WOMEN JUDGESHIPS ON A SLOW RISE

According to the report from the Albany-based Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, an effort to have more women judgeships is showing slight progress. Currently federal and state judgeships held by women are at 27 percent. Vermont has the most at 40 percent and Idaho is last at 11.3 percent.
New York and other parts of the country have virtually none, the report shows which and concern even a Raleigh Lawyer. New York ranks 12th among states in gender parity, having 39 federal and 374 state judges who are women, almost 31 percent of its total, up 1 percent and two places from the year before.
It is encouraging that to see progress, but at the same time progress has been so slow and not consistent with the fact that there are enough women who are a qualified top lawyer to serve on the bench. State Supreme Court Justice Laura Jacobson got elected first to civil court in Brooklyn, one of the New York City’s five borough, by getting a petition signature and without support of the political clubs. After 12 years on that court, she got elected with needed party support to the higher court.
The source for the study’s data was the 2011 edition of the director “The American Bench: Judges of the Nation.” In a legal profession once dominated by men, nearly half the U.S. law school graduates now are women.
Other academic research shows that having in office people who are representative of all segments of the population increases trust in the judiciary and the government, according to the report.
American Bar Association research from 41 states showed women made up 31 percent of the U.S. legal profession last year but only about 15 percent of top partners at law firms.
A Raleigh attorney claims some clients are leery that a judge’s gender, especially female, may hurt them in court. One female judge admitted to having clients that she knows were concerned that as a female she may not have the same standing in the court system where all of the judges are male.