Reaching the Bar

Women account for 30% of the 1.14 million attorneys currently practicing in the U.S., and in 2007, 48% of all juris doctor degrees were awarded to women. Despite the growing appearance of women at the bar, the law is still a profession dominated by older white men. While some of the challenges an aspiring lawyer faces are the same regardless of gender, other issues are particular hurdles for woman attorneys.

Reaching the Bar provides the perspectives of women lawyers to their peers and to women just getting started in their legal careers. From their first torts class to their final case studies, women at law have to make choices about what specialty degrees to pursue, whether or when to have children, and how they are going to respond to sexism in the workplace and the courtroom.

These books provide a forum for women at all levels to describe and examine those choices

Reaching the Bar features stories from each stage of a lawyer’s career – beginning with the law school students and clerks, through the corporate stages from junior associate to senior partner, then on to late-stage careers like judges or professors. Reaching the Bar blends inspirational, funny and dramatic stories, with the constant theme of seasoned women looking back at their experiences and sharing what they’ve learned.