Updated again:  To add two more posts re: Judge Shira Scheindlin.

News and information of probable interest to the Codex community. Allegory adds Transcript; Judge Scheindlin addresses the quiet women in courts.

 

> Alma Asay reports that launch of Allegory Transcripts. “We’ve just introduced an entire suite of advanced transcript features into our litigation platform, she said. “Transcript management is a hot topic among litigation teams and practice management groups of late and this new functionality not only replaces, but drastically improves upon, legacy server-based tools like LiveNote and TextMap. Press release.

> “Female Lawyers Can Talk, Too,” by retired Judge Shira Scheindlin, was published on The Opinion Pages of the New York Times on August 8. She discusses the recent report by the New York State Bar Association, where they “asked judges to note the genders of lawyers who primarily spoke in court in every case they heard over four months.” The results were dismal:

 

“The report found that women were the lead lawyers for private parties barely 20 percent of the time in New York State’s federal and state courts at the trial and appellate levels,” said Scheindlin.

Even when the women had done the key work, the men did most of the talking. By contrast, “Women were twice as likely to appear on behalf of public sector clients,” said Scheindlin, who is now of counsel at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, and serves as an arbitrator and mediator at JAMS.

“What can be done? Judges, clients and law firms all have a chance to improve this bleak picture. Let’s start with judges. They can suggest that the lawyer who wrote the brief or prepared the witness should be the one to argue. Often it is a woman. Judges are generally more diverse than the lawyers who appear before them. They should bear some responsibility to ensure that the lawyers who speak in court are equally diverse.”

More:
“Male Lawyers at Court: Let the Women Talk! A Conversation with Shira Scheindlin,” Thomson Reuters’ Legal Executive Institute.

“Judge Scheindlin on ‘Gender Disparity’ and Imbalance in Big Law (Potcast).” Big Law Business, Josh Block.

 

> Legaltech news:  “Google Memo Sparks Questions about Legal Technology’s Gender Gap: Women in the industry reflect on gender issues following a controversial and widely circulated memo from a Google employee questioning women’s capacity for success in tech.”

Gabrielle Orum Hernandez wrote this terrific analysis about the controversial Google decision to fire James Damore after he “circulated a memo suggesting that biological differences between men and women are responsible for the company’s gender equity issues.”

 

The article features thoughtful observations from Nicole Shanahan, founder and CEO of ClearAccessIP and a Fellow at Stanford CodeX.

 

Alma Asay, founder and CEO of Allegory Law (and a CodeX regular) and I were also quoted!

Check it out!   (Free, but requires short registration.) Contact Gabrielle Orum Hernández at ghernandez@alm.com. On Twitter: @GMOrumHernandez.

 

Monica Bay is a Fellow at CodeX and a freelance journalist. Email: mbay@codex.stanford.edu. Twitter: @MonicaBay.

Cover images: Clipart
Legalech news’ image: Sergey Nivens —Fotolia