While some attorneys might feel thrown off as the only young woman in the courtroom, Miami-based Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr partner Angela de Cespedes finds it actually gives them a leg up.

“Sometimes, especially when I was much younger, it works to my advantage because people make judgments based on age and sex. The last person anyone expects to be walking in a room representing a professional sports team, league or federation is a woman. They automatically make certain assumptions as a result,” said de Cespedes, who is 46. “They come to find that those assumptions were wrong, and they should have been on high alert from the beginning.”