March - Association for Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City

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P.O. Box 414557 • Kansas City, MO 64141
March 2006 • Volume 18 • Number 1
www.awl-kc.org
OFFICERS
B. Janeen deVries, President
Tracy Bornman, President-Elect
Margaret Dean, Treasurer
Kim Fournier, Secretary
Tamie Anfang, Asst. Secretary
Tracy L. Powell, Past President
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIP:
Lara Dickey Lewis, Chair
Diana Toman, Vice-Chair
JUDICIAL:
Shelley Ericsson, Chair
Lauren McCubbin, Vice-Chair
MEMBERSHIP:
Amanda Pennington Ketchum, Chair
Jennifer Kopp Dameron, Vice Chair
COMMUNITY SUPPORT:
Mira Mdivani, Chair
Courtney Hueser, Vice Chair
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES:
Jennifer Chapin, Chair
Pascale Henn, Vice Chair
CONTINUING LEGAL
EDUCATION:
Elle Sullivant, Chair
Lynne Weddle Judkins, Vice Chair
BOARD MEMBERS AT-LARGE
Beverly Weber
Stacey McLey
Athena Brackmann
Sheryl Nelson
Kimberly Gibbens
Amy Lawlor
©2006 Association for
Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City
AWL'S Spring Judicial Reception
Set for April 27th at Lidia's
By Jennifer J. Chapin
Polsinelli Shalton Welte Suelthaus P.C.
S
ome things - like the weather - simply cannot be counted upon.
However, you can count on AWL's
Social Activities Committee (Jenny Chapin
and Pascale Henn) to spend the cold and
dark winter months planning a series of
social events for the upcoming year.
The first such social event is AWL's
annual Spring Judicial Reception, which
will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on
Thursday, April 27, 2006 at Lidia's Kansas
City. Lidia's a popular Kansas City restaurant, is located in a restored freight building at 101 West 22nd Street, just north of
Union Station. As always, Lidia's will present a sampling of their
wonderful Italian cuiFor photos from our
sine and wines to AWL
Annual Meeting
members and judges.
AWL's Spring Judicial
and Judicial Reception
Reception is an annual
in December,
event to honor Missouri
and Kansas state and
see page 8.
federal trial and appellate judges. However, this year's event will
also benefit The Sherwood Center. The
Sherwood Center, located in Kansas City,
ink it in ...
Board of Directors
Missouri, provides effective and innovative
educational and therapeutic services for
children and adults with autism. Today's
enrollment also includes persons with related disabilities in communication and
behavior. Since 1974, hundreds of children
and adults have made dramatic improvements in learning, language, and social
development at The Sherwood Center. For
more information, visit The Sherwood
Center's web site at http://www.sherwoodcenter.org.
The Sherwood Center, which operates on
a year-round schedule, would appreciate
donations of the following items: Paper
and/or plastic (microwaveable) plates,
bowls and cups; plastic and/or regular silverware; bath towels, hand towels and
wash cloths; shampoo and conditioner;
chalk; finger paints; watercolors and other
arts and crafts supplies. Monetary donations will also be welcomed and collected at
the event.
Please join AWL for what we hope will be
a lovely spring evening of socializing with
your colleagues and the judiciary. Also,
please see the ink it in section of this
newsletter for a listing of all of the upcoming AWL social events - and remember to
mark your 2006 calendars accordingly!
DATE .......... EVENT
April 27 .................Spring Judicial Reception, 5:00-7:00 p.m. (Lidia's)
May 18 ..................AWL CLE,“An Ethical Approach to Making Deals,”Time TBA (Central Exchange)
June 1....................AWL CLE,Topic and time TBA (KCMBA)
June 29..................AWL CLE,Topic and time TBA (Central Exchange)
July 13...................Summer Social, time TBA, (Persona Salon & Day Spa)
September 22.......AWL Golf Tournament, 11:30-5:00 (Tetering Rocks)
October 12............Past President's Reception, 5:00-7:00 p.m. (Location TBA)
December 12..........Annual Meeting and Holiday Judicial Reception, 5:00-7:00 pm. (Location TBA)
A kinder, gentler profession
by B. Janeen deVries
president’s message
W
hen I entered law school at change our profession? Become involved. Become leadUMKC in 1985, women ers. I believe as more women become leaders within the
made up 39% of my class. I legal community, the profession will become more comwould like to report that the percent- patible with women.
When I became a member of AWL many years ago, I
age of women entering law school at
UMKC has increased dramatically, but didn't think my membership amounted to much. Don't
it hasn't. Only 43% of the incoming get me wrong, I believed then and believe now that
class for the 2005-2006 academic year women need to support other women, not just in the
legal profession, but in society, in
are women. As
general. This is the major tenet
I pondered this
statistic, I tried to find an expla- Whether it's writing an article for of AWL's mission statement.
