Much of my life was a whirlwind in that time both personally and professionally.  In those three years I passed the bar, got married, bought a home, and started a family, all while trying to successfully cope with the responsibilities of being a new associate and chasing that ever elusive "billable hour."  Despite what I considered to be never-ending chaos, I felt very comforted by the fact that so many women within our organization had met similar challenges head on and somehow managed to be not only successful attorneys, but wives and mothers as well.  I feel grateful for the relationships that I have developed through Fresno County Women Lawyers and hope that I can use my time as President to perhaps help others who follow behind me in the same way.

The mission of FCWL always has been to promote the interests of the legal community at large and women in particular. In fulfillment of that mission, FCWL members are dedicated to ending gender and all discrimination, eliminating hostile work environments, promoting the appointment of female judicial officers, supporting outstanding female law students, and recognizing outstanding female high school mock trial participants. With advances in diversity awareness, we also are committed to supporting lawyers of both genders balance work obligations against family interests, acknowledging gender differences as sources of strength, and fostering respect for diversity in our bench, bar, and community.  This year I will be dedicating a some of our time toward helping Veterans within our community through programs such as Veterans Homefront, a transitional living facility for female Veterans and their children.

We offer a broad range of educational topics (for which MCLE is offered) at our monthly luncheons. To ensure we meet the educational needs of our members, we ask for your input about topics of interest. Because the social and marketing aspect of FCWL is important to many members, we also will host a cocktail party in the Spring and a Holiday Party in December. As in years past, we are delighted to collaborate in presenting our judicial reception this year honoring ALL of our female judicial officers, as well as the Hanson dinner to honor an outstanding female lawyer and a deserving female law student; and presenting the Elizabeth O'Neill Scholarship to an outstanding female high school student.  We look forward to your participation in the coming year, and the building of new relationships for many years to come.

FCWL ANNUAL JUSTICE DAVIS HANSON DINNER 

By: Prudence Hutton

February 14th is commonly associated with Valentine's Day, flowers and heart-shaped boxes of candy, not domestic violence or sexual assault.

Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler is trying to change the way people think of Valentine's Day. She founded the One Billion Rising movement, a global campaign devoted to ending violence against women and girls, and attempted a mass grassroots action on February 14, 2013. Coordinators in cities all over the world led women and men to form flash mobs and break out in dance routines in public places. While time differences made it impossible to coordinate it so that all the dances took place at exactly the same moment, the idea was for one billion people to spend five minutes forcing the general public to face the reality of domestic violence on a day that has been co-opted by Hallmark, fancy restaurants and red roses.

For several weeks, local Fresno residents trained to perform a routine choreographed by Debbie Allen for the Tena Clark song Break the Chains. Those who could not make it to the practice sessions, but who wanted to participate, could learn the routine through videos that One Billion Rising put on their website.

At approximately noon on Valentine's Day, when people began to congregate on Fulton Mall for CartHop, activists gathered near the food carts and played music, handed out flyers and held up signs to bring attention to violence against women. Then, halfway into the lunch hour, twenty to thirty men and women ran into the middle of the group and performed the dance.

The dancers were not aiming to put on a show; they wanted to be part of a movement that stretched from Asia and Australia to Africa, Europe and the Americas. They joined with women in developing countries who may not have been able to dance in public but who showed their solidarity in other ways such as wearing red all day in Bangladesh, performing plays about female genital mutilation in Egypt, or marching on Parliament in Afghanistan to protest the lack of protection for women.

The campaign did not end on Valentine's Day. Since then, a One Billion Rising email list has allowed local residents to organize more flash mobs in different parts of the city. Dances have been performed downtown and in the Riverpark area in Fulton Mall. For more information on One Billion Rising, or to find out when a flash mob is performing in Fresno, you can go to www.onebillionrising.org

Photos by Chris Schneider 

Natalee will attend UC Santa Cruz in the Fall, where she plans to major in legal studies.  She is not, however, waiting until the fall term to begin her studies. Rather, with the money she has earned (while attending high school) working, she intends to move to Santa Cruz during the summer and start taking prerequisite courses for her major. With this head start, as well as applying the credits from her 11 Advanced Placement classes, she also hopes to complete her undergraduate degree in three years so she can continue on to law school.

In Natalee's personal statement declares that she loves the law and sees her pursuit of it as a means of serving others as well providing a good life for her future children. She explains that part of her inspiration to become a lawyer stems from the difficulties her mother experienced as a single parent who wasn't even able to complete high school. Natalee describes a great deal of turbulence in her youth as financial difficulties befell her family. In her own words, Natalee states: "All of this instability has only reinforced my goals.  I know that if I can get an education I will have a tool in avoiding these disasters and will be able to lead others to do the same."  The Elizabeth O'Neill Scholarship will provide Natalee with $250 to help get her started.

