Hi! Today, I’m reviewing Family Law by Gin Phillips. I really loved this book.It brought back some terrible memories of times when I was practicing law and representing people in divorces. Yes.
The uncontested ones are just fine. They’re easy. The contested ones—the problems with custody—hard. Awful. I swear when people go through a divorce with kids and other things, they go temporarily insane, I think. But this was really interesting because it took place in the early eighties. So it was a very different time, I think for women in law then, because I gotta tell you when I was in law school, it was not at all uncommon to see women in the classroom. We were everywhere. We were, we were crowding into the law at that point, I think. It was the mid-eighties, and just a very different time.
So it just was shocking to me to read some of this, I thought, is this based on actual things? You know, this does this really still go on this, this ass-grabbing this, “Hey, sweetie,” this “You look lovely today, counsel, in that beautiful suit that fits you just right, so your boobs stick out”. You know, whatever offensive thing. I mean, it just astonishes me. In the 10 years that I practiced law, nobody ever said anything like that to me ever, ever. So it just, well, it just boggles my mind how far we’ve come. I mean, I’d like to think we’ve come far. I would love to hear actually from any attorneys out there who experience this, I would like to know if this still happens, because God knows it’s a problem in Hollywood. I mean, I hear about that all the time.
So, anyway, I don’t know if it still happens. I don’t know how bad of a problem it is in the corporate world in general, because I’m not in the corporate world. So, it would be really interesting to get that kind of feedback from people. I would love to know if women are still experiencing these levels of discrimination and treatment, just the kind of treatment, you know, this kind of “hey sweetie treatment” that is discussed in this book. So anyway, I loved the book. Five stars, loved it, read it. It’s excellent. And it tells you a lot about family law. It’s difficult. And about being a lawyer. It’s difficult. Believe me, I’ve been there and done that. I’ll talk to you later.
One more t’ing!
Also you have the whole work versus family thing is in here. I mean, in terms of her own life and the lives of her clients. Like her clients come to her and say, “Am I unworthy of being a parent because I’m a workaholic or because I’m interested in my career?” This career versus motherhood choice is so such a false, horrible dichotomy. I mean, it’s like, what are we doing to ourselves? You know, trying to do everything. Plus: What is being done to us? Because we are trying to excel at something. Why are men not held as accountable for children’s upbringing as women? That’s the point. That’s what I’m trying to say in a long-winded way. All righty then that’s it. I’ll talk to you later.
