{"id":21606,"date":"2013-11-06T16:39:18","date_gmt":"2013-11-06T21:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=21606"},"modified":"2013-11-06T21:04:55","modified_gmt":"2013-11-07T02:04:55","slug":"guide-to-public-speaking-for-girl-lawyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2013\/11\/guide-to-public-speaking-for-girl-lawyers\/","title":{"rendered":"Guide to Public Speaking for Girl Lawyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lauren-Bacall-150x150\"<\/a>Yes, I wrote \u201cgirl\u201d in that headline. \u00a0And for a very specific reason. Recently, it\u2019s hit the web<\/a> that global law firm Clifford Chance has provided its female lawyers in its U.S. offices with a guide to public speaking. And while some (nay, even most) of the tips are perfectly reasonable, there are others that smack of such sexism to the extent that one might believe that Clifford Chance thinks of its female lawyers as girls.\u00a0 To wit, one of the points in the guide:\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t giggle.\u201d Another: \u201cPretend you\u2019re in moot court, not the high school cafeteria\u201d (on \u201c\u2018Like\u2019 You\u2019ve got to Lose \u2018Um\u2019 and \u2018Uh,\u2019 \u2018You Know,\u2019 \u2018OK,\u2019 and \u2018Like\u2019).<\/p>\n

Like, seriously?<\/p>\n

On both points, they are equally applicable to male lawyers. (Yes, men do giggle, but the use of that word here suggests something very female, very childish, and very undesirable.) Yet, it was only Clifford Chance\u2019s female lawyers who received this five-page memo. It\u2019s curious to me why this is so. Does the firm believe that there are separate rules for men and women? Does it believe that women need the extra help? Or is it attempting to support its female lawyers? If it is attempting to support its female lawyers, I applaud its desire, but criticize its way of doing so.<\/p>\n

More of its sexist advice: Apparently, the best voice for presenting is a male one. Is it because a male voice carries better across the room or because a male voice carries more authority? With audio technology, all speakers can be heard when presenting (and, in fact, the Clifford Chance memo recognizes this fact because it provides a number of tips on dealing with audio technology, like microphones.) Nonetheless, a female lawyer is advised to lower her pitch and remember that \u201c[y]our voice is higher than you hear.\u201d Here, the firm counsels women to \u201c[t]hink Lauren Bacall not Marilyn Monroe.\u201d I get it\u2014lower-pitched voices probably carry better than higher-pitched whispery ones. However, two things occur to me here.\u00a0 First, Lauren Bacall, while husky-voiced, was no less sexy than Marilyn Monroe. In fact, she was arguably more<\/i> sexy; a smart capable woman compared to Monroe\u2019s more vulnerable \u201cgirly girl\u201d persona. (Another way Clifford Chance seems to think its female attorneys are girls.) And I\u2019m guessing \u201csexy\u201d is not what Clifford Chance wants its female lawyers projecting in any event. So the references to both Bacall and Monroe fail. Second, I can\u2019t imagine there would be anything worse than listening to a presenter with a naturally higher pitched voice trying to lower it for the duration of her presentation. That isn\u2019t her; that\u2019s not who she is, and her attempts to change that will just be one more thing for her to have to worry about when presenting.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to a few of Clifford Chance\u2019s other points about presentation. Female lawyers are advised to \u201c[l]ose the quirky mannerism that are so charming to those who do know you.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, don\u2019t try to be \u201ccute\u201d with your audience. Also, female lawyers should not \u201ctilt your head.\u201d I\u2019m assuming that a head tilt somehow equates to being \u201ccute,\u201d rather than signaling, say, genuine inquisitiveness or concern.\u00a0 Here\u2019s my problem here, and it would apply even if this advice were to male lawyers, as well. Personality matters. And a speaker, female or<\/i> male who checks her or his personality at the door before her or his speech makes for a really boring presenter. I agree that you don\u2019t want your verbal tics or hand motions to overtake your entire presentation, but I believe you do<\/i> want to bring yourself, with some of your quirks and, yes, maybe even head tilts, to your presentation. You will be human and so much more interesting to listen to.<\/p>\n

Another suggestions for female lawyers: \u201c[p]ractice hard words.\u201d Is this assuming that female lawyers are going to get stuck over multisyllabic words? Or does it maybe mean that some words, even \u201ceasy\u201d ones, end up being hard to say when you\u2019re under pressure to perform outloud? In either case, this is not a bad piece of advice so long as it would apply to men as well as to women.\u00a0 If only men had received the memo. That they didn\u2019t suggests that the firm believes women are more likely to mess up the \u201chard\u201d words.<\/p>\n

The memo also tells female lawyers to not \u201ctalk taller than you are.\u201d \u00a0This will be good news for my female colleague who stands six feet tall.\u00a0 Not so good for me at five-foot, two inches.\u00a0 Maybe I better dumb it down.<\/p>\n

And, of course, we can\u2019t have a memo on how to speak publicly without addressing how the speaker looks.\u00a0 And looks do matter. Part of being a lawyer (or any other professional, for that matter) is looking the part. Okay, we get that. So, when a woman has a job as a lawyer at a large law firm, is it really necessary to remind her to \u201c[w]ear a suit, not your party outfit\u201d when she speaks? But it\u2019s not quite that easy for women; apparently not just any suit will do. The memo also advises to not \u201cdress like you do every day, wear something special,\u201d but <\/i>\u201c[d]on\u2019t wear the same outfit as you wore on the program photo, on [the firm\u2019s] website.\u201d And if you think the easy solution is just to wear black, well, the memo has further advice for you: \u201cDon\u2019t dress like a mortician; if wearing a black suit, wear something bright.\u201d \u00a0Keep in mind, of course, that whatever \u201cbright\u201d thing you wear can\u2019t be your party outfit and it can\u2019t be what you\u2019ve already worn in a photo.<\/p>\n

And, naturally, a woman lawyer must not show her cleavage. Again, if a woman has snagged a job in a large firm, does she really need to be told this? But the memo states, \u201cNo one heard Hillary the day she showed cleavage.\u201d Three things come to mind here: First, isn\u2019t it condescending to refer to our former Secretary of State (and former First Lady and 2008 presidential<\/i> candidate) as simply \u201cHillary\u201d? Second, has Hillary Clinton ever<\/i> shown cleavage? And third, duh!<\/p>\n

That the memo was written by a woman does not change the fact that it has sexist overtones. Woman can be sexist, too. And I do want to reiterate that most of its points are good and important\u2014for both<\/i> women and<\/i> men. But the fact that only women received it could suggest that the firm views only women as needing the (in some cases, oh-so-obvious) guidance.<\/p>\n

In many ways, the memo is about how to earn respect as a speaker, yet the entire context of it is disrespectful. In all, the memo was just a reminder that the law is a man\u2019s game and women apparently need to learn to play like a man to succeed.\u00a0 How sad.<\/p>\n

For the full memo, see here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, I wrote \u201cgirl\u201d in that headline. \u00a0And for a very specific reason. Recently, it\u2019s hit the web that global law firm Clifford Chance has provided its female lawyers in its U.S. offices with a guide to public speaking. And while some (nay, even most) of the tips are perfectly reasonable, there are others that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,36,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism","category-legal-practice","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}