ABA Journal

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As women lawyers gain influence, they must retain the law's foundational values

There are more female managing partners and women at leadership levels in law firms today than ever before, and many of the young women lawyers climbing the ladder of success behind them show promise for leading law firms of the future. Although progress in the retention and advancement of women lawyers has been slower than expected and gender parity in the practice has not been achieved, there is a lot to applaud.


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Public interest attorney takes cue from Man of Steel, aspires to be super-lawyer

“Man is a rope, stretched between the beast and the Superman, a rope over an abyss.” —Friedrich Nietzsche Thus Spoke Zarathustra As a public interest lawyer, I feel this tension every day. From the stoic sense of focusing on what is possible to the idealistic urge to remake the system,…


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What can be done to ensure that federal sentencing remains transparent?

In my previous post, I detailed the growing pressure on federal judges to disguise the sentencing process so that cooperation is invisible. Now I address the obvious but difficult-to-answer question: What’s to be done?


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Can federal sentencing remain transparent?

Criminal trials have virtually disappeared in many federal courtrooms. According to a U.S. Sentencing Commission report released last month, “In recent years, 97 percent of federal defendants convicted of a felony or Class A misdemeanor offense are adjudicated guilty based on a guilty plea rather than on a verdict at…


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A life of legal firsts—including romance and marriage

I graduated from Columbia Law School in 1945, 20 years before the Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate in employment on the basis of sex. Although some eastern law schools—Yale and Columbia, but heavens, not Harvard—already admitted women, female graduates couldn’t expect to be recommended as law clerks to sitting judges, no matter how well their records stacked up against their male classmates.


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From cliches to banalities and bizarre word usages, here's why I'm still cranky about language

Editor’s note: In his previous essay, Mark Alcott bemoaned numerous cringeworthy linguistic errors that appear in common parlance, even among the purportedly literate classes. In this piece, he expresses his displeasure at various cliches, banalities and bizarre usages that mar contemporary discourse. Now that I’ve established my linguistic bona fides—and…


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From run-on sentences to split infinitives, here's why I'm cranky about language

OK, it’s true. When it comes to language, I’m a bit cranky. All right, all right. I admit it. I’m more than a crank. I’m an absolute curmudgeon. ’enry ’iggins had nothing on me. I have enough pet peeves to fill a kennel. And I never hesitate to point them…


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A call to deal with impostor syndrome, a hidden source of attorney distress

It’s my third time reading Joanna Litt’s brave piece in the American Lawyer about the death by suicide of her beloved husband and accomplished lawyer Gabe MacConaill, and I’m still stumbling through it in tears. As she describes the pressures Gabe experienced as an attorney, I lose my breath because…


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The confessions of a legal technophobe

I wish to share my thoughts about a significant problem stressing many of our more senior colleagues in practice these days. Though there are several, I am talking about what I found to be a high stressor, namely the demon of rapidly changing technology. In 1974, I was called to…


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Are alimony rules antiquated in an era of greater equality?

I have spent more than 20 years mediating divorce settlements, and I have represented both men and women. While we have seen women gain greater access to financial stability over the years, I can’t help but wonder whether the way we approach alimony is still somewhat antiquated.


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