Overlooked, Underestimated, And Interrupted No More

// Whenever we appear in court, we address the judge as  “Your Honor,” regardless of whatever gender preference the judge has in personal life. Why “Your Honor?” Here’s one explanation: “At court proceedings and other formal legal settings, judges are often addressed as ‘Your Honor’ as a display of respect for their power and position. This term is intended to acknowledge the judge’s duty as an impartial arbitrator of the law while also maintaining courtroom decorum. The habit of addressing the judge as ‘Your Honor’ dates back to old feudal times, when it was a formal address for anybody with a title.”

In a new book, fittingly called “Her Honor: Stories of Challenge and Triumph from Women Judges,” edited by Lauren Stiller Rikleen, the subtitle perfectly describes what the book is about.   The stories are about women lawyers who couldn’t get any respect (calling Rodney Dangerfield) and even once on the bench, were still underestimated. One lawyer went so far as to tell the judge that he would introduce evidence his way; the judge reminded him that he would do it her way (Esther Moellering Tomijanovich, retired Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court).

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These are stories of 25 women lawyers who overcame all sorts of challenges and adversities to become judicial leaders at both state and federal levels across the country. Their words are personal and powerful and tell stories of sexism, racism, and other kinds of discrimination that they refused to allow to impede their successes, hard-fought and deserved.

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One judge noted that discrimination is subtler today but still present. Implicit bias shows how much subtler biases can be today. Few of these women jurists came from  privilege; many came from poverty. None of these women had anything given to them. Everything that each woman achieved represented personal success in a world that was loathe (and often still is) to recognize them. Not every one of these women had a law school pedigree. Some went to night law school (even today still considered a second-class education), and worked during the day to support themselves. Nothing came easily to any of these women, but they persisted and achieved and prevailed.

A few examples:

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At Harvard Law in the 1970s, when women had only recently been admitted, “that did not … stop the practice of one professor who continued to pick a woman from each new class (including ours) to become his live-in partner.” — Fernande R. V. Duffly, retired Justice of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.

The late Minnesota Supreme Court Associate justice Rosalie Erwin Wahl was “tired of sitting outside doors waiting for the men to make the decisions.”

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A superior court presiding judge assigned several colleagues to work in a temporary facility in an old hotel, resulting in a physical assault by an outraged male colleague. “No one was around and he grabbed my throat and started squeezing it, leaving a circle of bruises. I saved his twenty-page letter of apology in case he tried to move up the judiciary, but he never did. To this day, the memory of the assault is painful for many reasons, but above all because I didn’t do anything about it. I never complained to the state disciplinary officials, I didn’t discipline him myself, and to my surprise, I didn’t knee him in the groin.” I deeply regret my inaction.” — Administrative Presiding Justice Judith McConnell, California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division One.

One appellate judge was 6 years old when Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954. When she was appointed to the Florida Second District Appellate Court, some thought that she “did not belong on the court and let me know it.  In a room full of lawyers and judges, when I was with my judge colleagues, I was sometimes asked if I worked for one of the white male judges, assumptions made and expressed.” She learned from an early age that “Black people, at least Black people of African descent, were treated differently from white people.” — Peggy Quince, retired Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.

Racism was ever present. One judge, who has taken senior status on the Sixth Circuit, recalled working in white people’s homes while in high school. When she graduated, she had received several scholarships for academic achievement, but her guidance counselor never told her about the offers. When she applied for a position in a corporate legal department, having worked in the company for eight years as a nonlawyer, the hiring director said that the legal department only hired lawyers from Ivy League schools. “You on the other hand went to a law school that was not very good […] and you were a night student. I’m sorry, but you just don’t fit the company’s mold.” — Bernice Bouie Donald, judge on the U.S.Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

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Judge Donald knew that there were people who were raised poor, who graduated from “not very good law schools,” and “most importantly people who used all of the characteristics that made them who they are to shine a light on the profound contributions that people have made to this  country from the shadows of mainstream and ivy leagues.” Even more reason for the so-called elite to ditch their law school biases.

Read this book if you are a dinosaur woman lawyer, or at any point in your legal career, or thinking about a judgeship or are already on the bench, or if you are a  newbie lawyer, in law school, or just dreaming about going to law school.

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There are so many truths in this book, so many candid thoughts and experiences shared, so much encouragement provided. Read this book especially if you have no support group, no one to talk with, no one to help you get to where you want to go in your legal career. Each of these women is here to help you achieve your dreams as they pass the torch to the next generation of “Her Honor.”

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

Topics

Courts, Federal Judges, Jill Switzer, State Judges