DJ profiles J. Rawlinson

 Today's DJ profile is Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson would have liked to have been more assertive earlier in her career -- 9th Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson spoke publicly to advocate the nomination of a specific potential successor and wished she had been more outspoken when she began her career.

“I wish I had known years ago that I could be a lot more aggressive and still be successful,” she said. “I think for the first generation of women lawyers, many of us thought that we had to be less aggressive so as to not offend the male attorneys whose ranks we were trying to join. Oftentimes I think perhaps I was not as assertive as I have become as I became a more mature lawyer. Looking back, I would have liked to have been that person from the beginning.”

• The article quotes a footnote from Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice v. Federal Aviation Administration, 20-70272: “For the record, I grew up in the segregated South and looked racism in the face, up close and personal, long before my concurring colleague was born,” she wrote. “So pardon me if I take a hard pass on the lecture on when, where, and how to identify racial injustice.”
• In July, Rawlinson celebrated 22 years on the 9th Circuit. Whether she will take senior status soon remains to be seen. She faced criticism earlier this year when she tied her retirement to the nomination of a specific successor.
• “I could do this job for another 20 years without hardship, God willing,” Rawlinson told the Nevada Independent in April.