However, in the early years of
nation for the relatively slow the newsletter, volunteering for
increase in women enrolling in
the golf tournament, volunteering my membership in AWL, there
didn't seem to be many opportulaw school. I concluded that law
nities to become involved in the
is still a male-dominated profes- for a community service project
activities of AWL. My primary
sion and perhaps women have or recruiting new members, AWL
goal this year as President is to
found the legal profession inhosencourage greater participation
pitable and not "family friendly." needs your help.
of the membership in AWL activI then wondered whether a profession could change and become more attractive to ities. I ask each of you to become involved in AWL.
women. I believe if the legal profession is going to Whether it's writing an article for the newsletter, volunteering for the golf tournament, volunteering for a comchange, women will be the ones to change it.
Over the several years that I have served on the Board munity service project or recruiting new members, AWL
of AWL, I have watched young women lawyers struggle needs your help. I call on all of you to become involved
with the demands of practicing law and having a family. in helping AWL continue to grow in strength and numSome of these women have left the practice of law. This bers in the legal community and help create a kinder
is unfortunate. What can we as women lawyers do to gentler profession.
BEST OF BAR WINNERS
NEW AWL BABIES
AWL would like to take this opportunity
to congratulate it's members who were
selected to the Kansas City Business Journal's
"Best of the Bar".
Congratulations to Megan and Steve
Thornberry on the arrival of the
newest addition to
Those members are:
their family.
Christopher
Thomas
Thornberry was
born on January 23,
2006 and weighed
8lbs. 2oz. Megan
was the president of the Association for
Women Lawyers in 2004. AWL wishes
the family all the best.
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Nikki Cannezzaro
Susan McGreevy
Mira Mdivani
Tracy Bornman
Teresa Woody
Nancy Kenner
Stephen Bough
Tim Dollar
R. Denise Henning
Paul Kavanaugh
Lynn Bratcher
Denise Drake
Elaine Drodge Koch
Tom Bender
Theresa Levings
Patricia Sexton
Margaret Dean
Cynthia Dillard Parres
Sly James
Anita Robb
March 2006
Athena M. Brackmann
Amy Lawlor
Athena M. Brackmann
Athena M. Brackmann joined Blumer Nally & Siro as an
associate in 2003 and currently practices in the areas of
Personal Injury, Employment Discrimination, Family and
Medical Leave Act claims and Social Security Disability.
Athena graduated from the University of MissouriKansas City School of Law in 2003. She is licensed to practice in Missouri, Kansas, the Western District of Missouri,
and the District Court of Kansas. She is a member of the
Missouri Bar, Kansas Bar, National Employment Lawyers
Association-Kansas City Chapter, Vice-Chair of Public
Service for YLS section of Kansas City Metro Bar
Association, and at-large board member in charge of golf
tournament for Association for Women Lawyers of Greater
Kansas City.
In law school, Athena had a strong background in litigation. She took part in Appellate Advocacy, was on the Moot
Court board, and participated in Trial Advocacy. Before
entering law school Athena worked at Kansas Legal
Services in the domestic area, helping those who are less
fortunate receive legal assistance
Amy Lawlor
Amy Lawlor has been an associate at Shook, Hardy &
Bacon since September 2001 and practices in the Firm's
Products Liability section. She graduated from Washburn
Law School in 2001. Prior to law school she received her
Masters Degree from the University of Kansas in
Counseling Psychology. She is also an Independent
Consultant for Arbonne. Amy lives in Westwood, Kansas
with her husband Mark and son Aidan.
Lauren Tucker McCubbin
Lauren Tucker McCubbin is a litigation associate with
Polsinelli Shalton Welte Suelthaus PC, practicing in the
Commercial Litigation and Intellectual Property Litigation
departments. Her practice includes work in the areas of
insurance, pharmaceutical, construction, general commercial, intellectual property, and class action litigation. Lauren
is a 2003 graduate of Washington University in St. Louis
School of Law and a 2000 graduate of Wellesley College.
After law school, Lauren clerked for the Honorable William
Ray Price, Jr. of the Missouri Supreme Court. Lauren is a
member of the Missouri Bar, the KCMBA, and volunteers as
March 2006
Lauren Tucker
McCubbin
What’s going on ...
Meet your new 2006 AWL Board Members
Sheryl Nelson
a coach for the Liberty High School Mock Trial Team.
Lauren and her husband Gabe live outside of Liberty,
Missouri, with their daughter Paige.
Sheryl Nelson
Sheryl Nelson joined her current firm Corporate Counsel
Group LLP in June 2000 as a partner. Prior to that, Sheryl
was a partner in the corporate practice group of Blackwell
Sanders Peper Martin LLP.
Since graduating from law school more than 15 years ago,
Sheryl has practiced in the areas of commercial and real
property law, mergers, divestitures and acquisitions, general corporate and business law, procurement, commercial
contracts and other commercial transactions. Sheryl's experience in the mergers and acquisitions area has given her the
opportunity to establish meaningful relationships with publicly and privately-held clients in a variety of businesses,
including health and fitness, publishing, utility and floral
businesses.
In 1990, Sheryl graduated cum laude from Washburn
University School of Law. While there, she was an Associate
Editor of the Washburn Law Journal and a member of the
Phi Alpha Delta law fraternity, and she received the
American Jurisprudence Award of Excellence for Legal
Research and Writing.
