VINCENT SCHILLING Correspondent

In 2006, the American Bar Association conducted a study of the factors that keep minority female attorneys from reaching the highest ranks in law firms. According to the study, reasons included implicit and explicit bias, exclusion, inadequate support and disparity in compensation.

The study, entitled “Visible Invisibility,” found that despite the profession’s efforts at diversity, African American, Native American, Asian American and Hispanic American female lawyers nationwide still lack networking opportunities and access to high-profile, high-revenue client matters and they are often subjected to demeaning comments, harassment and unfair performance evaluations.

As a result of the study, the ABA created and published a follow-up report entitled “Visibly Successful: Success Strategies for Law Firms and Women of Color in Law Firms,” as a tool to motivate and encourage minority female lawyers and assist law firms in developing, promoting and retaining these women.

The report is not necessarily new information for minority female attorneys and attorney-hopefuls in Hampton Roads.

As an African American attorney, Karen L. Bland, who practices at her own firm in Newport News, said that she has long had to maintain a strong sense of faith in herself and her abilities to overcome the adversity she’s experienced.

Bland, whose firm is the Law Office of Karen Bland PC, is an international trade attorney and consultant with nearly 20 years’ experience. She relocated to Hampton Roads from Washington, D.C., where she worked for Akin Gump on the firm’s hiring and diversity committees. She opened her Newport News law practice in 2008 to provide international trade and business legal services to small and medium-sized businesses.

“For several reasons, and not all related to being African American, practicing law in a firm environment is quite challenging,” Bland said. “As a woman of color, you may confront others who doubt you because of your race, because you’re a woman – or both. You may confront situations where you are treated differently from your white colleagues, not given the same quality of assignments, not given similar opportunities to work directly with clients – all necessary experiences to move up in the firm’s ranks to partner.

“Although I definitely believe that these obstacles have diminished in recent years because many firms are now more sensitive to the negative experiences that minority and women attorneys have confronted, these obstacles have not disappeared,” she said. “Why? Because, in my opinion, they stem from ingrained attitudes and negative stereotypes that take a long time to change. Possessing a strong belief in one’s self is absolutely necessary because you need that faith to confront these obstacles head-on and to remain steadfast in achieving your professional goals.”

Bland pushes back against the perception that black attorneys should practice only civil rights or work for the government. She recalls many times superiors or colleagues have doubted her intellectual capacity to perform.

“This is why I have always strived to perform at the highest level of excellence,” Bland said. “I knew that to be successful, I had to have a strong track record of success. While I still receive some odd looks when I tell people that I’m an international trade attorney, as soon as I start speaking, and my expertise becomes evident, I don’t sense any doubt about my capabilities.”

Mary Jackowell, a Hispanic American paralegal at the law firm of Michael Hamar PC in Norfolk, hopes one day to be an attorney. But as a mother of two and a minority, she has faced challenges. She worries about being taken seriously.

“I have been told I am too bubbly and nice, that I need to be serious, because we deal with serious issues,” Jackowell said.

As a mother, she appreciates the support she gets from the Hamar firm. In a previous job, she returned from maternity leave to find that her position had been filled. At her current job, she is not only a paralegal and the office manager; she also often serves as an interpreter for clients.

“Having Mary fully bilingual is a huge asset,” attorney Michael Hamar said.

Udoka Obi is an African American woman who practices law in Newport News. With her assistant, Vivian Uwanaka, an African American who is a law student at Regent University, Obi operates a general civil practice focusing on bankruptcy, family and immigration law.

“I find that whenever I appear in a court for the first time, I am often mistaken as anyone but counsel,” Obi said. “At security, I have been greeted with ‘Ma’am, this line is for attorneys only,’ to which I politely smile and pull out my bar card. Or, when entering a courtroom for a custody case, I have been asked ‘Are you the mother in this case?’

“Sometimes, I wonder if I were a non-minority, would I still be mistaken as ‘the baby momma,’” she said. “My inkling is that I would not – I may be more readily recognized as counsel.

“I understand that I have a youthful appearance,” she said, “but I would think that the suit and file in my hand would give it away that I am counsel.”

Obi said she also struggled to start her firm.

“When I began my law firm, I faced some individuals who questioned the wisdom of starting my own firm,” she said. “Do you have enough connections, business or experience? Why don’t you wait? The often-unspoken question was, really, are you sure that as a young black female attorney you want to start a firm to compete with established, larger, well-connected, non-minority firms?

“It was a fair question,” she said, “but I had to stand by my conviction that it was my time. I’m not in competition with these firms.”

She knew if she waited five or 10 years, things might change.

“Perhaps at that point, I would simply trade my dream in for being glad I had a ‘good job,’” she said.

Uwanaka, Obi’s assistant, said as a law student she has concerns about her future.

“I have concerns that in the workplace, my personal views have the potential of becoming representative of my entire race,” Uwanaka said about her goal to be an attorney.

“Also, in interviews, I often struggle with what may seem to others as minute details – should I wear my hair straightened or in braids and how will it be perceived by the interviewer, who is not a minority?”

Kathleen McKee, a Native American of Cherokee and Algonquin descent, is an associate professor and director of the Civil Litigation Clinic at Regent University and has been a lawyer for 32 years. McKee did not have a support system early on and had to rely on her own strength.

“I wasn’t invited to join study groups,” she said.

After her first year in law school, she decided to tell her Native American mother and father what she was studying.

“On the phone, my father said, you know the Indian word for lawyer is liar,” she said.

Once she was practicing law, McKee was often mistaken by the bailiff as the client rather than counsel.

When she worked at a law firm specializing in utilities regulation in the deep South, she was often asked not to be present with clients “because some decision-makers were not comfortable with women,” she said.

As a professor to many minority female law students, McKee gives this advice.

“You have got to have a good support system,” she said. “Don’t try to become a female clone of a male attorney; it doesn’t work out well. Don’t cut corners, and work and strive toward excellence.You can’t bill a client for mediocrity.”