LAW WEEK: How do you describe the role of the CWBA and the role of the president of that bar association?
CAT SHEA: Our stated mission is to advance women as leaders in the law. And so I think that is our foremost goal and purpose. We also want to take actions that protect the interests of women and children, generally. A lot of that comes into play in terms of our public policy work.
As far as my job, I see myself as an ambassador for the organization, to talk to people about our mission, build coalitions, get people on board with what we’re doing. And certainly partnering with the other diversity bar presidents.
The CBA and DBA several years ago started a Diversity Council that brings together the heads of the CBA, DBA and then all of the diversity bar associations, and that is a great way for us to put our heads together and collaborate on various projects. A lot of the issues that face one diversity bar face others as well.
LAW WEEK: What have been your favorite projects for the organization while you’ve been president?
SHEA: There are a couple of things. Our public policy committee created a pay equity subcommittee, so last year, we worked very heavily with a coalition of other folks in drafting a comprehensive pay equity bill for Colorado. It did actually get introduced in the General Assembly during session, actually made it out of the House and into a Senate committee where it got voted down.
We are going to make another attempt this year. There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes work on the language, again, building a coalition, reaching out to partners who we hope we can gain their support for the bill.
This has been an issue since the ’80s, including for the Women’s Bar, and it’s just time. We’ve made a conscious effort that this is something we want to see happen. And we know it’s a long haul project, but we’re really going to keep focusing on that.
One of my favorite projects is we’ve always had a historian position on the board, but — at least as long as I’ve been on the board — we have not had a history committee. Next year, we have our official 40th anniversary, so we’ll be having some events around that. But one of the things I really wanted to do this year is start documenting and memorializing our history as the Women’s Bar.
When you dig into something like pay equity or gender bias issues, you realize, oh, my gosh, these things have been issues for 40 years, and the progress we’ve made is minimal. You don’t know where you’re going, unless you know where you’ve been. We’ve been hearing some of our past presidents talk about how we were working on pay equity in the ’80s and going back and looking at what are our accomplishments were and what were the issues of the day, why the founding mothers felt the need to create a Women’s Bar Association. As time passes, we just want to make sure that we have a
robust archive of our history. I think it’s really important as an organization.
LAW WEEK: What in that history stands out to you particularly well?
SHEA: Ruth Bader Ginsburg visited the Colorado Women’s Bar Association twice in our history. We discovered we had a storage unit with probably about 40 boxes, and my art historian and her assistant basically went through all that stuff and found great pictures from our very first newsletter. I can’t remember what year that was from, but we’ve had pictures of Ruth Bader Ginsburg here back when she was on the D.C. Circuit. She’s also our 1,000th member.
LAW WEEK: Are there other pillars of your public policy other than the pay equity bill that will be coming up in the next session?
SHEA: A lot of the issues that we do tend to consult on are human trafficking issues, domestic violence, there have been bills in the past around restructuring juvenile law cases, family law issues. And then reproductive rights is another one of our core issues. We also oppose efforts to undo the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
LAW WEEK: It sounds like a lot of those are with that idea of being for all women, not just women attorneys.
SHEA: Absolutely. We’ve made a conscious effort to make sure that our focus is broad enough, that we’re including all women.
LAW WEEK: And on other diversity and inclusion topics, what have you seen within the community?
SHEA: I think there’s definitely more of a consciousness around it, there’s people were talking about it more, which is good, because it brings awareness. We still have a problem with a lack of female equity partners in law firms. The number, I want to say is around 18 percent now for women nationally, and unfortunately for women of color, it’s 3 percent, which is horrible. Also, over 50 percent of law school graduates now are women. If you look at the profession a few years down the road, about 35 percent of lawyers were women. And so the question is, you know, why are women leaving?
There’s a lot of discussion around that, at least for us. We have a listserv, and we had a really robust, interesting discussion happen last week about gender bias and how it’s still happening to women in the courtroom and women in practice in general. It’s a tough situation because like most things, it’s going to take a cultural shift, because I think it comes from a mindset, but you can’t make that happen overnight. And so the question is how do you start to try to push that cultural change? But then also, how do you deal with it when it’s happening?
LAW WEEK: From my perspective, I would agree that it seems like there’s more consciousness of diversity issues within the legal profession in general. Would you say that you’ve seen actions taken or actual changes in that way?
SHEA: I think so. I think people are starting to put more effort into hiring decisions, like something like the Mansfield role, which I just love. I really hope that continues, and that more people really decide to make it an intentional effort to be diverse and inclusive and equitable, because it is not going to naturally happen.
LAW WEEK: 2018 is the #MeToo year. Have you seen a response either within the bar association or within the legal community overall in line with that larger issue?
SHEA: Yeah, there’s been a lot of discussion. In that thread that I mentioned on our listserv, it was mostly just gender bias comments, but there were some comments about sexual harassment in the legal profession. It happens in the legal profession just like every other, and again, I think it takes allies and education. And so, and I think that’s sort of the other topic that we need a cultural shift around that. And it’s kind of disconcerting to see a lot of the pushback that’s happening around it. It’s important to listen to women with these stories and talk about the system and what can we do about it.
— Tony Flesor