Wisconsin Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justice Juan Col?s emphasized the need for diversity in legal professions to a crowd at the University of Wisconsin Law School Thursday.
Abrahamson detailed her hardships as a female law student and lawyer in the 1950s.
“Women were a distinct minority in the profession, and when I graduated law school in ’56, it was very difficult to get a job as a lawyer,” Abrahamson said.
Abrahamson said she was often mistaken as being Latina even though she is Jewish.
She was also subjected to discrimination in New York when trying to get an apartment to establish residency for the BAR examination.
“By the time I got to [an apartment showing] at nine, [the apartment] was mysteriously taken,” Abrahamson said. “You couldn’t get past the front door in those days being mistaken … in New York for a Puerto Rican.”
Abrahamson said in 1962 she tried to find a job in Madison. Some faculty members at UW who were friends of hers said two places were the only options for her: the attorney general’s office and a small law firm.
“Now if that doesn’t shock you, it should,” Abrahamson said.
Abramson stressed once students land a legal career, they should be helpful to others trying to get legal jobs and to not be discouraged by adversity.
“Life is hard out there, or can be hard,” Abrahamson said. “But there are just wonderful people who will extend themselves to you and will lend you a helping hand. And then, once you get there, it’s your job to lend a helping hand to the next guy coming up. When I say guy, I mean man, woman, don’t care what.”
Col?s, a Colombian-born circuit judge, said as the first Hispanic on the Dane County Circuit Court, he has been a source of pride for other Hispanics. However, his story is not one of hardships.
Col?s stressed the importance of diversity in the legal system, saying it “enriches the milieu in which decisions are made and polices are influenced.”
While Col?s said he has personally enjoyed some social advantages, as a Hispanic lawyer he said he was aware of particular groups being underrepresented, especially Hispanics.
“Part of what I was proud of as a public defender … was to lend these people who were charged with a crime, who were the poorest of the poor, some of my white, male, middle class respectability,” Col?s said. “I could bring the system to a pause and say this person has to be accounted for as a human being.”
Rob Cary, a UW junior majoring in legal studies, attended the speech.
“First of all, it’s an honor hearing the chief justice,” Cary said. “I would have liked more in depth with some [legal] issues. I would have liked more (personal views), but I can understand why they didn’t.”
David Bonner, a UW law student, echoed Cary’s want of more legal opinions on some issues. Bonner also found it inspiring that “a woman that went through so many trials and hardships can wind up at the top.”
