Courts

Infuriating Story Of The Bullsh*t Working Parents Have To Deal With In The Legal Industry

It doesn't make you a worse attorney to have a modicum of compassion for your opposition.

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Low Section Of Newborn Baby Leg Wrapped With Device In HospitalWorking moms just can’t win. Particularly in the legal industry where the adversarial process can fuel a more competitive spirit than is particularly healthy and can make folks forget their humanity. Over at Lioness Stories, a storytelling platform that highlights first-person narratives, there’s a particularly infuriating story reminding folks just how toxic the legal profession can be.

The Instagram post highlights the story of attorney Rachael Kierych. She balanced a high-risk pregnancy and a trial. She won the case at seven months pregnant, but during that time she was also was hospitalized four times and gave birth prematurely (her daughter was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit). But at a time when her attention should be on the health of herself and family, instead she had to deal with on attacks on her professionalism.

In her own words:

You would think the story ends there. Sadly, that is not the case. After filing a brief in this same matter while postpartum, opposing counsel found it appropriate to continue his harassment campaign sending a letter to the court accusing me in a public filing of misrepresenting my health conditions, and refusing to withdraw the letter even after being informed I had been hospitalized and my daughter had been admitted to the NICU. This is the unfortunate state of the legal industry.

As Kierych told the court, a brief was filed while she was on leave, and opposing counsel chose to use that as a sword against her and he did so without knowledge of any of the medical details or when drafting on the motion was done or the allocation of work on the plaintiff’s team. It’s a sad attempt at a “gotcha” moment without regard for the actual people on the other side of the caption.

Read the full story below.

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Kathryn Rubino HeadshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

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