Bar Panel to Monitor Gender Bias

The Orange County Bar Assn. announced Thursday that it has formed a new panel to handle complaints about gender bias in the legal community, making it the first such program in the state.

The move was prompted by an association survey in which 65% of the respondents said they had witnessed sexism on the job.

Now, attorneys and judges can complain to the Gender Equity Committee, which has no enforcement powers but aims to educate and prevent sexism in the courtroom and even in the boardrooms of private law firms.

“It’s something that might help and can’t hurt,” said Fullerton attorney Marjorie G. Fuller, who is co-chairwoman of the committee.

Traditionally, gender bias issues are raised in lawsuits, or complaints to the State Bar and the state’s Commission on Judicial Performance. But Fuller hopes that the panel, which she said is the first in the state, will quell problems before they turn into costly--and potentially career-damaging--legal action.

Complaints will be kept confidential and reviewed by committee members who can bring the complaint to the attention of the offending party and seek a non-confrontational resolution.

An education forum is expected to be held in the upcoming weeks, Fuller said.

A bar association poll of its 6,000 members found that women generally experience bias in the form of “demeaning and patronizing language.”

Several female attorneys who declined to speak publicly for fear of retaliation said in the survey that even subtle comments may ultimately be harmful to clients too.

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“To negotiate a case, you have to be taken seriously,” one female defense attorney said.

A sizable number of men, however, said they thought some judges were more likely to favor female witnesses and counsel, that female judges showed clear preference to female attorneys, and that some male judges were more likely to favor women, particularly in child-custody cases, Fuller said. Some attorneys also complain that judges are more lenient on female defendants.

Much of the bias reported in the survey took place outside the courtroom, in law firms and among peers, Fuller said.

Many attorneys and judges, both males and females, applauded the new panel. Yet some fear it might become a clearinghouse for complaints about “un-politically correct” behavior that could have a chilling effect on the legal community.

“I think it’s a good thing,” said Assistant Presiding Orange County Superior Court Judge Theodore E. Millard. “But the system somehow has to be able to look at the hypersensitive person and say, ‘Your complaint doesn’t have any merit.’ ”

In one of the most noted local cases involving sexism, Fuller represented a Newport Beach woman who contested a prenuptial agreement when she and her husband--a wealthy South County car dealer--divorced.

At trial, a judge rejected the woman’s claim that her husband urged their marriage--even though it wasn’t a key issue at trial.

“Why . . . buy the cow when you get the milk free?” the judge reasoned, noting that the man was “once burned, twice cautious” from an earlier marriage and divorce. The 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana reversed the case and rebuked the judge.

Attorney Michelle A. Reinglass, a former bar president who started the gender equity committee two years ago, said she hopes the process will educate people.

“My belief is that the majority of the little things, the inadvertent comments, the ‘honeys’ and the ‘dears,’ are said out of ignorance,” she said.

The advisory panel consists of judges and association members.