A Conversation with 缅因州 首席大法官瓦莱丽·斯坦菲尔 ’79
艾米·迪特里希02年, 刘易斯顿的律师, 缅因州, spoke with 首席大法官瓦莱丽·斯坦菲尔 '79 about her path from 布林莫尔 to the highest judicial office in the state of 缅因州.
是什么让你带莫尔来的?
I was looking for a high-quality and competitive school. I had gone to high school in Concord, Mass., which was sort of the heart of preppy land. 我不太适应. There was another woman in my town who had gone to 布林莫尔, and she was really smart and very different. And that’s what inspired me to look at it. When I visited, I felt like there was room for everyone there—you didn’t have to fit a mold.
你主修什么专业?
I majored in history, focusing on very nontraditional courses, especially for the period. I took mostly Russian history, but I also took a lot of African American history.
许多年以后, when I was director of the [University of 缅因州 School of Law] clinic, I went to Russia on a rule of law exchange. When you learn a language like Russian, the first thing you learn is the alphabet. 我们当时站在圣. Petersburg trying to find our flights, and somebody said, “I wonder where our gate is?我说:“嗯，就在那儿。.” So, it did stand me in good stead all those years later.
DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY CLUBS OR ACTIVITIES?
No. I worked a lot of hours every week to support myself: in the town of 布林莫尔 as a short order cook, then at The Coop in Haverford and in Ardmore at a place that did phone surveys. At Haverford I worked as a cashier and [my boss] needed a cook. And I said, “I can do it,” but he refused to hire women as cooks. I persuaded him and was the first woman to be a cook there. 他付给厨师的钱比付给收银员的多.
ARE THERE ANY LESSONS FROM BRYN MAWR THAT HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO YOUR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH?
I came from a background where I had not been given any limit on expectations. I was brought up in a family with two girls and a boy, and we were expected to do the same things. 没有分化.
And then I came to 布林莫尔, and we were treated like adults. You were expected to take responsibility for your own actions, and achievement was expected. 作为一名历史专业的学生, by the end of your junior or senior year, [your professors are] treating you as historians. You aren’t, but that’s how you are treated. 我认为这很重要.
WHAT DREW YOU TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SCHOOL OF LAW?
My family had summered in 缅因州 since the early 1900s. 等我大学毕业的时候, my mother had moved up to 缅因州 full-time, and my sister had gone to the University of 缅因州 and lived in 缅因州 as well, 所以我的家庭中心转移了. At the time, 缅因州 Law was pretty competitive and incredibly cheap.
法学院毕业后, 我是鲍勃·克利福德的职员, who was then Chief Justice of the Superior Court, 在奥本, 缅因州. 之后我去了伯曼 & Simmons in Lewiston [as a trial lawyer], the same community you practice in.
首席大法官瓦莱丽·斯坦菲尔"You don't have to follow anyone else's path, but know when to say yes and when to say no."
是什么吸引你去教书的?
我一直很喜欢和学生一起工作. For the year before law school, I was a full-time substitute teacher in 缅因州. I later worked with the Lewiston High School Mock Trial Team.
I taught trial practice and clinical practice at the [University of 缅因州] Law School. 我进来的时候已经试过了
a lot of cases, but so much of it is almost instinct. You don’t know why you do what you do to some extent. And then you try to figure that out so that you can teach somebody how to do a cross-examination. When you teach, you are always going to be challenged: why or how? 你会学到很多.
AFTER TEACHING AT MAINE LAW FOR SEVERAL YEARS, YOU MOVED OVER TO THE JUDICIARY IN 2006. 为什么?
我必须有另一个篇章. In my career, the changes I’ve made have not generally been planned. I’ve leapt without a landing in a lot of instances. As much as I enjoyed teaching, it wasn’t a good forever fit for me. I was interim director of the law school’s Legal Aid Clinic, and the new full-time director we hired was on the governor’s judicial selection committee. She asked what I was going to do once I left the law school. I said I didn’t know, and she said, “You should really apply to be a judge.于是我照做了.
IN 2021, YOU BECAME THE SECOND WOMAN EVER APPOINTED CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT. WHAT’S THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING WOMEN SERVE IN THE JUDICIARY?
It’s important to have a diverse judiciary at every level. We all bring different experiences when we decide cases. Even in a state like 缅因州 that’s not as diverse as many states, 在法庭的七名成员中, 我们有两个女人和一个黑人. It’s important to bring different points of view to bear, especially when making decisions by committee.
MY SON THINKS THAT ONLY WOMEN CAN BE LAWYERS BECAUSE I’M
他唯一认识的人. I OFTEN REFLECT ON THAT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT REPRESENTATION.
我记得很多年前, 州长珍妮特·米尔斯也有同感, 当她还是地方检察官的时候, she had young girls playing Barbie in the car. And somebody asked, “So where’s Barbie going? 购物?她的继女说，
“No, she’s off to the Democratic Committee Convention.“因为这就是妈妈的工作.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE BRYN MAWR GRADUATES WHO ASPIRE TO CAREERS IN LAW?
知道什么时候说“是”. You don’t have to follow anyone else’s path, but know when to say yes and when to say no.