Some might say that the stereotypical female leader is like Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz,” who performs all of the leadership tasks, but at the end of the day asks for no credit or recognition. Patricia Gillette, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, says this lack of self-promotion among women definitely plays out in law firms, contributing to the lack of women in leadership roles. Gillette points out several steps that firms — and female lawyers — can take to assist women up the law firm ladder.
Posts on ‘July 9th, 2009’
Calif. Bill Would OK Out-of-State Gay Marriages
The California Legislature is getting back into the Proposition 8 fight with a bill that would recognize possibly thousands of same-sex marriages performed outside of California before the measure was passed. The bill was introduced by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who says he is trying to put into state statutes the language of the California Supreme Court’s May ruling that said Prop 8 isn’t retroactive and that the only exception to equal protection for same-sex couples is the use of the word “marriage.”
For Former AG Gonzales: Next Month a Professorship — After That, Who Knows?
Former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who becomes a visiting professor at Texas Tech University on Aug. 1, says he is “open” to the idea of “going back to a big-firm job” at some point but is concerned he would lose flexibility if he took a partner-level job. Gonzales was a transactional lawyer at Vinson & Elkins when then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush hired him to be GC for the governor’s office. Gonzales says a special prosecutor’s investigation into the 2006 dismissals of U.S. Attorneys has hampered his job search.
Removal Too Drastic a Penalty for Wrongdoing of Which They Are Accused, Two Judges Argue
Sloppy financial reporting, family health worries and a litigious campaign staffer combined to create an imbroglio that unfairly threatens to end the judicial careers of two judges, who are brothers, the men are arguing before the New York Court of Appeals. New York Supreme Court Justice Joseph S. Alessandro and Bronx Civil Court Judge Francis M. Alessandro argue that removal, the strictest punishment meted out by the Commission on Judicial Conduct, would be disproportionate to the wrongdoing of which they are accused.
IP Trial Strategy: Buying Tivo’s Bull
As the make-or-break patent trial between Tivo Inc. and EchoStar Corp.
got under way in Marshall, Texas, Tivo’s top brass had an idea: Let’s
buy a cow. Tivo’s lawyer bid on and won the Grand Champion Steer — the
most prized farm animal at the Farm City Week auction. Did buying the
animal help Tivo win? Companies look for every possible advantage when
they head down to the small towns of the Eastern District of Texas, but
not everyone thinks friendly community gestures are the best strategy.