Panel: Women in the Legal Profession

April 28, 7:00 pm, Student Campus Center C
Panelists:

• The Honorable Colleen Duffy, CNR ‘81, City Court Judge, Mt. Vernon
• Virginia Simmons Coyne, Esq., CNR ‘88, Picciano & Scahill
• Eileen Songer McCarthy, Esq., CNR ‘91, Muldoon, Horgan & Loughman, New Rochelle
• Meghan Finter, CNR ‘97, Touro Law School

Please note: There will be no class at 2:00 pm on April 28; instead, attend the panel at 7:00 pm. Critical papers are due at that time.

Women in the Legal Profession Readings

April 28:

• Emily Bernstein. "Law School Women Question Their Teaching." New York Times. 5 June 1996.
• "Letters." New York Times. 12 June 1996.
• Julie Cullinare. "Presumed Equal." The Middlesex News Working Supplement. 20 July 1996: 1, 3.
• Tamar Lewin. "Feminist Scholars Spurring a Rethinking of Law." New York Times. 30 September 1988.

April 30:

• Lucinda Finley. "A Break in the Silence: Including Women's Issues in a Torts Course." Yale Journal of Law and Feminism 1.1 (1989): 41-73.
• Carrie Menkel-Mendow. "Portia in a Different Voice: Speculations on a Women's Lawyering Process." Before the Law. Ed. Bosignore, Katsh, d'Errico, et al. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. 323-330.

Written Assignment (due April 30): Answer all parts of the following question fully; when referring to the readings, cite properly, including page numbers.

What was your overall reaction to the panel? Describe two points made by the panelists that you found most significant and explain how these relate to the readings for this week (or indeed to issues raised earlier in the course). Menkel-Mendow and some of the scholars in Bernstein's story argue that women learn and practice the law differently from men. Did the panelists support this contention? How do you think that the large increase in the number of women in the legal profession will affect the way law is practiced and taught?

Additional Links on Women in the Legal Profession

• "Women in the Law", DataLine (1991)
• American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession
• National Association of Women Lawyers; see their survey results, "Gender Bias Demonstrated by Clients of Female Attorneys: No Real Barrier to Advancement"
• Hastings Women's Law Journal
• Feminist Law Student Website, by Kim Goforth
• "Alumnae Share Legal Experiences", by Elspeth Healey, The Brown Daily Herald, 13 March 1997