and those that aided me were of the female sex. First real exposure to women competing with or against men. Never really thought about the problem those female scholars faced in the 1940s and 50s, as it was a man’s world at that time. My law school class consisted of about 150 first year students; only two women out of that number were admitted. I don’t know if there was a quota, or just few applicants. And, like UCLA, I really didn’t pay attention to the disparity, and believed there was not much of a market for women lawyers, believing that was the way it was. Then, when I first became a prosecutor in the LA DA’s Office in 1956, out of the 60 DAs, only one, Florence Lynn, who actually was my first supervisor in the preliminary hearing department. A great boss, but no way was she ever going to be assigned to a courtroom and engage in trials. Just wasn’t done, and probably the only reason she was ever hired, was because her father was a retired former Deputy DA who had status and clout. The trial courts were basically bereft of women, except Gladys Toles Root, who was a famous criminal defense attorney, mostly representing hookers and sex crimes, (look her up on Google, fascinating story, and she was good, and called attention to herself by strict apparel from hat, dress to shoes.)

Today, women  in law school are at least 50%, DA’s offices are now composed of equal men and women, with several counties employing a woman as as the elected District Attorney.

Quite a change, wouldn’t you say? In the beginning the female DAs dressed in severe suits, some kind of a tie and attempted to imitate their male counterparts, but, they got smart and used their femininity and started killing me in court like I have stated earlier.The men were fascinated and the women could identify.  Makes sense. If I were 7 foot tall and could shoot baskets, I would use my physical advantage to become a highly-paid basketball player. Why not use what gives you the advantage in court? When I was in private practice, I could not help but note that the insurance carriers always hired very good looking attorneys to represent their insured in personal injury cases.

I really never thought about male/female lawyers and I, in my private practice, tried to hire attorneys who I thought were as good or better than I.

The first was Sharon Thompson,. a very bright member of the Orange County Public Defenders Office. Can’t recall Sharon’s tenure with me, but it was several years before she moved on to be a law clerk for the District Court of Appeals 3rd Division where she remained for many years, and her husband was Superior Court Judge Chris Strople. Chris was an outstanding public defender in Orange County and an excellent judge with only one fault: impatience with incompetent attorneys. They retired, moved to Arizona and, last I heard,were living on a golf course, golf being their passion. Also, after Sharon, I was looking for another attorney and Lynn Patterson answered my ad. After an interview, where I learned she attended Smith College, one of the seven sister colleges and one my wife wanted to attend. She was accepted, but her parents insisted on Stanford, probably for the wrong reason- so they could brag to their friends about Maxine, my wife,  going to Stanford. Back to Lynn. Lynn was an astrophysicist once, and that is why I hired her, even though she was very green. I figured she would catch up quickly, and I was right. We remain friends to this day, even though I moved to San Francisco. The last time I saw Lynn is when I received an award a couple of years ago from an organization known as California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ) where she made a point to fly up to San Francisco. I was very touched by that act.

Jennifer Keller is now known as one of the great female attorneys. Jen started out in the Orange County Public Defender’s Office, rising up to be one of their star trial lawyers. From there, she tied up with two of her fellow top trial lawyers. They practiced together for several years. Jack Early went on to become  a top flight defense attorney often lecturing on trial tactics at CACJ conventions, Jim Egar became the Public Defender of Santa Barbara County, and then the Public Defender of Yolo County, ending up as the Public Defender of Monterrey County, and, last I heard, is now back in Orange County. I count Jim as one of my close friends, a very smart and dedicated defense attorney. Jen today did well on a couple of civil cases, The Barbie Doll case where she got a multi-million award; she made a fortune, and is rolling in dough. I list Jen as one of my friends (even though she destroyed me in golf matches; she is very good!)

What’s my point? It is wake up! Women in law are here to stay, they are damned good, and I am glad that is so.

Marshall