Joanne Garvey honored for breaking the glass ceiling
By Kristina Horton Flaherty
Staff Writer
San Francisco tax attorney Joanne M. Garvey still clearly recalls the reaction
of the law firm employers in her first job interviews as a top law student more
than four decades ago: "But you're a woman!"
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"The next line was: 'But we don't hire women,'" Garvey says. "There was one
who said, 'We had a woman once,' and then trailed off."
That didn't stop Garvey, now 68, from launching a successful legal career and
paving the way, in many instances, for other women attorneys. She was the first
woman president of the San Francisco Barristers, the first woman president of
the Bar Association of San Francisco and the first woman to sit on the State
Bar's board of governors. She helped launch the State Bar's Taxation Section
the bar's first section and later received its first lifetime achievement
award, named after her. She helped found California Women Lawyers. And she was
the first woman to serve as the California State Delegate to the American Bar
Association's House of Delegates.
Many opportunities have come her way, she says, and she has sought to bring
other women along with her. "What I have always tried to do," she said recently,
"is have coattails."
For excelling in her field and opening doors for others, Garvey has been chosen,
along with four other women lawyers, to receive the American Bar Association
Commission on Women's 2003 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award
this month. The award is named after America's first woman lawyer.
Garvey's legal career spans back to the late 1950s. After receiving a master's
degree in history from the University of California in Berkeley, she worked
as a playground director for a year while reflecting on a career path. "Women
didn't go to law school," Garvey says. But those who knew her suggested that
she go into law because of her penchant for arguing.
Winding up at Berkeley's Boalt Hall, Garvey was one of just five women in her
graduating class. In her first job, her sole offer from a firm, she was the
only woman attorney working at a Santa Barbara law firm that specialized in
taxation. She was one of only two woman lawyers in Santa Barbara.
While she quickly discovered her niche in the "problem solving" of tax law,
Garvey had strong ties to the Bay Area. During one of her many visits north,
she heard that some San Francisco firms were looking for tax associates. So,
on a whim, she walked into one of them uninvited one day and wound up in interviews
with every attorney there. By the time she returned to work in Santa Barbara,
a job offer was waiting for her.
Garvey went on to spend 25 years at Jordan, Keeler and Seligman in San Francisco.
In 1988, she joined Heller, Ehrman, White and McAuliffe, where she now continues
to work as a "retired partner." During her many years of practice, she has represented
clients in state courts as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.
A nationally recognized expert in taxation, she has handled tax and business
transactions, nationally and internationally, for domestic and foreign clients.
She has involved herself in tax legislation and regulation, testifying at numerous
state legislative hearings.
These days, she's in the "enviable" position, she says, of being able to choose
her cases, which now primarily involve state tax matters. In addition, the 5-foot-11-inch
attorney has, during the past eight years, taken up basketball, a sport from
her younger days. With Garvey at center on one of California's top squads, her
team won a silver medal in the national Senior Olympics two years ago.
Recently, Garvey also has been at the forefront of state and national efforts
to revamp the rules relating to the multijurisdictional practice of law. She
served on the ABA commission that recently crafted national model rules and
on both state Supreme Court panels that developed a proposed set of new rules
for California attorneys.
But Garvey can't name any particular accomplishment as her finest. "I always
used to say I haven't done it yet and maybe that's still my attitude," she said.
"I'm still looking to see what else I can do."
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