The Miami-Dade Chapter of Florida Association for Women Lawyers (MDFAWL, for short) recently hosted a lunch panel at Greenberg Traurig titled, "Supporting Women in the Courtroom." Panelists were Florida Bar president-elect Roland Sanchez-Medina, attorney Rachel Furst, and Judge Rudy Ruiz. Much of the conversation centered on giving women attorneys more opportunities at federal hearings and trials. Judge Ruiz mentioned a rule implemented years ago by now deceased federal judge Jack Weinstein that encouraged more courtroom opportunities for women. He's followed suit by encouraging litigants appearing before him to give argument opportunities to women and diverse lawyers. This Times article on Weinstein and his rule is relatively old but still a good read.
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9 comments:
With firms and judges pushing so hard for every opportunity in and out of court to be distributed to women and diverse lawyers, preferably diverse women lawyers, I wonder how young white straight male associates, who now apparently a disfavored class, feel.
Perhaps it is fair payback for hundreds of years of privilege and abuse by their forefathers.
Young white straight male associates are doing just fine. We call them partners. Not so much women.
You need only look at the panel here to see the truth. Two men; one woman.
Ah…but therein lies the catch.
Those two men are not straight white men, they represent diversity because they are from the Hispanic minority.
Thus, the panel was perfectly representative of the noble aim of promoting diversity.
And no, young associates are not partners. This is now. That was then.
When you make a decision based on someone's race or sex, that's racial discrimination or sex based discrimination. The fact that society likes this new kind of discrimination and doesn't like the old kind doesn't make it any less discriminatory.
Want to know how you can prove the diversity industry is a fraud? The least diverse institutions in our society are NCAA basketball and football, the NFL and NBA. When they start trying to "look like America" I will start taking the DEI elite for something other than the grift that it is.
I have been practicing in federal court for 29 years and I am still usually the only woman attorney with a speaking role in the room (unless the Judge is a woman) while I am surrounded by scores of male attorneys. Judges could do a better job of appointing diverse class counsel and receivers but until in-house counsel insist on giving work to women, and partners do a better job of staffing cases with diverse teams, I don't think this will change-hasn't so far. At least they have stopped asking if I am the court reporter.
1:09. Dude, there are metrics that prove why those leagues look the way they do. Want to play basketball…make baskets better than others. Want to go to the Olympics…run faster than other people.
The metrics are not easy (impossible) to measure on a trial team or in court.
Diversity does have a place in the legal field, diverse teams are better teams.
Best District Judge in last 100 years - or at least 1A to Judge Frank Johnson- who desegregated the South- Judge Jack Weinstein. Rarely wore his robe in court. sat at a table in front of the bench equal to the lawyers and litigants and sentenced most defendants that way- talking to them plainly and simply eye to eye as to why he was doing what he was doing. An amazing man.
Florida is pitifully behind the times... and many like it that way! Unfortunately female judges would rather belittle women than uplift them... lots of crabs in pots here.
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