Justice Consuelo Marie Callahan, Circuit Judge, United States Courts of Appeal [50:30-55:34]

going to make something of myself and and but jurors are funny they they go with the evidence they go with the person that's the most persuasive and I learned very early on that I was going to be more prepared I you know I was just I you know I was going to hit it and I was going to do it and and I was successful at it I also realized that I used I remember one time I finished it I think it was a six-week murder trial and a couple I had just gotten back to my office the jury was back and they called me to the front desk and said there's a couple jurors that would like to talk to you and there were two women that came in and they sat down and they asked me they said we just need to know how long a trial do you have to wear but have before you were the same outfit and they said we couldn't wait every day to come and see what you were gonna wear and we felt at the end of the trial that there should have been war broke for Connie Callahan by such and such that that should have been ruled on the credits but you could look at that as maybe they weren't getting it but I had just convicted someone on a very difficult case they had done their job but what I heard there was I need people to listen to me and I need to communicate with people and if how I dress if how I look if they can somehow relate to me if that makes them listen to me more than someone else in the courtroom or they can't wait for me to be there and they can't wait you know that's what all trial attorneys want and so I always I think integrated my personal capabilities into what my professional capabilities were and made it work for me even though some people might have might have given up sooner well exactly you made you made a positive impression you were the one to watch in the courtroom and you turned around and in your favor how about apart from the courtroom I imagine there weren't a lot of female prosecutors and you're in a typically male dominated profession you know your witnesses are very often male law enforcement can you talk a little bit about that experience early on in the seventies that's interesting because I think the establishment was always more that would find difficulty in maybe giving that sort of responsibility to a woman police officers witnesses victims when they realize that they have a lawyer that's very engaged and is very prepared and can put for and can come home with the results they much prefer that person because that's their lawyer that's the person that's taking their case to court so I actually never I never had issues along those lines I think a lot of people liked me handling their cases much more than other people and would would somewhat would look for me to handle them so from that standpoint I never I don't think I had any there wasn't a prejudice there because people on some level understand what's gonna work and who's you know who's smart who's prepared and sadly not everyone that works in the public sector or anywhere in life not all lawyers are engaged in others so I never really I that I never really experienced any difficulty other lawyers with it came to when cases were being assigned I think as I established my reputation I think that I didn't have difficulty in getting good assignments I think that there was a little bit of stereotyping from the standpoint in selecting supervisors they were not selecting women to be supervisors as frequently as they were men and the child abuse sexual assault unit which I was supervising I think that that was something that they wanted women to do those or they wanted women to go to juvenile or those type of things and so I resisted going to juvenile because that was not something that I necessarily wanted to do and I'm not really sure I might even be worse with kids than then some people but I doubt that I doubt that okay so after 1986 I've heard you I'm in one of the biles I've read the doors open now you you've received you had a milestone what happened in 1986 well my my milestones are always have they always have setbacks with them as well that in the well I went I became commissioner of the municipal court and that was a great opportunity but it wasn't when I had that's when I had decided to put in for a judicial position for the municipal court the person it was down to two people and the person that I competed with was the commissioner at that time and he actually got the the appointment to the the municipal court judgeship and then when he got that then I got the commissioner position my brothers would have