Although not a native of Kansas City, Sheryl has lived in
the area for most of her adult life. Prior to moving to Kansas
City, Sheryl lived in Derby, Kansas, a suburb of Wichita,
where she graduated cum laude from Wichita State
University in 1987. While at WSU, Sheryl was named an
Academic All American and an Outstanding Young Woman
of America.
Sheryl is licensed to practice law in Kansas and Missouri
and is a member of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar
Association, The Missouri Bar and the Kansas Bar
Association.
She is married and has two boys, ages 8 and 10. In her
spare time, she enjoys shopping for anything (including
groceries!), attending her kids' sports activities and pretending that she's an interior designer.
Sheryl can be reached at: Corporate Counsel Group LLP,
4144 Pennsylvania Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri 64111.
Telephone: (816) 410-7206, Fax: (816) 410-7201
the AWL
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What’s going on ...
Association of Women Law Students-UMKC
By Jenny Redix
UMKC School of Law
2005-06 President, Association of Women Law Students
[email protected]
T
he Association of Women Law Students (AWLS) at
UMKC is one of the law school's largest student organizations with nearly 75 members. AWLS is also one of
the most active student organizations and has been very busy
throughout the academic year.
Planning is underway for its largest annual event, the Tiera
Farrow Awards Reception, which honors leaders from the
Kansas City legal community and UMKC students and faculty. Along with presenting awards, AWLS will present its annual scholarship to the one student leader chosen as the
"Outstanding Woman Law Student." The reception will begin
at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 6 at the UMKC School of Law and
the awards presentation will begin at 6:30 p.m.
During the fall semester, AWLS held a bake sale on Lee
National Denim Day and raised $1,300.00 in just one morning
of fundraising. AWLS proudly donated every dollar raised to
the Komen Foundation.
For the annual holiday philanthropy event its members volunteered at the 98.1 KUDL Holiday Adopt-A-Family telethon.
Members donated their time to staff multiple shifts to pair
adoptive families with adoptees.
More recently, AWLS hosted the Go Red for Women event at
the law school. The goal was to raise awareness that heart,
blood and lung disease is the leading killer of women.
Members "painted" the law school red with streamers and
banners and organized an information area providing heart
UMKC law students Go Red For Women! Visiting the Go Red infomation center is
AWLS Go Red Spokesmodel; AWLS 1L Representative Arax Corn, AWLS Member
Lisa Drummond, Angelo Bartulica, AWLS President Jenny Redix and Alex
Hutchings
disease facts and awareness pins.
AWLS continues to work hard to rejuvenate its relationship
with AWL. AWLS members have attended AWL social events,
volunteered at the AWL co-sponsored Lawyers for Hurricane
Relief fundraiser, and responded to AWL member inquiries
for research and trial preparation assistance. AWLS is excited
to work with AWL in fostering a connection between law students and the greater Kansas City legal community.
Award Recipients From The Annual Meeting
By Tracy L. Powell
Immediate Past President
O
n December 13, 2005, AWL
held its Annual Meeting and
Judicial Reception at the home
of Nancy and David Kenner. At the
reception AWL honored Commissioner
Margene Burnett with its Judicial
Recipient of the Year Award for her dedication to AWL and her tireless efforts
over the years on the "I'm Not Serious
About Golf" Tournament. AWL also
honored Victoria Schroeder with the
Women of the Year Award for her dedication to the profession, commitment to
the community and all of her outstanding work for AWL over the years.
The Mdivani Law Firm received
AWL's law firm of the year award for its
exceptional and generous acts in the
area of community service. Janeen
deVries, Tracy Bornman and Stacey
McCley were recognized with the
President's Award for their outstanding work to make AWL the successful
organization that it is.
AWL Makes Donation To Kansas City’s ‘The
Children's Waiting Room’
By Margaret Dean
Treasurer
I
n 1997, the City of Kansas City, Missouri received a grant
to renovate Municipal Court. The funding included the
creation of a day care center for the children of domestic
violence. This room has become known as The Children's
Waiting Room. The Children's Waiting Room, after eight
years, was in need of updating. The Association for Women's
Lawyers donated $1,000.00 to give the room a much needed
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face lift. There is a new coat of paint, pictures for the walls,
shelves, storage bins, updated equipment and new toys due
to the donation. The Target store in the Ward Parkway
Shopping Center graciously added 10% to AWL's donation.
Katherine Bromfield Emke, Assistant City Prosecutor, and
Beth Murano, City Prosecutor, were instrumental in implementing the renovation. The room is a welcoming place for
children who live with domestic violence to spend some time
being a kid rather than sitting in a court room listening to evidence of the violence.
March 2006
By Courtney Hueser
Constangy Brooks & Smith, LLC
R
ecently, a magistrate judge in
the District of Kansas ordered a
party to produce the metadata
for spreadsheets produced in response
to discovery requests. See Williams v.
Sprint/United Management Co., 230
F.R.D. 620 (D. Kan. 2005). What does
the ruling mean for practicing attorneys? Potentially, even probably, a lot!
