Event: Language in Context Seminar
Organisers: Language in Context
Contact: linc@ed.ac.uk
Date: Friday 20th November 2020
Time: 15:10-16:30
Venue: Zoom (e-mail linc@ed.ac.uk to receive the link)
Speaker: The Honourable Mary Pat Gunderson, former District Court Judge of Polk County Iowa
Title of talk: The Language of Judicial Opinion Writing
Abstract: The “Me Too” Movement has forced corporations, and the entertainment industry as well as state and federal executive and legislative branch officials to take a hard look at gender inequities and sexual harassment in the workplace. But, how does our judicial system fare? Is the one branch of government charged with being fair and impartial in the interpretation and application of our laws truly fair and impartial? This piece takes a looks at the real possibility of implicit gender bias in judicial opinion writing by deconstructing four recent Iowa Supreme Court ethics opinions written by an all male Court wherein the victims were female clients and/or intimate partner of the male attorney/abuser. Not only do the case results themselves raise questions, but the language those results are wrapped in may be even more revealing. This piece examines both the results and language through the eyes of an Iowa woman who recently resigned as a trial Court judge in Iowa’s biggest judicial district.
Speaker bio: The Honourable Mary Pat Gunderson was appointed as a District Court Judge in Polk County, Iowa in 2011. During her time as a District Court judge she presided over both criminal and civil trials and sentenced hundreds of criminal defendants. She retired from the bench in 2017.
Prior to being appointed to the District Court she served as a Polk County Magistrate from 2005-2011. From 1989-1996 she was an Assistant Polk County Attorney where she prosecuted over 25 felony jury trials including kidnapping and first-degree murder.
She graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in Iowa City, Iowa in 1988.