Justice Sandra Day O'Connor Rumors circulated last year that Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was planning to resign. With the diagnosis of Chief Justice William Rehnquist's thyroid cancer, the buzz flew around his possible resignation (still a possibility, I'm sure). But it surprised me to find tears in my eyes when I heard of Justice O'Connor's announcement this morning. Not because I always or even often agreed with her opinions and reasoning, and not because she is more of a loss than Rehnquist (though she is, in my view). Rather, for all women who have practiced law in this country in the last 50 years, Sandra Day O'Connor is an icon of success and grace.

My favorite Sandra Day O'Connor story goes something like this: When she graduated third in her class from from Stanford Law School, she applied to venerable law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for an associate position. Instead, she was offered a secretarial position (after all, she was just a woman). Yet when Gibson Dunn celebrated its 100th anniversary and invited her to be its keynote speaker, she agreed. She did not ignore the earlier incident, but with humor and intelligence used it as a pivot to illustrate the advances of women in the law.

Thinking about this story (and being a less generous-natured woman than Justice O'Connor) led me ponder how far we really have come. This article reinforced what I really already knew: http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/articles/mgt05041.html. Although approximately fifty percent of law school graduates are women, the are significantly underrepresented as partners in the large law firms (16.8% in 2004, up from 12.7% in 1993). The New York City Bar Association published a diversity benchmarking study in 2004, showing the percentage of women partners at 15.6% and minorities at a dismal 4.7%.

See http://www.abcny.org/pdf/report/Public_benchmarking_report.pdf

The study concluded with respect to diversity that time alone would not correct the imbalance (polite term for injustice) in the system and stated:

There is considerable diversity across race and gender in associate ranks, while the face of the partnership at signatory law firms remains predominantly white and male. Over one in five associates are racial-ethnic minorities and two in five are women. In contrast, the vast majority of special counsels and partners are both white and male. Only 4.7 percent of New York area law partners are considered racial/ethnic minorities. Women fare somewhat better than minorities comprising 15.6 percent of the partnership at signatory firms.

. . .

Often the paucity of women in the pre-partner pool due to turnover is cited as the reason why few women are partner. However, one-third of remaining class of 1996 is women. Looking at the data another way, 58 women were promoted to partner in 2004 compared to 182 women in the class of 1996 (31.8%). Meanwhile, 226 men were promoted to partner compared to 368 men in the class of 1996 (61.4%). This data suggests that attrition is not the only barrier to women’s advancement in firms.

When I was in college and law school many moons ago, I certainly would have predicted that this situation would be corrected by the millenium. But then when I was in college, I predicted that marijuana would be legal by the millenium. Hope springs eternal.  ¶ 8:12 AM