This ruling likely has some implication
for nearly every attorney, regardless of
practice area. It undoubtedly signals
that attorneys can no longer claim
ignorance when it comes to technology
and electronic documentation.
As the new Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure concerning electronic discovery (scheduled to take effect
December 1, 2006) make clear, those
attorneys who have been blissfully
unaware of the ins and outs of electronic data collection and storage are in
for a rude awakening. If this issue has
snuck up on you, take note: electronic
discovery is here. If, as a litigator, you
are not considering electronic documents and information as an integral
part of any discovery plan, you are
likely missing an extraordinary source
of proof. If, as a counselor, you are not
advising clients on the importance of
proper retention and electronic communication policies, you are likely
missing out on the opportunity to provide a valuable service. If, as a corporate attorney or in-house counsel, you
are not planning or creating ways to
store, maintain, control, and access
electronic files, you are likely risking
an expensive and costly lesson in the
new standards that are being devised
by statute and in court case after court
case across the country and in our own
backyard.
Obviously, the issue of electronic discovery is broad enough to impact nearly every attorney’s practice in one way
or another. This article is meant only to
highlight one recent local court’s ruling
regarding electronic discovery and,
perhaps more importantly, to put those
among us who have not had much
occasion to consider or work with electronic data, on notice of the changes on
the not-too-distant horizon. A general
overview of the new Federal Rules of
Civil Procedure regarding electronic
discovery demonstrates that this topic
is definitely one that deserves your
March 2006
attention.
First, Federal Rules
of Civil Procedure
26(f) and 16(b) will be
amended to require litigants, at the initial
planning and scheduling stage of the litigation, to consider and
address electronic discovery issues, including the form of production
and
the
preservation of electronically stored inforCourtney
mation. Both amended rules also encourage litigants to consider and plan for the unintentional
production of privileged documents
that can easily, and unwittingly, accompany the electronic exchange and production of documents and information.
Rules 33 and 34 will be amended to
adapt the rules concerning responses to
interrogatories and requests for production expressly to apply to electronically stored information. Rule 33 will
be amended to ensure that litigants
who respond to interrogatories by producing business records include electronic information in their responses.
Rule 34 will be amended to allow a
party requesting electronically stored
information to specify the form in
which it would like to receive the information. The responding party may
object to producing the information in
the form requested. If no form is specified in a request for production, the
responding party must produce the
information in the form in which it is
normally maintained, or in a reasonably usable form.
Finally, Rule 37 will be amended to
include a safe-harbor provision that,
“absent exceptional circumstances,”
bars the imposition of sanctions
against a party that loses electronic
information as a result of routine,
good-faith operation of its electronic
information system.
With these new
rules in mind, the recent ruling out of
the District of Kansas and the meaning
of metadata may take on a lot more significance than many attorneys realized
at first blush.
What is metadata? Metadata is
defined as “information describing the
history, tracking, or management of an
electronic document.” Williams, 230
F.R.D. at 646. Metadata commonly
includes file names, file locations, file
the AWL
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type, dates and authors
of
the
document,
changes and modification dates, print-out
dates, and names of
recipients.
See
id.
Metadata may be altered
intentionally or inadvertently and can be inaccurate in some circumstances, such as when a
form document reflects
the author as the template author rather than
the drafting author. See
Hueser
id.
When ordered to produce spreadsheets in the electronic form in which
they were maintained, the producing
party used special software to “scrub”
the spreadsheets and remove the metadata, arguing that the metadata
removed was irrelevant and contained
privilege information. The producing
party also argued that the requesting
party had never specifically requested
the spreadsheets be produced with the
metadata intact. The Court held, however, that an order to produce electronic data “in the manner in which it was
maintained” did not allow for the
scrubbing of metadata prior to production. Id. at 644.
The Court’s ruling relied heavily on
the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
and the proposed amendments discussed above, guidelines created by a
think-tank comprised of leading
jurists, lawyers, experts, and academics
(The Sedona Conference), and the scant
available case law regarding discovery
of metadata. Important for attorneys
practicing in the District of Kansas, the
Court held that:
when a party is ordered to produce electronic documents as they
are maintained in the ordinary
course of business, the producing
party should produce the electronic documents with their metadata
intact, unless the party timely
objects to production of the metadata, the parties agree that the
metadata should not be produced,
or the production party requests a
protective order.
Id. at 652. The Williams opinion places
the burden of objecting to production
of metadata on the responding party.
Appropriate objections to the production of metadata may be relevancy or
continued on page 11
5
Substantive Law Update: Metadata ...
What is "Metadata" and Why Do We Care?
Member Profile... Judge Justine Del Muro
Judge Justine E. Del Muro
received the Honorable Michael
Colburn Community Service Award.
Judge Del Muro is also very active in
the community. She is member of the
eet Judge Justine E. Del Muro.
