As Chesterfield Smith’s firm mushroomed, it advocated hiring women and minorities. This effort did not always go smoothly; many partners were old-guard southerners who dismissed the need to diversify. Smith often had to champion his hires, and began a pattern of having a junior associate, usually a woman, work closely with him for a year or two to assist, learn, and gain contacts and experience. Two of these “Chesterfield girls” were Martha Barnett, the firm’s first woman lawyer, who would go on to become president of the American Bar Association, and Marilyn Holifield, who would become the firm’s first black woman partner. Smith decided to relinquish management of the firm in his sixties, and a period of several years of bumpy leadership models and conflict among partners ensued. Smith did not keep his hands off but often dipped back in to settle disputes or to stir the pot. Smith, still active in the ABA, began a close friendship with then-professor Ruth Bader Ginsburg through ABA activities.
Behaviorally spontaneous confabulation in limbic encephalitis: The roles of reality filtering and strategic monitoring
