Sexist Remarks Land Lawyer In Hot Water

A judge has levied sanctions on a California attorney who told opposing counsel it was not “becoming of a woman or an attorney” to raise her voice. His comments “reflect and reinforce the male-dominated attitude of our profession,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal said in his order demanding that Peter Bertling pay deposition costs and donate $250 to a women’s bar group. Bertling, who was also cited for “making extremely long speaking objections, coaching witnesses, cutting off witnesses, and even answering for them,” said he should have referred to opposing counsel as an attorney, rather than a woman, which Grewal called a “half-hearted politician’s apology.”