Girl Power

Of course there are tons of us girls in the criminal defense trenches, but we still don't outnumber our pony-tailed male counterparts. I was lucky enough to be trained by a female criminal defense investigator. I say lucky, because she taught me how to use the girl in me to be a good investigator. Her weapon of choice was a genuine interest in every one she met, no matter what they had witnessed or had to say about our client. An article once described her as disarming people by playing the dippy chick. Truth of the matter was, she wasn't playing dumb or manipulating people, she was just approaching people in an unassuming, girlish manner and walking away with all the information she needed, and then some.

While I'm on my girl kick, I wanted to mention the gals over at A Fighting Chance. They are female criminal defense investigators who have been doing great work for folks who didn't get their cases investigated the first time around. Additionally, they do public outreach and training in criminal defense investigation. Hopefully, because of organizations like A Fighting Chance, we'll see more women, and people of all backgrounds and colors, doing this kind of work in the future. Congrats to A Fighting Chance for being a finalist for the 2006 social capitalist awards.

The logo for the Bay Area based Women Defenders is a pretty cool tribute to girl power.

It's kind of funny, that even in this day and age, it's still thought of as against stereotype to be a female CDinvestigator or CDattorney. Below is a link to a recent L.A. Times article about Allison Margolin, "L.A.'s dopest attorney." She's Bruce's little girl, not Ephraim's, not Phillip's. Allison's just another example of girl power, with a decidedly L.A. twist.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dopest22aug22,0,7007710.story?coll=la-home-headlines And yes, like everyone else under 30, she's got a blog.

But, if it was me, I'd get this girl, instead of Allison.

Last, but not least, I would be remiss not to mention another online sister in law, Blonde Justice.