Association for Woman Lawyers, the
For those who have not had
Hispanic Bar Association, the Kansas
the pleasure of appearing
City Metropolitan Bar Association and
before Judge Del Muro in the Circuit
the Missouri Bar. She also continues to
Court of Jackson County, the
be involved with the Children's Center
Association for Women Lawyers would
for the Visually Impaired; St. Vincent's
like to educate the public on this
Operation
Breakthrough,
LEAP
remarkable, hard-working, energetic
(Lawyers
Encouraging
Academic
leader of the Kansas City Community.
Performance) and the School Council
Judge Del Muro was born on July 15,
for Saint Ann's Catholic School.
1955, in Chicago, Illinois. She received
On July 30, 1993, the late Governor
her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1978 in
Mel Carnahan appointed Judge Del
Speech & Hearing Sciences and
Muro to the Jackson County Circuit
Psychology at the University of
Court. She has presided over Division
Missouri at Kansas City. She received
4 since that time. Her job duties have
her Juries Doctor in 1984 at the
The Honorable
included work involving Criminal A,
University of Missouri at Kansas City
Justine E. Del Moro
Domestic, Civil and Drug Dockets. She
School of Law.
Judge Del Muro has displayed an impressive amount tirelessly and loyally works for justice in every decision
of public servancy and hard work to achieve her current she makes.
Judge Del Muro is married and the mother of three
role as a Circuit Court Judge. She has practiced law at
Legal Aid of Western Missouri, the Jackson County children.
The Association for Women Lawyers would like the
Public Defender's Office, and the Popham law firm. In
1990, she received the David J. Dixon Appellate Greater Kansas City community to remember the hard
Advocacy Award. In 1995, she received an award from work of our judges who are up for retention this year.
the Hispanic Bar Association in recognition of her contri- Please support Judge Del Muro and vote to retain her as
bution to the legal and Hispanic community. In 2002, she a Circuit Court Judge in Jackson County this fall.
By Tamara Anfang
Assistant Secretary
M
Badger & Levings
Our thanks to All the Women Lawyers Who Have
Referred Litigation Business to us for Over 25 Years.
Betsy Badger & Theresa Levings
920 Main - Suite 1920 • Kansas City, MO 64105
Telephone: (816) 421-2828 Fax: (816) 471-4629
a Limited Liability Company of Attorneys at Law
6
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March 2006
lawyers believed that prospects for advancement were greater for men than for women.
Yet, the Report concluded, “a wide array of
research finds that women’s opportunities are
ext November, Missourians around
limited by factors other than conscious prejuthe state will again go to the polls to
dice. Major barriers include unconscious
decide who will administer justice in
stereotypes, inadequate access to support netMissouri. Fifty-four of the judges - those
works, inflexible workplace structures, sexual
most members of AWL will be voting on harassment, and bias in the justice system.”
will be standing for retention rather than takThe Report shows that even when years in
ing part in a contested election contest,
the profession and similar factors are adjusted
including judges from the Supreme Court,
for, the disparity in income and position is
the three districts of the Courts of Appeals,
substantial. As of 2002, women earned on
the counties of Jackson, Clay, Platte and St.
average about 76% of what men earn: $64,324
Louis, and the City of St. Louis.
The Hon.
for women compared to $83,720; an almost
Almost one-third of the judges up for
Laura Denvir Stith
$20,000 disparity. Interestingly, the report also
retention – 16 – are women, although they
are not distributed evenly among the various courts. In fact, found that perceptions of bias were very different among men
and women. Over 2/3 of women report experiencing or
one of only three female trial judges ever appointed under
the non-partisan plan outside Kansas City and St. Louis City observing bias, often including sexual harassment, while only
about 25% of men did so.
and County is Associate Circuit Judge Elizabeth Davis, who
Nonetheless, I believe that the increase in the numbers of
is up for retention in Clay County this fall. Platte County
appointed women judges in Missouri since the first Gender
has yet to have a woman judge.
By contrast, in Jackson County, 4 of the 11 judges up for and Justice Task Force survey was completed in 1993 is reflecretention – including Circuit Judge Justine Del Muro and tive of an increasing openness of the profession to women
Associate Circuit Judges Margaret Sauer, Christine Sill- and minorities and of an increasing refusal of the bar as a
Rogers and Twila Rigby — are women. Voters all over the whole to tolerate bias. The extent of this increase may offer a
state will also decide on the retention of Judge Mary Rhodes clue as to the oft-repeated – but inaccurate – perception
Russell, my colleague on the Supreme Court of Missouri. The among some lawyers that women get most of the judicial
other 10 female judges up for retention this fall include 4 from appointments.
St. Louis County, 5 from St. Louis City, and one - Nannette
Women Judges in 1993. The 1993 Task Force Report showed
Baker – from the Eastern District of the Court of Appeals.
