The article highlights pervasive gender bias in the legal profession, particularly through personal anecdotes. Women attorneys often face situational assumptions regarding their roles; male colleagues and clients frequently overlook or mistake them for non-attorney staff. The author describes experiences in courtrooms and client communications where their professional identity is undermined by societal stereotypes concerning gender. This highlights the ongoing need for awareness and change within legal settings to counteract these biases, ensuring women attorneys are recognized for their roles as legal professionals.
I have walked into a courtroom in a suit and checked in for a case and overheard the judge say to the other side, 'counsel for so and so is here,' and had the other (male) attorney look around the room, right past me, and go, 'Where is he?'.
I also do initial screener calls for intake clients (legal aid). They get an email telling them the attorney will be contacting them at such and such time. Several times a week, however, I call an intake client, and they answer, disappointed and go, 'Wait, they told me I was going to meet with a lawyer,' thinking I am a paralegal or secretary. I'm always like, 'Yup. You are. And here I am, calling you at the very time of your lawyer appointment.'
My male paralegal is regularly assumed to be the attorney when he contacts people on my cases, even when they know my female-identifiable name. Have also had multiple male attorneys back when we hand-wrote orders pre-COVID tell me some variation of, 'You can do the order, honey, girls have nicer handwriting.'
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