By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

Erie County Court Judge Hon. Lisa Bloch Rodwin and Maryann Saccomando Freedman, of counsel with Cohen & Lombardo PC, are joining forces to discuss the impact and influence of women on the legal profession.

Both will speak at the downtown Buffalo & Erie County Public Library on Thursday, March 25 at noon. The event, billed as "Women and the Law," is free and open to the public. Both veterans of the Buffalo legal community say they are eager to discuss how women are affecting the legal community not only as lawyers, but as judges, legislators, advocates and even clients.

Freedman, who has been practicing law for 52 years, said she will bring a historical message to the event and remind those in attendance that while much progress has been made, there is still significant work to be done.

"When I started to practice, there was absolutely no recognition, for example, that the services of a housewife had any measurable monetary value. When there was an action for personal injury, and it was a housewife, the value of that case was minimal at best," she said. "It took eventually having a women on the appellate division to change that and show that there was a measurable economic value to being a housewife, and that really changed the nature of personal injury litigation."

Freedman said she has seen the changing role of women in the law as a gradual evolution. Asked to share a watershed event of the movement, Freedman pointed to the influx of women into law school's in the 1970s as a defining period.

‘When they started coming out in the late 70s and 80s, they were my male colleagues' daughters coming out of law school," she said. "It was their daughter who was getting a bad deal; it was their daughter who couldn't get a job and was being treated unfairly and that brought a lot of the men around to their enlightenment."

Among those women graduating law school at that time was Ann Evanko, current president of Hurwitz & Fine PC. Like Freedman, she sees the tremendous strides women have made in the legal profession, while being mindful that when it comes to partner positions, judgeships and legislative roles, equality has still not been achieved.

"The opportunities are so much more than they were 30 years ago, and women have dramatically improved their status in the field," Evanko said. "I think particularly, the Women's Bar in the State of New York has been a very important force in making changes in law firms and providing opportunities for women."

Evanko recalled a time in her career when the idea that she would have an opportunity to lead a firm seemed inconceivable.

"When I began my career, you would walk into a board meeting for a client and you would not see other women," she said. "Thirty years ago, when you walked in with another lawyer, they were always men, and they looked to the male lawyer for the answers, the advice and the counsel. That has changed dramatically. Women are a predominant force in our society, we have persuasive influence, we are smart and we are now viewed as capable and competent."

That shift in perception has also led to a significant shift in the handling of domestic violence cases. Freedman shared a story that as she said, "happened in my lifetime" and illustrates how far women have advanced.

"I can remember a time when I sat in an audience of all lawyers in front of a panel of judges and one of our very prominent judges said he saw no reason for complaints if a husband slapped his wife around a little ... ‘everybody knows that's OK,' " she recalled. "That of course has changed, and today, domestic abuse is vigorously prosecuted and that is a big change directly related to women in the profession and women on the bench."

It is an issue that Rodwin made a career of as longtime chief of the Erie County District Attorney's Office, Domestic Violence Bureau. She hopes to share some of her experiences at the event and sees it as an educational opportunity for younger legal professionals.

"What we are hoping to convey at this event is a little of the history of women attorneys in Western New York over the last couple of decades," she said. "I think there is a great gulf in the level of understanding in young women attorneys, who are perhaps in their 20s, of what things were like for women practicing as recently as 20 years ago."