It is exciting to see so many qualified women judges up for that:
retention. I can recall when there were not 16 women judges
• 27 of 342 Missouri judges were women, or about 8%,
in the entire state, whether appointed or elected.
including 1 Supreme Court, 2 other appellate court and
The Joint Committee on Gender and Justice of the Supreme
24 trial level judges. Fully 30 of 44 circuits had no
Court and the Missouri Bar is currently preparing a study of
female judges.
the progress that has been made in eliminating bias in
• Women represented between 6 and 10 percent of judges
Missouri’s judicial system and in the legal profession since
at all levels.
the initial Gender Bias survey was published in 1993. The Women Judges in February 2006. By 2006:
Women Lawyers Association of St. Louis last year conducted
• 65 of 262 Missouri judges were women, meaning that the
a narrower survey of how Missouri women lawyers view a
percentage of women in the Missouri judiciary had douvariety of gender issues. The growing numbers of women
bled to nearly 18%. But, that percentage was not evenly
judges are sure to be among the successes revealed in the
distributed.
results of those studies. But, it is important to keep in mind
Appointed Judges. The number of women appointed
that, like the study of bias, the elimination of bias in the legal judges has increased across the board:
profession is still a work in progress. Bias in the administra• Women make up 31% of appointed judges in all. This
tion of justice erodes public trust and confidence in justice;
includes:
true loss of such trust and confidence would be, as Alexander
• Supreme Court: 2 out of 7, or almost 29%, of Supreme
Hamilton once observed, the end of government.
Court judges – that is, Mary Rhodes Russell and me;
According to a Report conducted by the ABA only a few
• Court of Appeals: 8 of 32, or 25%, of Court of Appeals
years ago, entitled “The Unfinished Agenda, Women and the
judges. But, only 1 of 7 Southern District judges are
Legal Profession,” despite substantial progress towards equal
women, and only 2 of 11 Western District judges are
opportunity, the goal of gender equity in the justice system
women. By contrast, 5 of 14, or almost 36%, of Eastern
“remains unfinished. Women in the legal profession remain
District judges are women. No women have been
underrepresented in positions of greatest status, influence
appointed to the court of appeals since the 2oo4 elecand economic reward” – what is popularly referred to as the
tions;
“glass ceiling”.
• Circuit: 17 of 69, or 25%, of appointed circuit judges are
As the Report notes, “The problems are compounded by
women – again, more in St. Louis City and County than
the lack of consensus that there are in fact serious problems.
elsewhere; and
Most attorneys equate gender bias with intentional discrimi• Associate Circuit: 17 of 35, or 49%, of appointed assocination, and the contexts in which they practice produce few
ate circuit judges are women, also concentrated in the
overt examples.” For this reason, the Report found, only
eastern part of the state.
about a quarter of female lawyers and three percent of male
continued on page 10
By The Honorable Laura Denvir Stith
Missouri Supreme Court
N
March 2006
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View From the Bench ...
Retention Elections and Women in the Judiciary
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AWL Photo Album ... 2005 Annual Meeting, Judicial Reception
2005 Annual Meeting and
Judicial Reception Held
By Tracy Bornman
President Elect
Tracy Bornman, Janeen deVries and Stacey McLey are all excited about receiving the 2005
President's Awards.
The Association for Women Lawyers of Greater
Kansas City held its Annual Meeting, Holiday Party,
and Judicial Reception at the home of Past President,
Nancy Kenner, on December 13, 2005.
The 2006 Board of Directors was elected at the
meeting. Past President Vickie Schroeder was honored by AWL with the Woman of the Year Award,
and Commissioner Margene Burnett received the
Judicial Recognition Award. President-Elect Janeen
de Vries, Secretary Tracy Bornman, and Social Chair
Stacey McLey received the President's Award for
their outstanding work on the AWL Board of
Directors. Attendance at the Judicial Reception was
the best ever, as was the food! Sheffield Place was
thrilled with all of the toys donated at the Holiday
Party, and they have thanked AWL profusely.
Thanks to everyone for their generosity and a
great party!
Commissioner Margene Burnette poses with her 2005 Judicial Recognition Award.
Victoria Schroeder accepts the 2005 Woman of the Year Award from
AWL's 2005 president Tracy L. Powell.
AWL Board member Shelley Ericsson poses with The Honorable Preston Dean, The
Honorable John Torrence and one of AWL's past president's, Cathy Dean while enjoying
the Annual Holiday Party and Judicial Reception at the home of Nancy and David Kenner.
8
the AWL
link
March 2006
By Sheryl Nelson
Membership Benefits
S
mooth jazz in the background.
A glass of wine. The sweet
smell of fresh flowers. The
greetings of a large, but friendly,
pooch named Andy. That's the
LeVine Urban Flower & Wine Market
experience.
Established in 1993 in a quaint
building on Gregory Boulevard, just
as few blocks from where proprietor
Gary Levine makes his home, this
California-style fresh flower market
offers a welcome alternative to shopping for flowers at the local grocery
store. It is here that you will find a
simple, yet beautiful, offering of
fresh flowers in buckets of water on
wooden pallets. There are no coolers
filled with pre-made flower arrangements. All arrangements have their
own unique flavor and are designed
to the customer's request.
Generally, LeVine's floral designs
can be described as English gardenstyle, with the flowers arranged
loosely in a vase or wrapped
European-style in paper. Whatever
the arrangement, you can be sure that
many of the flowers were hand-selected by Gary Levine
from boxes of the freshest flowers that were imported by
a local wholesaler that very day.
