I was on Ms. JD this morning, a fabulous website, and found Adrienne Suarez’s “Code of Ethics for Female Attorneys” inspiring. Please find below Adrienne’s Top Ten List!
1. I pledge to respect the female attorneys who came before me, because their paths were steeper, rougher, and unfamiliar. I pledge to respect the female attorneys who come after me, even though their paths may be gentler, smoother, and well worn. We are all traveling down the same path.
2. I pledge to continue to make the way even smoother for future female attorneys. While women make up 51% of the United States population, we constitute 47% of law students, 32% of lawyers in the legal profession, 18% of partners in private firms and general counsel for Fortune 500 companies, and this figure has remained static since the mid-1990s. (Statistics drawn from reports published at http://www.abanet.org/women/). Clearly, we still have work to do.
3. As a woman, I will not judge other female attorneys who have come before me or who will come after me for (1) getting married; (2) not getting married; (3) having children; (4) not having children; (5) or making any other major life decisions because of, or in spite of, balancing a legal career.
4. Given the choice of being a mentor or a tormentor to a younger, less experienced female attorney, I actively choose to be a mentor. When a younger, less experienced female attorney comes to me with a question or for advice, I will not revel in how much more I know than she; I will share that knowledge and experience.
5. There are no “dues” that a younger, less experienced female attorney needs to pay to me. I will not waste my time minding tollbooths when I have a ways down the path yet to go myself.
6. In the game of law, I will help younger, less experienced female attorneys as though we were playing leapfrog, not red rover.
7. I recognize that even though we may be of the same sex, I will not like every female attorney I meet. I pledge, however, not to call her a “bitch,” or any other name powerful because of its misogynist origins.
8. If my voice is louder or carries more weight, then I will speak up for my fellow female attorneys’ needs, like a flexible schedule, even if those are not my personal needs at the moment.
9. I pledge to reach out, through pro bono service, to the women in my community who need a lawyer’s help, who admire that that lawyer is another woman, and who appreciate how that woman may understand their problems and resolve them justly.
10. I pledge to be me. There is a younger female attorney out there who sees herself in me. I pledge to succeed for her.
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Another great law related top ten lists. Feel free to cross-post your list to my site toptentopten.com and link back to your site.