Law Commons^™

Lawyers For White People?, Jessie Allen

Articles

This article investigates an anomalous legal ethics rule, and in the process exposes how current equal protection doctrine distorts civil rights regulation. When in 2016 the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct finally adopted its first ever rule forbidding discrimination in the practice of law, the rule carried a strange exemption: it does not apply to lawyers’ acceptance or rejection of clients. The exemption for client selection seems wrong. It contradicts the common understanding that in the U.S. today businesses may not refuse service on discriminatory grounds. It sends a message that lawyers enjoy a professional prerogative to discriminate against …

More Of The Same: Elitism And Exclusion At The Aals Annual Meeting, David E. Steinberg

Maine Law Review

At the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) meetings and in materials published by the Association, probably no one word appears more frequently than “diversity.” For example, the theme of the 2000 AALS Annual Meeting was A Recommitment to Diversity. In a 1986 essay titled Collegial Diversity, AALS President Susan Westerberg Prager wrote: “The different perspectives of our colleagues can illuminate other areas of research to give us new classroom direction.” And, in a 1996 statement on diversity adopted by the AALS Executive Committee, the committee stated that an objective of diversity was “to create an educational community—and ultimately a …

Theorizing Billable Hours, Theresa M. Beiner

Faculty Scholarship

This article looks at the ethical and diversity implications of high billable hour requirements. While corporate counsel have increasingly demanded a diverse legal workforce and emphasized the need to lower the costs of outside counsel, law firms have not responded to these concerns in a manner that is producing results. Instead, women continue to drop out of law firm practice at higher rates than their male counterparts and the costs of legal services remain high. High billable hour requirements exacerbate both these problems and have implications as well for ethical lawyering. Using data from a variety of disciplines, the article …

The Glass Ceiling In Law Firms: A Form Of Sex-Based Discrimination, Rebecca Korzec

All Faculty Scholarship

At a certain level, women lawyers collide with a "glass ceiling," an invisible, artificial barrier which prevents women from being promoted to management and leadership positions within a business or firm. The glass ceiling 'represents a subtle form of sex discrimination - unwritten, generally unspoken, but very pervasive.' Its presence is reflected in trends and statistics which consistently reveal women's underrepresentation in executive and management positions.

This article focuses on whether the glass ceiling formed as a result of sex discrimination, blatant or subtle, or whether it formed as a result of women lawyers' differing qualifications or career choices. It …

Great Expectations: Women In The Legal Profession: A Commentary On State Studies, Ann J. Gellis

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Gender Stereotypes And Discriminatory Behaviors Toward Female Attorneys: The North Carolina Case, Michael L. Vasu, Ellen Storey Vasu

Campbell Law Review

This article presents the results generated from the North Carolina Survey of Attorneys. The focus of this article is on attorneys' perceptions of professional activity levels, career choices, and gender stereotypes, as well as observations of discriminatory behavior toward female attorneys in court or chambers as perceived and reported by the lawyers in our sample.

Applying Restitution To Remedy A Discriminatory Denial Of Partnership, Candace Kovacic-Fleischer

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

This article suggests that a plaintiff can bring a state cause of action in restitution, liability in unjust enrichment, as an alternative to a federal cause of action in Title VII if the plaintiff was discriminatorily denied partnership by a firm that paid her a salary, but billed her time by the hour to clients. If the firm earned more than it paid in salary and overhead to the plaintiff, that amount would be defendant’s gain, one of the elements of an action in restitution, and the amount to be disgorged should plaintiff prove the other two elements, that the …

Self Defense For Women Lawyers: Enforcement Of Employment Rights, Giovanna M. Longo

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

Employment and a concomitant opportunity to compete on the basis of individual merit for the rewards of achievement, whether they be money, power, prestige, personal satisfaction in a job well done, or the fulfillment of broad social aims, contribute to the assertion of legitimate human needs for independence and self-respect, and contribute to the expression and realization of individual potential. Women professionals and professional employers need to understand the applicable law regarding the proof of sex discrimination, what exceptions there are to prohibited sex discrimination, the procedures for enforcing that law and the benefits or detriments to be expected from …