Law Practice
Jun. 15, 2002
Female Lawyers Make Mark In Male-Dominated Groups
SANTA ANA - Down south in New Orleans for a deposition in 1989, San Diego trial attorney Virginia Nelson stopped to watch a strange group strolling through the narrow streets of the French Quarter.
In a city known for it's slightly out-of-the-ordinary population, this group of men might have passed by unnoticed - except they all wore bow ties and had a look of complete self-possession, Nelson said.
They turned out to be members of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an exclusive group that Nelson would get to know personally, eight years later, when she became one of its relatively few female members. She is the only female lawyer from San Diego in the organization.
"They couldn't be more classy or welcoming," said Nelson, who estimates that 5 percent to 10 percent of the college's 5,000 members are women. "I know they want to encourage women to be selected. I think the numbers will increase as time goes along."
Certainly, the number of women trial lawyers has increased in the past decade, and organizations including the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Board of Trial Advocates and even the coveted Inner Circle have begun to mirror that change.
Today's issue of Verdicts & Settlements highlights the achievements of a handful of California's best female trial lawyers with our first annual list of the Top 30 Female Trial Lawyers in the state.
The American College of Trial Lawyers is one of the best yardsticks of the progress made by women in court. Established in 1950 and based in Irvine, the college is a professional organization composed of the cream of the trial bar's crop.
Sources say that, while the college's image as a slightly secretive, extremely conservative old-boy's club was accurate once - the makeup of the organization is changing, albeit slowly.
"The discrepancy is glaring, but they know it," said Margaret "Peggy" Holm, a medical malpractice and health care defense attorney in Santa Ana.
Holm was the first woman elected to the college from Orange County. Along with fellow medical defense attorney Carol A. Salmacia, she is one of two women from the area, but she agrees with Nelson that a natural evolution will take place as more women practice law - and practice it longer.
"It's what it is," Holm said. "It's a development of society. This organization and most of the premier organizations across the United States are dominated by males. But the whole idea the college wants to accomplish is for members to meet on an equal footing."
Indeed, the handful of female members from California - 15, by several sources' estimates - is among the best and brightest trial litigators around.
Holm is a former president of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and she was the first woman in Orange County elected to the International Society of Barristers.
The company she keeps at the American College of Trial Lawyers includes Pillsbury Winthrop Chairwoman Mary Cranston, San Francisco attorney and Big Tobacco foe Madelyn Chaber and Brobeck Phleger & Harrison litigation partner Debra E. Pole.
Pole, inducted in 1992, handles complex medical defense cases and is a member of an American College of Trial Lawyers committee that studies court efficiency and the jury system.
She said the people she works with are committed to progress - not to backroom old-boy's club antics.
"As a black woman, I'm about as diverse as you can get," she said. "I don't let race or gender have anything to do with my work product. But I do think we need to make more headway. We've come a long way, but we have a long way to go."
Most of the women in the college share an appreciation for the hard work and experience it takes to become a member. No one can nominate his or herself. A potential fellow must have 15-plus years of experience, a squeaky clean background and someone to nominate and second that nomination.
Glendale environmental law specialist Maureen Bright got in in a roundabout way. Trying cases together since 1993, she and her husband, Jim Bright, appeared in front of a number of judges, including retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Drake.
When Drake learned that the college was considering Jim Bright, he demanded to know why Maureen Bright wasn't on the list, as well.
A year later, Maureen Bright was in.
"I've always been grateful to Judge Drake," Bright said.
Although she would like to see more women inducted, she said the criteria adopted by the college are necessary.
"You start relaxing the standards, and I just shrug my shoulders and say you've cheapened it," Bright said. "I refuse to acknowledge any difference between me and any other guy that walks into a courtroom."
At times, the old guard simply needed a nudge to get with the program. In the beginning, many members thought Pole and Bright's husbands were the members, and that they were the wives along for a nice dinner.
Pole said she and the other members shared a laugh at her induction ceremony, when members asked her husband how long he'd been in practice.
"He said I've been practicing my trade for a long time," Pole said. "But if you want to know about the really smart person in my family, you'll have to talk to my wife who's being inducted tonight."
Jenna Bordelon
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