Much Has Changed, but Issues Remain the Same

Forty-five years ago, I graduated from law school and joined one of the oldest, largest firms in the city of Dallas. That opportunity was not available to all the women in the classes ahead of me. In fact, as I started law school, the third-year women law students gathered the new women students on the steps of Lawyers Inn to explain why their graduating class had sued many of the major law firms in Dallas for discrimination. Even though there were several women in the top of that class, they were generally not hired by the larger firms.

The firm I ultimately joined, Jackson Walker LLP, was not one of the defendant firms. They had hired Jo Jenkins from that class, and she was their representative on the law school campus. She interviewed me and recommended my hire in the litigation department. Six years later, I became the first woman associate to make partner in the firm’s almost 100-year history. Women peers sent me notes that read, “Welcome to the 3 percent.” That was the percentage of women who were partners at that time.