But LeVine offers more than bouquets and stems of 3040 varieties of fresh flowers at any one time. The market
features the products of other local artists and vendors,
including music CDs and chutney. As for the wine selection, LeVine carries more than 200 different wines, and
Gary Levine tastes all of them before offering them to his
customers. The market even combines the best of both
worlds in wine and flower baskets that many lawyers
give to their clients as a token of appreciation for their
business and referrals.
For all of your fresh flower and wine needs, including
flower and wine delivery and centerpieces for special
and everyday occasions, call LeVine Urban Flower &
Wine Market, (816) 523-0111. Located at 11 West Gregory
Boulevard. Hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.,
Saturday, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Have news to share?
If you are an AWL member and would like to
share information or write an article for the
newsletter, contact Kim Fournier at
[email protected]
March 2006
The current AWL Affinity Members are:
Accent Transportation, LLC
Bijin Salon & Day Spa
Cort Furniture
The Daily Record
Focus Legal Solutions
The Lazarus Group
LeVine Urban Flower & Wine Market
Karen Matula
Morgan Stanley
PCM Leasing Corp.
Persona Salon & Day Spa
The Planned Approach
Versent
Via Lingua Interpreters, Inc.
Woodside Tennis and Health Club
Affinity Member Profile ... LeVine Urban Flower & Wine Market
LeVine Urban Flower & Wine Market
Please check the AWL website for updates to this list
and for a description of the services and benefits
offered to AWL members.
the AWL
link
9
View from the Bench, continued ...
View from the Bench, continued from page 7
10
Elected Judges. But, how can there be only 18% women
judges overall if the numbers of appointed judges break
down to between 25 and 49% at all levels? It is because there
is a stark contrast between the numbers of women who are
appointed versus the number who are elected:
• Women make up only 9.5% of all elected judges. This is
almost as small as their 9% percentage in 1993;
• Circuit: 8 out of 67 elected circuit judges are women,
just 12% of the total;
• Associate: A smaller percentage of elected associate circuit judges are women, only 13 of 138, or less than 9%
of the total.
Why More Women Become Judges Under The
Non-Partisan Plan
As is evident, women fare better under the non-partisan
court plan than they have in elections. While this probably in
part reflects differences between rural and urban cultures and
the greater number of women practitioners in the urban
areas, it also may reflect the neutral, qualification-driven
nature of the non-partisan court plan.
A Judicial Selection Commission determines the three
lawyers whom it believes to be the best qualified of all applicants for a judicial position. The Governor can select only
one of those three nominees (should a Governor fail to make
a selection in the 60 days provided, the Commission selects
one of the three, although this has never occurred). At the
appellate and supreme court levels, this Commission is made
up of the Chief Justice, a lawyer elected by fellow lawyers
from each of the three districts of the court of appeals, and a
lay person appointed by the Governor from each of those districts. At the circuit and associate circuit judge levels, the
Commission is chaired by the Chief Judge of the respective
court of appeals district, with two elected lawyers and two
lay persons from the district appointed by the Governor.
The system is set up so that the only lawyers who can be
considered for a judicial post are those who are qualified to
hold it. At that point, the system permits, even encourages,
consideration of other factors, so that the courts are not
monoliths but reflect the strength and diversity of the bar and
the public, including such factors as geographic, ethnic, political, practice and philosophical diversity. Further, the terms
of the commissioners are staggered, and the Chief Justice or
Chief Judge position on the Commissions is rotated every one
or two years. As a result, the Commission too is generally
diverse in nature, with its lay members often being appointed by different Governors, and its lawyer members reflecting
different aspects of the bar. As a result, the factors that the
Commission considers in selecting members of a panel tend
to reflect the concerns of the legal community and the state as
a whole.
Perhaps that is why Missouri has been so successful in
building an impartial judiciary. Politics is kept at a minimum
in the process and, as a result, and in keeping with the intentions of our Country’s founders, politics is kept out of our
judges’ decision-making. As Chief Justice Wolff noted in a
“Law Matters” column he wrote last year, this reflects the fact
that “we are a nation first and foremost of laws” so that “our
identity has been forged by the rule of law and by our common experience that faithfulness to the law guarantees liberty, equality of opportunity and a functioning civil society.”
Our system of checks and balances, including the estabthe AWL
link
lishment of three separate and balanced branches of government – the executive, the legislative and the judicial – is a
function of the concern expressed by the authors of the
Declaration of Independence that the English monarch had
“made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of
their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.”
The United States Constitution’s answer to these concerns
was to set up a fair and impartial judiciary, free from political
interference. In Missouri, election of judges seems to work
well in smaller counties, but attempts to influence judges in
statewide and urban local elections in the middle of the last
century led to the establishment of the non-partisan court
plan. That plan has worked so well that some 35 other states
have adopted some form of it for their judiciaries – and refer
to it as “the Missouri Plan.”
