When WLALA President-Elect Heather Stern asked me to be WLALA’s chair of the LACBA-WLALA Joint Task Force, I responded with an enthusiastic “yes.”  The Joint Task Force is an exceptional group that “explores practical solutions to the ongoing phenomenon of women leaving the legal profession in significant numbers.”  Ladies, we want you.  We need you.  We need your voice.  We need your presence.  Seeing and hearing from women in the law encourages and inspires all lawyers to stay and make a difference.

Last September, Beth Mowins became the first woman to call a Monday Night Football game.  ESPN columnist Kavitha Davidson wrote about it:  http://www.espn.com/espnw/voices/article/20681034/that-visceral-feeling-hearing-the-monday-night-football-booth.  Like Ms. Mowins and Ms. Davidson, I am a sports fan and a professional person who happens to be a woman.  Like Ms. Davidson, when it comes to sports, I am “constantly asked my opinion on a game, player, rule, issue — you name it. And as a woman, upon giving my opinion, I’m immediately questioned, challenged, tested, doubted — you name it.”  This happens in the law, too.  To too many of us too often.  That is why it is so important to hear from and see women in leadership roles in the law. 

I have been watching the NFL since I was a little girl.  Hearing Ms. Mowins – someone who sounds like I do – call the Monday night game last year demonstrated the importance of hearing from and seeing women in positions of power.  It inspires women to stay.  It inspires women to be role models and mentors for others.  As Ms. Davidson put:  “[I]t’s still rare to hear a woman’s voice in an elevated position in the sports sphere…If the big business of sports wants sports to be ubiquitous, then perhaps that means actively embracing and including those of us who[] have been ignored for so long.”  The law is no different.  As we head into another year of Joint Task Force programming, I look forward to working with the dedicated committee to explore ways in which we can encourage and inspire women to stay and remain “All In.”  

Jessica Kronstadt is a Deputy District Attorney at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.  Ms. Kronstadt currently serves as Secretary for WLALA.