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Who needs representation more, people or fetuses?

I am a huge “Daily Show” fan (and cried myself to sleep when “The Colbert Report” went off the air).  Last night, Jessica Williams had an AMAZING segment on a new Alabama law authorizing judges to appoint attorneys for fetuses still in utero.  Yes, that’s right: Alabama won’t appoint an attorney to help a woman […]

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For the Children

Often employers seek to portray the employee who files a discrimination claim as self- interested, pursuing the claim out of spite or greed.  We, who do this work, know that righting discrimination is a socially-valuable undertaking because a more diverse workplace benefits employees, clients, consumers, and the business itself.  But remedying employment discrimination also has […]

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Q&A with Sharon Gustafson

I attended the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on Young v. UPS earlier this month and was very excited to talk with Plaintiff Peggy Young’s lawyer, Sharon Gustafson, about the case.  Sharon will be among the speakers at an upcoming panel I am hosting, sponsored by the Women’s Bar Association and Sanford Heisler Kimpel. Kate: For the […]

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Q&A with Professor Naomi Schoenbaum

I am working with the D.C. Women’s Bar Association to host a panel discussion on January 29 about pregnancy discrimination and Young v. UPS, which was argued before the Supreme Court earlier this week.  (Blogger’s note: for more information on the case, check out Tuesday’s blogpost. Panelists will include a lawyer representing Peggy Young; a lawyer advising companies […]

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Women Work and They Get Pregnant

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Young v. UPS, a case about a former UPS driver whose healthcare provider recommended she not lift packages over 20 pounds during her pregnancy.  She asked UPS to accommodate this restriction by either allowing her to continue doing her current job and let her colleague take […]

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Distinction or Discrimination?

When I was a senior in high school, I wrote a submission for the Ohio Bar Association’s There Ought to Be a Law Contest (nerd, guilty as charged).  I advocated civil unions for same-sex couples.  I presented the essay at a conference organized by my school, only to have a student visiting from another school […]

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Q&A with Laura Brown, Co-Founder of First Shift Justice Project

As one of my colleagues wrote earlier this fall, a woman should not have to choose between having a job and having a baby.  Laura Brown agrees.  With Keira McNett, Laura founded First Shift Justice Project earlier this year to protect workers in their “first shift”—their paid employment—so they can work the “second shift”—providing unpaid […]

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Women and Law School Revisited

Earlier this month, Jeremy Heisler brought attention to recent publications examining the experiences of women in law school today.  Jeremy’s post prompts important questions about women and legal education: Is the experience of women in law school worthy of study?   What does the latest research tell us about that experience?  And how can we ensure […]

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Women and Law School: Back to the Future

We start this post with the story of a solitary figure, someone who – like the lone protester facing the tanks of Tiananmen – decides to fight mountainous odds: in this case, centuries of gender bias against women. The year is 1875; the venue: Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin. Our protagonist-heroine is “Miss […]

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#ShameOnGawker: The bravery of Jezebel and the cowardice of Gawker Media

A few hours ago, the staff at Jezebel – a site that self-describes as being “a general interest women’s website” – banded together and posted an essay entitled “We have a rape gif problem and Gawker Media won’t do anything about it.”  As the essay explains: for months, an individual or individuals has been using […]

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