Happy Thursday, Comes Now readers! This is the weekly issue where I discuss some of the things I’ve been reading and thinking. If you ever find interesting articles you’d like me to include in this issue, send them my way.

Attorneys Who Argue Before the Supreme Court are Largely Men

In an article that won’t surprise anyone who’s been paying attention, U.S. Law Week reported that attorneys who argue before the U.S. Supreme Court skew male and Ivy League. The conclusions are based on the list of 55 attorneys who argued before the Court between October 2016 and December 2023.

As reflected in the two charts below, the number of women who argued was better for the Office of the Solicitor General than it was for attorneys in private practice.

Associates Want Compensation and Work-Life Balance

In a predictable study reported by the National Association for Law Placement’s Foundation and discussed in Law360 [paywall], 3,300 associates from 57 law firms in the U.S. and Canada valued compensation, work-life balance, and career path opportunities when deciding whether to remain at their law firms. The NALP Foundation also noted “significant divergences” in the data when the results were analyzed by race, ethnicity, and gender. Gender identity, of course, seemed to influence how important flexible work arrangements were to associates. (This will stay the same until men have equal levels of caretaking responsibilities.)

Breaking the Cycle of Burnout at Work

Two male partners authored a Law360 [paywall] article about how reimagining law firm culture can break the burnout cycle. While the article is thoughtful, it talks about burnout as synonymous with being overworked. As such, its solutions focus on reducing the number of hours worked, offering alternative working arrangements, and other cultural changes like not requiring mandatory firm events. It’s important to keep pointing out that employers (not just BigLaw firms) play a big role in alleviating burnout, but the article misses some things about burnout that are peculiar to women and other under-represented groups, as discussed in one of my earliest Comes Now issues.

Women Judged for Networking in Ways Men Are Not

The Wall Street Journal [paywall] published an article on a forthcoming study in Organizational Science that showed that, while men are admired by their peers for networking with higher-status colleagues, women are judged for doing the same thing. Examinations from three field sites in China and a survey of more than 2,000 American adults showed that, while men received higher status ratings for affiliating themselves with high-status contacts, when women built networks rich with high-status contacts, their status gradually declined over time. This led the study’s authors to conclude that “[p]eople typically don’t like dominant and ambitious female leaders.” You don’t say!

The authors recommend that, when women seek out high-status connections, they “signal[] group orientation”—or that they’re seeking these connections to benefit the organization, not just themselves. They note that “this reframing tactic is not an ideal solution in the long run—it accommodates pre-existing gender stereotypes rather than challenging them.” Right! What’s wrong with seeking out high-status connections for yourself, rather than the benefit of others?

The authors also suggest that organizations can help reframe this narrative by encouraging employees to pursue ties with high-status individuals, and can reframe networking events as community building ones.

Working Fathers Subject to Microaggressions at Work

Fortune magazine reports that working fathers are increasingly the subject of microaggressions at work, something that traditionally only happened to working moms. The article notes that, while these microaggressions often come from older, male bosses, they also come from “women leaders who waded through waves of misogyny to advance in their careers.”

Generational Views of Feminism

Fortune magazine wrote an article based on a study by King’s College London’s Policy Institute and Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, in partnership with Ipsos U.K., that found that Gen Z men are more likely than Baby Boomers to believe that feminism does more harm than good. The study’s authors believe the reason to be that “young men—who are witnessing the push to pull women up the ranks—are worrying about their own future careers.” Around 20% of Gen Z men think it’ll be “much harder” to be a man than a woman in 20 years’ time. In comparison, for men over 60 years old, this drops to just 9%.

In an echo of the Claudia Goldin research we discussed last week in the R&T issue, the article concludes by quoting Susan Faludi’s book Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, which points out that a backlash against women’s rights is “a recurring phenomenon” that “returns every time women begin to make some headway towards equality.”

Uptick in Sexual Harassment Complaints Against Federal Judges

Law360 published an article noting an uptick in sexual harassment complaints by federal judges. In the 12-month period ending September 30, 2023, there were six complaints. Two were from the Second Circuit, two from the Fourth Circuit, and one each from the Fifth and Ninth Circuits. Both of the Fourth Circuit complaints have been dismissed. There were also 37 accusations of retaliation for participating in the complaint process, which, as the article notes, likely contributes to the low complaint rates in the first instance.

Questions About the “Independent” Investigations into Sexual Abuse and Harassment

Mother Jones did an extensive article on the big business of “independent” investigations into sexual abuse and harassment, and whether survivors can trust the results of such investigations. You’ve all seen these: bad behavior happens in Corporate America, and so the company hires a prestigious law firm to do an investigation of the wrongdoing. They’re a big like the Congressional panels convened after tragedies or scandals, although independent investigations done for corporations are far more profitable. As Mother Jones observes, for many reasons explained in the article, “it is difficult to distinguish bona fida efforts from cynical exercises in liability management.”

Magic Mushrooms, Anyone?

The WSJ Magazine published an article stating that moms in high-powered jobs have found psilocybin (psychedelics known as magic mushrooms) to help them with performance and energy. Women interviewed for the article described it as “the new glass of wine” for executive women.

Share Comes Now!

If you’re enjoying this newsletter, please share it with others and encourage them to subscribe. I draft it on Beehiiv (Comes Now (beehiiv.com)) but also now provide Tuesday issue in a LinkedIn newsletter. You can subscribe to these posts either place.

Have a topic you’d like me to address? Send me an email at [email protected].