One lady lawyer needed two years to convince her law firm to let her try a case in court, it was for a multiple sclerosis victim with burns on his buttocks from a heating pad, no one wanted the case. By winning a verdict against the doctor who prescribed the pad even though MS patients lack heat sensitivity, she shocked her firm and at 37 she is one of the most successful female personal injury lawyers in the country. Accepted by the Inner Circle of Advocates, an exclusive club reserved for powerful plaintiffs' lawyers, she was the first woman to have done so and she has seven damage awards of more than $1 million under her belt.
According to this mother of three, she likes combat and this is why she prefers to do battle in court instead of remaining safely inside an office. When you are with her, you will see how she is not like stereotypical plaintiffs' lawyers like the king of torts or the cowboy hat wearing lawyer known for their booming voices and courtroom theatrics but quiet and reserved. Two images of trial lawyers exist, one is the image of what a successful trial lawyer should be and the other is the traditional image. In this case, she is aware that she's far from that image.
When people go to court, she said that they often pretend to be other people rather than themselves. She refrained from being somebody else and this paid off not only in money but also with her acceptance into the Inner Circle which is limited to 100 lawyers. Lawyers who are considered here are those who have been able to bring at least 25 cases to trial and win at least one jury award of $1 million or more.
A member of the same club is her husband who has 38 verdicts of more than $1 million and is a prominent personal injury lawyer. For the members, this elite group can be advantageous considering how they can share information about various cases and get to refer lucrative businesses to each other. As mentioned by the Tucson, Arizona lawyer who founded the Inner Circle, her acceptance was debated because she was a woman. She got in because she was a tough and sharing lawyer.
When it comes to the group which was founded in 1972, they do not discriminate against women considering how it has only been in the past three years that members knew of women who qualified. For this line of work, only a very few women do it. When it comes to this, it is a very tough, mean business. She said that while there are more women becoming personal injury trial lawyers, they are still having a hard time breaking into this area of law.
It all depends on socialization. Considering how you have a clear adversarial relationship, some of which will continue after the fight is over, in a courtroom, it can be compared with a battle ground or an organized sport. When it comes to women, they find it hard to deal with that on-going fight.
Because of the reluctance of the male dominated firms, most women fail to get opportunities for this kind of work. By getting cases, you can strive for success. She herself waited two years before she was allowed to go to trial and even then it was a case that nobody else in the firm wanted.