Free Lawyers

Are female divorce lawyers better or at a disadvantage in the practice of family law?

The late singer, performer, and soul icon, James Brown, coined the phrase, “This is a man’s world.” In many aspects women continue pressing to overcome professional and social limitations established by centuries of a male dominated legal profession. Many female attorneys have found success and longevity in the area of family law. People tend to forget that divorce and family law issues, unlike other legal matters, usually involve a male-female dispute.

Some time ago in a conversation about hiring a divorce lawyer, a female acquaintance of mine, who experienced a recent divorce, mentioned that she preferred male attorneys. She stated that she chose her attorney because she felt, “he had a sense of arrogance and a no nonsense look.” She continued to explain that, in her opinion, most female divorce attorneys do not possess an aggressive instinct. In my mind, I started questioning how many people had a similar thought process and image of female divorce attorneys.

Here are two reasons why I believe women practicing family law may be at an advantage.

1) Nature – On average, women spend more time discussing and thinking about matters of family and relationships than men do. In other words, we know family and relationships. It’s in our DNA. Women, by nature, tend to be more interested in relationships and their outcomes than men are. This translates into success when communicating and dealing with our family law and divorce clients.

2) Aggressiveness – Female divorce attorneys tend to have more of a “take no prisoners” approach to family law. Some may think it’s because we have a chip on our shoulder, or we’re trying to prove ourselves in a male dominated profession. Those assumptions are simply false. Truthfully, women possess a strong desire to be “right”. Some of my more difficult challenges have come from opposing female counsel. My husband, a school administrator, always prefers to intervene in a fight between two males as opposed to two females. His reasoning being, “Female fights can be vicious.”

I am sure that the misguided beliefs held by my acquaintance are not uncommon. In the chorus of James Brown’s song, “It’s a Man’s World”, the singer draws listeners to the conclusion that this man’s world “wouldn’t be nothing, nothing without a woman or a girl.” What would the practice of family law be without female attorneys?

By: Alesia Vick

When people think of attorneys they often think of needing a lawyer to help fight a legal battle of some kind, a dispute over some valuable article perhaps, to defend a person that is accused of committing a crime, or to handle the business affairs of a busy executive. Whatever the situation may be there are many reasons to hire an attorney. Attorneys typically specialize in one type of law practice, however when several attorneys form a partnership the firm that emerges may practice many different varieties of law and specialize according to the staff of legal professionals that are employed by the managing partners.

Back in the early 1990s a television program depicted the arrangement of a law practice that diversified its assets specializing in many different areas of the law. There are many such firms in existence that have the ability to serve the legal needs of whatever their clients may require. Criminal defense, divorce representation, contractual law, real estate, tax law and estate planning are just a few of the broad range of topics that law firms are engaged in.

For wealthy clients an established firm of lawyers may be able to service each of the needs of their clients through the conglomeration of each of the specialties of the lawyers that are working for the firm. Managing assets and setting up incorporated entities or limited liability corporations is another aspect of the full service law firm.

There are many people that make jokes at the expense of the legal profession and the average person may believe that a world without lawyers would solve many problems, however the need for experienced lawyers exists because people are unable or incapable or governing themselves without finding something to argue about and fall into a dispute over. Without lawyers the world would come to a halt, because many people do not understand and appreciate that the legal profession is the grease that keeps the wheels of progress turning.

Attorneys protect their clients and the assets or intellectual property of their clients. Without lawyers patents protecting inventions would not exist, copyrights would not be in place and free enterprise as we know it would not exist. Family estates could not be willed to heirs and businesses would cease to be because in a world without lawyers there would more contentions and disagreements pertaining to civic rights and corporate ownership; and let us not forget about divorces and property settlements or taxes and legal contracts that protect the interests of all the parties involved.

Not everyone may have cause to hire an attorney to defend them in a criminal case, but it is certain that lawyers do provide a protection and a defense for many people to live in a civilized society and conduct their business and private affairs with confidence that a team of legal professionals is available to help them through whatever situation arises in life.

By: Billings Farnsworth