Lady Lawyers

A few weeks ago we had a young couple to dinner. He is articling at a law firm specializing in real estate law. While discussing his profession, both he and his wife opined that law is really not for women, as being a lawyer goes against a woman's "essential nature." I nearly fell over laughing, and said, "I'll tell Lawyer X (a very well-regarded female attorney) you said that!"

Now, I have studied a lot of psychology, and apart from a few die-hard feminists who still play the victim/blame game, it's pretty well acknowledged that stereotypical gender differences do, in fact, exist. On the whole, women are less aggressive and more nurturing. They often tend this way from childhood, and yes, they are praised for complying with stereotypical gender roles. However, these are tendencies, not rules. If you take 100 women and 100 men, there will be a woman or even three in that group who could slaughter all the men present. Yet unlike the men, their take-no-prisoners approach will not be lauded; rather, they will be tarred with the rather unpleasant epithet "ball-buster." Fortunately, these women don't much care what you call them, as long as you pay your bills and don't double-cross them.

But just for argument's sake, let's say our guests were right: women's essential natures are unsuited to the rough-and-tumble adversarial world of law. Who’s to say that they shouldn't enter it nonetheless? Perhaps less adversarial conduct is exactly what the world of law needs. Maybe if more women were lawyers, "I'll see you in court!" would be replaced by, "I'll see you at negotiations!"

Besides, the legal profession isn't 100% adversarial to begin with. I happened to spend part of yesterday with a lady attorney of my acquaintance. And I use the term "lady" deliberately, because she is one. She became a lawyer in her forties, and describes her profession as "helping people." She closes real estate transactions, drafts wills, and helps people sort out day-to-day legal issues that perhaps a bulldog longing for courtroom antics would find boring. But these things need to be done, and they need to be done by a lawyer. Wills and real estate may not be inherently dramatic, but contested wills and bad property transactions can ruin lives and relationships. These matters call for a calm, sensitive, objective, and diplomatic touch.

Perhaps we should find a new term, similar to "prosecutor" or "defense attorney" to define this non-litigious species of lawyer. Divorce attorneys have already co-opted the term "family law," but I'm sure we can come up with something. In Quebec they are called "notaries," but that term is used elsewhere to denote anyone who can witness passport applications and other such documents. So we need something universal. What we don't need is specious limitations put on who has the right "nature" to practice law. All one needs is a strong mind, and a desire to see order maintained, wrongs righted, and justice upheld. These are not qualities limited by gender.