A JUDGE'S TALE

A judge recounts the early years of her career, from her work as a lawyer to her fight to win and keep her place on the bench, in this memoir.

Kintner had a passionate voice from a young age—she was such an avid member of her university debate team that a fellow debater suggested she apply for law school. Though female lawyers were almost unheard of in the early 1960s, the author didn’t let that stop her. She excelled in law school and passed the bar in California and Arizona. Despite her strong record, Kintner had trouble finding her first job, since most firms would not hire women lawyers. She finally landed a position at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego, where she focused on consumer fraud, a new branch of law at the time. Later, she moved to prosecuting for the City Attorney’s office and eventually opened her own private practice. In 1976, she was appointed judge by Gov. Jerry Brown. She was the third female judge ever to serve in San Diego, and, at age 31, the youngest judge in the state of California. In 1978, she won a highly contested race to keep her seat. While this book honors Kintner’s impressive achievements, it merely scratches the surface of such compelling subjects as the ways in which consumer protection laws were created. The author does memorably discuss how women operated in a profession dominated by men: Kintner reports that there was no maternity leave policy for judges because no judge had ever been pregnant before. She could only use her three weeks of vacation, yet she did not argue because, as she writes, “I felt I could not rock the boat…I could not give the male judges a reason to object to female judges.” Kintner does an excellent job of personalizing her story by weaving in details from her personal life; it’s a shame the book ends before getting to the second half of her extraordinary career.

An important and inspiring look at the role of women in the legal profession.