by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
The Veterans Day Parade wasn’t the only gathering Downtown Wednesday.
The Jacksonville Women Lawyers Association (JWLA) held its monthly luncheon at the River Club as the parade rolled by the Modis Building. The guest speaker for the organization’s November luncheon was one of its founders, Barbara McGriff. She spoke of her life experiences as she pursued the practice of law to provide a message to the membership of “never give up, no matter what gets put in front of you.”
As a first-year law student at the University of Florida she experience “shuffling” as one of the few women in her class. Shuffling occurred when a female law student would ask a question, the male students would shuffle their shoes back and forth to drown her voice out.
McGriff ended up leaving law school after the first semester after she married Jack McGriff, but received a surprising phone call from one of her professors.
“One of my professors called me and told me I had ‘booked’ the course, which meant I received the highest grade, and he asked me to come back,” said McGriff. “I told him he was just as mean as the other men and asked why should I come back. He told me that he was trying to toughen me up for what I would face from judges after I graduated.”
McGriff would later return to law school and earn her law degree from the University of Florida in 1981.
The members also learned that the organization’s Web site — www.jwla.org — has been updated and redesigned.
356-2466