Hearsay

• Pages: 15-15

PHOTOS BY CHRISTIN MCQUEEN FOR THE HARRIS COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY; SHUTTERSTOCK

technolog y. That immer-

sion in technology posi-

tioned me well for the

technolog y explosion that

came with the micropro -

cessor and all that fol-

lowed. My practice now is

involved heavily in technol-

ogy and related intel lectual

property rights.

It was not until well aft er

my own practice bega n to

fl ourish that I re alized how

astoundingly lucky I wa s.

The unemployment rate

for blind people generally

is about 70 percent. Many

blind and physic ally hand-

icapped people who are

pumped through law school

struggle to fi nd any kind of

law-related job. What a ter-

rible tragedy—not just for

the lawyers with d isabili-

ties but also for the organi-

zations that miss out on the

creativity, inventiveness ,

and out-of-the b ox think-

ing that almost inev itably

comes with people with

disabilities.

When an individual

has to devise a lter-

native solutions to

accomplish even

the most munda ne tasks,

that person is, of necessit y,

adept at fi nding alt ernative

solutions—solutions tha t

often escape others. T hat

is the message the disabled

community needs to broa d-

cast, and seei ng that it hap-

pens is the main rea son I

am so involved in issues of

diversity and inclusiveness,

even though they do not

directly relate t o my legal

practic e.

Ed Marquette is a partner

at Kutak Rock. A diver-

sity and inlusion advocate,

Marquette serves as the chair

of the Diversity Action Group

for the Intellectual Property

Law Section of the ABA and

as the section’s liaison to the

Commission on Disability

Rights.

Opening Statements

JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2019 ABA JOURNAL || 15

... is the historic number of African-American women elected

to judicial seats in Harr is County, Texas. (Seventeen of the 19

women in this photo won their race s.) The women won their judge-

ships after a campaig n the county Democratic Par ty called “Blac k

Girl Magic” that promoted e qual opportunity fo r justice. Ranging

in age from 31 to early 60s, t he judges-elect wil l serve four-year

terms on the civil, crimi nal, family and probate cour ts in Texas’

largest county, which inclu des Houston. Also par t of the group is

the county’s fi rst openly LGBT African-American judge.

Source: New York Times

Hearsay

Many in the U.S . Supreme Court bar are l ess than thrilled with n ew

proposed word count limit s for briefs before the cour t. The most

drastic cuts would chop merits briefs from 15,000 words to 13,000

words. Reply briefs woul d be slashed from 6,00 0 to 4,500 words .

Federal appeals cou rts made similar cha nges in 2016, and Ch ief

Justice John G. Rober ts Jr. had been decrying h igh word counts

for awhile. The propose d revisions express the cour t’s frustration

with too-lengthy briefs this way: “Experience has shown that

litigants in this court are able to present their arguments effec-

tively, and without undue repetition, with word limits slightly

reduced.”

Source: National Law Journal

Keep It Short,

Counselor!

Survey Says ...

A new ALM Intelligence rep ort shows

a steady increase in the n umber of LGBT

attorneys at Am Law 20 0 fi r ms over the

past four years that data was collected.

The fi rm reporting the h ighest percentage

of LGBT attorneys in the survey was N ew

York City-based Patterson Belknap Webb

& Tyler. Latham & Watkins had the

largest LGBT community overal l

with more than 1, 600 lawyers in

the U.S. last ye ar, 68 of whom

identifi ed as LGBT, includ-

ing 12 of its approxi-

mately 680 partners.

Source:

Law.com

6.7%

... is the year-over- year pay increase for GCs at

some of the nation’s largest publicly traded compa-

nies, according to Eq uilar’s General Counsel Pay

Trends study. According to the sur vey, the increase

between 2016 -2017 was substantial compare d

to the previous year, when GCs repor ted a 4 per-

cent pay raise. Equila r says GCs are being paid

more because they’re often as ked to take on more

C-Suite responsiblities, and wearing more hats has

meant more money. The jum p wasn’t wholesale : Pay

increases, of cours e, varied by size of company a nd

industr y.

Source: Corporate Counsel