EVENTS
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATION By Jerilyn Paik
A special thank you to our Panelists, Hon. Connie Callahan, Hon. Shama Mesiwala, Hon. Stacy Boulware Eurie and Jerilyn Paik. The panelists engaged in incredible dialogue and spoke about real and true issues happening in our world today. We also recognize and thank Women Lawyers of Sacramento for supporting this event. The yellow rose represents VICTORY for the Suffragists, who, for almost a century, struggled to gain voting rights for women. The yellow rose appears in the center of the League of Women Voters’ Piedmont Triad commemoratory logo for their year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
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he Sacramento County Bar Association commemorated International Women’s Day on March 6, 2020, with a panel discussion on the “work and life balance” that all female attorneys strive to achieve. The panel consisted of three jurists (Ninth Circuit Judge Consuelo Callahan, and Superior Court Judges Stacy Boulware Eurie and Shama Hakim Mesiwala) and one practicing attorney (Jerilyn Paik), and was moderated by SCBA’s Secretary/Treasurer Andi Liebenbaum. The event was held at the SCBA Conference Center and was attended by a few dozen women and a few men (including retired Third District Court of Appeal Justice Art Scotland, Justice Ron Robie of the same court, and McGeorge Professor Ed Telfeyan).
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Ms. Liebenbaum opened the event by posing three questions. First, she asked, “has the law changed in how it addresses the needs of women?” Second, if women are more inclined to give up their careers after becoming attorneys, how is this fact addressed as women leaders? And third, why is “women in the law” still a topic of discussion? Judge Callahan served as the keynote speaker following Ms. Liebenbaum’s introductory remarks. She spoke directly of her career, noting that she was one of only 10 female students in her law school class and that she now sits on a Court of Appeals where 13 of the 29 judges are women. She recalled that she took the first job she was offered, fearing no one would hire her be-
SACRAMENTO LAWYER | Summer 2020 | www.sacbar.org
Jerilyn Paik is a solo practitioner specializing in probate, estate planning and trust litigation. She can be contacted at Jeri@jplawoffice.com.
cause she was a woman. She often felt marginalized as a woman litigator, but she used it to her advantage because her opponent often underestimated her. Judge Callahan also acknowledged that early in her career, she felt she was being judged for all women who would follow her. This understanding motivated her to