Recently, the Missouri Plan has been under attack by some
who have perhaps forgotten the concerns that led to its formation. Some have proposed adding politics to the selection
process by requiring that judges proposed by the
Commission and the Governor must be approved by the
Senate. Others would like to see the Constitution be changed
so that judges could be impeached in the House and tried in
the Senate for decisions with which the legislature disagrees.
Yet others would put in term limits for judges or shorten the
length of their terms or require a super-majority for retention.
None of these proposed changes will strengthen the meritbased selection system currently in place, and each in their
own right is a step backwards to the system of political control over the decisions that judges make – many of which are
difficult and close. All of them would make the selection and
retention of judges more political, and less stable and impartial, as judges felt pressure to decide cases based on their
effect on the judge’s popularity rather than the requirements
of the law. Such changes could also further reduce the number of qualified lawyers willing to give up their practice to
join the bench. This is a matter for serious concern in light of
the fact that already fewer and fewer lawyers are willing to
make the growing sacrifice of the large salaries they are making in the private sector in order to take a judicial position
that has not seen even a cost-of-living increase since 1999. It
is of special concern to women lawyers, because of the openness of the current system to qualified women who want to
join the judiciary.
I hope each of you take the time to answer the questionnaires that the Bar will distribute later this year, asking you to
evaluate those judges up for retention, and that each of you
take the time to explain Missouri’s effective and impartial
system of judicial selection to others in the coming year.
ADVERTISE YOUR FIRM OR
SERVICES
IN THE NEXT AWL
NEWSLETTER!
For classified and display rates,
contact Kelly Sneller
at 816-931-2002 or by
e-mail at [email protected].
March 2006
Metadata, continued from page 5
Substantive Law, continued ...
an objection based upon the work-product and/or attorneyclient privilege. See id. at 653-54.
In Williams, the producing party also “locked” the spreadsheets’ cells and data, reportedly to ensure the integrity and
prevent accidental or intentional alteration of the data. See
id. at 655. The Court held more appropriate ways to ensure
data integrity exist, suggesting as an example that the producing party could have run the data through a mathematical process to generate a “hash mark,” thereby creating the
digital equivalent of a tamper-proof seal. See id.
The issues addressed by the Williams opinion may be
completely foreign to some attorneys. If so, listed below are
a few points of practical advice attorneys may want to consider in view of the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
and the Williams case:
1) When responding to discovery requests for electronic
documents, attorneys should be aware of the type of
information contained in the documents’ metadata and,
if any concerns of relevancy or privilege are raised,
timely object to the production.
2) Alternatively, the parties may agree that metadata
should not be produced with electronic documents.
Amended Fed. R. Civ. P.26, which will require parties to
discuss issues relating to the disclosure or discovery of
electronic information at their Rule 26 planning conferences, will present parties with the opportunity to raise
the issue of metadata and its discoverability prior to the
formal exchange of information.
3) Attorneys should also be aware of metadata – and the
possibly privileged information that can be gleaned
therefrom – in documents they forward to opposing
counsel. Whenever possible, attorneys should avoid
forwarding word processing documents via email to
opposing counsel. The preferred way to forward documents should be to scan them and send to opposing
counsel as PDF documents to avoid any inadvertent
disclosure of privileged communications that may be
contained in the metadata.
4) Alternatively, if forwarding a word processing document is necessary, the best way to do so is to copy the
document into an entirely new document and forward
that to opposing counsel as no metadata will be inadvertently revealed other than the second document’s
creation date.
5) Finally, if your office lacks the ability to scan documents, your fax machine may still have a significant
role to play in your communications with opposing
counsel.
The Williams case and the imminent implementation of
the new Federal Rules of Civil Procedure should serve as a
wake-up call to attorneys that they need to be thinking
about these issues, regardless of their particular practice
area. If you have not been focused on this area, rest assured,
other practitioners and judges definitely are.
Stay current between the newsletters
• Discover what deals your
membership can get you.
• Take a look at activities
coming up throughout the
year.
• Stay on top of your CLE
requirements and support
AWL at the same time.
• Find out who to contact if
you have specific questions
or concerns.
Visit www.awl-kc.org today!
March 2006
the AWL
link
11
Association for Women Lawyers of Greater Kansas City
P.O Box 414557
Kansas City, MO 64141
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Stephen Bough
PRESORT STANDARD
US POSTAGE
PAID
PERMIT #5640
KANSAS CITY, MO
Denise Henning
Representing injured plaintiffs in Jackson County
• Serious Automobile Accidents
• Big Truck Litigation
• Product Liability Cases
• Wrongful Death Litigation
[email protected]
[email protected]
1044 Main, Suite 500 • Kansas City, MO 64105
Phone: 816-221-8442 • Fax: 816-221-8449
Upcoming
CLE Opportunities
Take advantage of these upcoming CLE luncheon programs
May 18 2006 at the Central Exchange.................“An ethical approach to making deals”
June 1, 2006 AWL-KCMBA joint CLE venture........................Second Annual Legal Forum
June 29, 2006 at the Central Exchange..................“The ethical use of jury consultants”
For more information, contact Elle Sullivant at 816-252-4405 or visit www.awl-kc.org.