Women Criminal Defense Attorneys: Don’t Wait to Claim Your Power

As women we remain a minority in a specialty that is dominated by men.  I know plenty of women that have worked for years next to a successful male counterpart.  When they are finally on their own and making the decisions alone, I often hear how surprised they are they could hold their own, even when they are without a doubt the toughest person at counsel table.  I recently had a young lawyer reach out to help her with a case.  I realized in talking to her that she didn’t trust her ability to handle what was perceived as a bigger, more serious case.  I was the same when I was her age.

We All Have Our Moments

All of us have had our moments when we wonder if we are strong enough or have enough experience and skill to handle a tough case, a tough cross, or a tough client.  The truth is as women it sometimes takes us longer to trust our own power and skill.  In fairness men struggle with these same feelings but I often wonder why men move beyond the self doubt more easily.

Dr. Cindy Pladziewicz, a psychologist who used to be a practicing lawyer, wrote about this issue in a blog entry entitled “Do Women Wait Too Long before Claiming Power?” and quoted an interview with Karen Moses, Chief Operating Officer of Australia's Origin Energy who said:

“The key difference I see between men and women at work is that the men are prepared to demand to be heard and recognized before they have demonstrated their worth. Women wait to be recognized well past the time when their value is clear to everyone around them. 
I encourage women to accept that they have an equal right to be there, to recognize the value of their contribution and to not apologize for their difference.”

Dr. Pladziewicz adds that “Women on the whole undervalue their contributions and are more likely to stand back and wait for someone (often a male leader) to recognize them.”

Don’t Be Afraid to Demand Recognition

When I was a young public defender, I had both men and women as trial partners. Through the years I began to observe stark differences in how we sought approval and recognition.  Often when a male trial partner would handle some portion of the trial and return to counsel table he would make some comment about how well it had gone.  Sometimes it was well deserved and sometimes it wasn’t.  But when trying a case with a woman, more often than not she would return to counsel table and start criticizing what she had missed or forgotten, while questioning whether she did well, even when she had knocked it out of the park.  Do you see the difference? Demanding recognition, rather than waiting for it, sounds like a better road to me.