Two female judicial pioneers — one from the US and one from the UK — compared notes at Georgetown University Law Center last week and found they both had restroom stories to tell.
“Everybody’s got a bathroom story,” said Lady Brenda Hale, the first female Law Lord in the British House of Lords. In 1999, when she was named to the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council — yes, the Privy Council — a court official sheepishly told her the ladies room had not yet been completed. Hale, formally known as the Right Honourable Baroness Hale of Richmond said she has also grown accustomed to being unthinkingly addressed by lawyers during arguments as “M’Lord,” not “M’Lady”.
