Licking My Wounds and Moving On

Lost a case this week.  It hurts, but have to move on.  I will be going through a pseudo-grieving process.  I looked it up and the last loss I had was in 2003, to one of the lawyers in this last case.   I grieved for six months over that.  However, I know that the cases are not about me, but about my clients.  I hate to think about what losing a trial is like for the people I represent.   He is a good man.

I saw Hillary Clinton when she came on her book tour. She never gives up and I admire that about her.  It takes a special person to be through what she has undergone publicly, and still keep at it.  I think politics can be a nasty business, but I admire her perseverance.  She is an inspiration.  As Winston Churchill said, or someone did, "Never give up."  We can all learn a few lessons from Hillary and Winston.  Churchill never gave up and did such incredible thinks while being a raging alcohol. What cajones.

If Hillary is elected, she appears to be focused on women and girls. It's about time we explore what is happening to women and girls not only in this country, but in the world.  I read an article in Missouri Lawyers Weekly about how female lawyers are generally paid less than male lawyers in Kansas City.  But, women lawyers have it much better than women in poverty, especially in cultures where women are second-class citizens.

I am on a plane watching a documentary on Anita Hill. She is another woman I admire. The Senate treated her so badly.  She made it so much easier for other women to stand against sexual harassment. Plus, the Civil Rights Act was amended in 1991, the same year Hill testified in the Clarence Thomas hearings in the Senate and finally Congress put some bite in the law - allowing jury trials, compensatory damages and punitive damages. I am sure that the amendment emboldened the Missouri Supreme Court to declare that Missourians get jury trials in discrimination cases - that and the hard work of Marty Meyers in the Diehl case in 2003. I know I am rambling here, just reflecting on the changes in discrimination laws since the first jury trial I had in a sexual harassment case in 1994.  The employment world is better now than it was then, and I believe it will get better still.

I am so grateful for all of the courage of all of  those unlawfully subjected to discrimination who come forward. Someday we may consider the "content of people's character" instead of the color of their skin," or their sex, age, religion, disability.  Things are better, but we still have a long way to go. Where would society be if it were not for the courage of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi, and others. People can make a difference.

I am going to forget about law fora few days and rejoice in my niece's graduation.  So long for now.