Looking back at our professional life can be cringeworthy. (What else would you call starting opening statement in the middle of jury selection?) But it certainly highlights lessons learned and illuminates better ways to move forward. Perhaps a few of my “lessons” will do this for you.
This saying was on a tee shirt gift. We all have these turkeys in our life. Here are a few of mine. The law professor who told me I was taking the place of a man in my class. The female juror who blocked a guilty verdict because, “Women shouldn’t be lawyers.” The attorney on the panel interviewing me for a federal district court judgeship vacancy who said, “Well, we already have two,” meaning excellent jurists Hon. Sandra S. Beckwith and Hon. Susan J. Dlott.
Be well-read, be informed. Seek diverse viewpoints. Not all thoughts need to come out of your mouth.
Newly appointed and the first and only woman in the Common Pleas General Division, it wasn’t going so well. It was lonely. One judge twice referred to me as a “nice little girl.” My initial venture in our judicial joint session, suggesting we start using a trial scheduling order, failed miserably. Trying again, and wanting court rules to be gender-neutral, I approached the presiding judge, who said he would take care of it. At our next joint session, without comment, he circulated an entry for this around the table. My colleagues all signed it, and he quickly slipped it on the bottom of a documents folder and gave me a wink. So that’s how it was done!
Yes, another tee shirt gift, this one showing a cartoon of a mama and baby ducks paddling furiously. I took that dictum to heart. Our small circle of women lawyers in the area knew we had to be better prepared and perform better than our colleagues.
When first on the bench I was caught off guard with the inherited and growing civil case backlog piled on my desk. Knowing I could make or break the future of a case, I just couldn’t make the call. After sharing my dilemma with my professor and mentor John Murphy, he barked, “Tracey, just decide! That’s what they pay you for! If they don’t like it, they can appeal.” Best judicial advice ever.
Besides giving you motivating tee shirts, your mentors and cheerleaders provide hugs, shoulders to cry on, and great guidance. My lawyer friends became a “rapid response team” to counter negative attacks on me when, as a judge, I could not. In academia, wonderful colleagues taught me the ropes and urged me to go for a full professorship. The CBA is a great vehicle for support, information and mentorship. CBA members saw something in me that was worth the trouble leading to some of my most important opportunities and friendships. (My husband and I first started dating after serving together on a CBA committee; need I say more?)
Be a mentor, volunteer, a cheerleader. Join non-profit boards, offer to give talks on something you know nothing about and learn it! This is especially helpful if you are facing a brick wall where you work.
I did! Decades later I remain so very grateful to you all. Thank you!
Ann Marie Tracey, UC Law, ’75, has served as an assistant city solicitor and prosecutor, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Ohio, a Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge, and retired from Xavier University as a full professor. She is married to Daniel J. Buckley, UC Law, ’74. Between them they have five daughters and 14 grandchildren.