Promoting the Engagement and Promotion of Women Attorneys
| Jurisdiction | Georgia,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 22 No. 2 Pg. 0044 |
| Pages | 0044 |
| Publication year | 2016 |
Promoting the Engagement and Promotion of Women Attorneys
With the creation of the State Bar's special committee on the Involvement of Women and Minorities in the Profession Committee, now known as the Committee to Promote Inclusion in the Profession, the late 1980s brought about a focus on advances for women in the legal profession.
BY AVARITA L HANSON
The excellent program spearheaded by the YLD's Morgan Clemons to commemorate the 100th anniversary of women entering the State Bar of Georgia and accompanying exhibits at the Bar Center have provided a very thoughtful snapshot of the history of women lawyers in Georgia. For me, this celebration brought memories of Bar initiatives to engage women and uplift our status as Georgia lawyers.
You've heard the expression, "where you stand, depends on where you sit." I am now one of the more senior female lawyers in Georgia. I became a member of the State Bar of Georgia in 1983, having previously been admitted as a Texas lawyer in 1979. When I completed the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1978, women were reportedly more than 9 percent of the legal profession, about 25 percent of all law students, and "making gains in all areas of legal work."[1]
My first stop after law school was a four-year stint with the Houston-based Fulbright & Jaworski law firm. While my law school class was 40 percent female and my class of lawyers at the firm had a lot of females, there were then no female partners. That was the case in most large law firms in the late 1970s. As for Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1984 ruled that a woman law firm associate who was denied an invitation to the partnership had a cognizable claim for sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[2]For many women, particularly those of color, there was not just a "glass ceiling" to the upper echelons of law practice, there was a perceived "brick wall."
Significant advances for women in the legal profession were to come in the late 1980s. In his State Bar of Georgia Annual Report of June 16, 1989, outgoing president A. James Elliott noted two important matters of professionalism concern. The first was the founding of the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism and the second was support for women and minorities. Elliott said that during his 1988-89 Bar year: "A strong effort was made to reverse the perception...
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