Fresno County Women Lawyers was honored to have Eliza M. Rodrigues, the president of California Women Lawyers present a MCLE program on ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT CONTRACT ATTORNEYS:  Freelance Lawyers and the Firms That Hire Them at the January 23, 2013 meeting at the Downtown Club.

As the Associate General Counsel & Ethics Counsel, Sedgwick LLP, a large San Francisco international litigation and business law firm, Rodrigues is well-versed and provided insights on how to set up a freelance practice as well as providing information for law firms wanting to hire freelance lawyers.  Rodrigues strongly suggested that the parties enter into a written and mutually-executed contract, which includes a description of the scope of the assignment, completion date, fees, malpractice insurance, and conflicts of interest (also addressing simultaneous freelancing assignments or hybrid practices).  The importance of evaluating conflicts of interest, along with adequate oversight and supervision of the freelance lawyer, were emphasized along with other ethical considerations such as restricting or prohibiting use of firm office space, email, phone and fax numbers, business cards, firm intranet and access to other clients' physical or electronic files.

Benefits of hiring freelance lawyers for solo practitioners, firms and corporate legal departments include reduction in costs to your clients or in-house legal department, reduction in write-offs and re-work, and an opportunity to observe work product before making a permanent hire. 

While exploring the risk management concerns of freelance lawyering, Rodrigues commented that being a contract lawyer continues to be an attractive options with the current state of the legal market, technological innovations, increased demand for a healthy work/life balance, and the departure from billable hours towards flat fees, freelancing continues to be an attractive option.

Rodrigues pointed out some of the various ethical and practice considerations for freelance attorneys and firm's hiring contract attorneys:

•  The duty to preserve client confidences (California Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 3-100) is important for freelance lawyers to be mindful of as number of clients could be increasing and more confidences that will need to be protected; 
• The duty to perform legal services competently (California Rules of Professional Conduct Rule 3-110) continues with freelance work.  
• Maintaining an ongoing list of clients, matters, dates of representation, and subject matter for conflicts disclosure that should be given to the firm hiring you for conflict of interests checks which should be treated  like any new matter or client.
• Notifying your professional liability carrier including firms agreeing to have a contract attorney covered by their policies. 
• The need to disclose simultaneous freelancing assignments for conflict of interests considerations.
• The need for oversight, direction and supervision of freelance lawyers, the cautionary tale in the recent  J-M Manufacturing Co., Inc. v. McDermott Will & Emory , a malpractice case decided last year. 

Are you looking for a way to get some trial skills? Get some exposure to the court room and make arguments before the Court?  Well, if you are, Project First Step (PFS) is perfect for you.  PFS is a project designed to provide attorney representation to victims of domestic violence.  This project has been around for almost a decade and has helped hundreds of victims of domestic violence and their families.  The project is a joint partnership among Fresno County Bar Association - Pro Bono Services Section, Marjoree Mason Center, Central California Legal Services, Inc. (CCLS), and Fresno County Women Lawyers (FCWL).  PFS was actually the brain child of past FCWL President, Deborah Coe, an attorney with Baker, Manock, and Jensen.

I know, you are probably thinking, "Representation in a family law case? I don't have any family law experience."  Well, that is ok.  The project is housed and managed by the Voluntary Legal Services Program (VLSP) at CCLS and is designed to allow attorneys with no family law experience to be able to volunteer.  VLSP puts on a training about once a year which provides PFS volunteer attorneys with all the information needed to represent a victim of domestic violence.  At your request, an attorney can also be matched with you to mentor you through the case. The courts are also very appreciative of PFS attorneys and do everything they can to ensure that PFS volunteer attorneys are given as much guidance as possible during the court proceedings. 

Yes, I know.  You have a very heavy case load and just can't find the time to volunteer even though you would like to.  This is why PFS is perfect.  The project is designed to allow you to maximize your court room experience while limiting the amount of paperwork you will need to prepare.  This is not to say that you will not need to prepare and work up the case for court.  However, your representation is limited to the initial request for the domestic violence restraining order.  Even better is that when you agree to represent a PFS client, the initial pleadings have already been prepared and filed with the court, the initial court date has already been scheduled, and service of process has already been completed.  VLSP will prepare the paperwork to substitute you into the case on a limited scope purpose, for one specific appearance only if that is your desire, and then prepare the necessary paperwork to substitute you out of the case after you make the appearance.  However, many attorneys find that after they have made the initial appearance with the victim, they want to continue to represent her through the entire proceedings, if additional court proceedings are necessary.  The project was designed this way so that you get to do what you do best...argue your case before the court.