Wendy Patrick is a Deputy District Attorney in the Special Operations Division of the District Attorney's Office. She is a member of the California Bar Association, the United States Supreme Court and the United States Distrcit Court for the Southern District of California. Patrick was a Deputy Public Defender for San Diego County before she joined the District Attorney's office where she is assigned to prosecute hate crimes and stalking crimes. She has developed expertise in ethics matters by studying ethics principles that apply to lawyers who investigate and prosecute lawsuits. She also teaches hate crimes law to law enforcement agencies. Patrick has taught ethics programs for the San Diego County Bar Association, San Diego Lawyers Club, California Western School of Law, California District Attorneys Association, and the Continuing Education of the Bar. She is also an author of the new Civil Liability chapter that will be published in Professionalism, the California District Attorneys Association's sourcebook of ethics principles for prosecutors conducting investigations and trials. Patrick is a member of the Boards of Directors of the San Diego County Bar Association and the San Diego Lawyers Club. She is also a member of the Louis M. Welsh American Inn of Court. Patrick plays first violin for the University of San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to federal and state law, there are a number of ethical rules that relate to the issue of bias and discrimination in the practice of law. A working knowledge of these rules is essential to ensure that you are not only maintaining a workplace free from actionable discrimination, but you are also maintaining a legal practice that is successful as well as ethical.

This month we continue our examination of the legal and ethical rules that govern cases of bias and discrimination in the legal profession. One area that continues to receive attention is the issue of what type of philosophy or world view qualifies legally as a “religion.”
What is a religion?

We all remember the movie “Disclosure” with Demi Moore and Michael Douglas, in which Michael Douglas portrayed a male employee suffering legitimate sexual harassment from his former paramour, played by Demi Moore. That film turned out to be a sign of the times.