I'm Elizabeth Slattery and welcome to SCOTUS 101, and we'll break down what's happening at the Supreme Court, what the justices are up to, and other things related to our favorite branch of government.

This week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in four cases and issued a pretty short orders list with no new grants.

We'll do a recap of the arguments in our episode next week.

But this week, I have a special guest in the studio.

Stay tuned.

Edith Jones is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Judge Jones, welcome to SCOTUS 101.

Thank you very much.

So before your appointment to the Fifth Circuit,

you worked in private practice at a firm in Houston, Texas, where you became the first female

law partner there. Tell me about that experience and what it was like being the first female

partner there. Before I talk about being the first female law partner, we have to look at the seven years that preceded that when I was an associate at the firm.

The firm had hired three women the year I started.

Eventually, one of them, actually one of them left within one year and the other one left after about five years, both for personal reasons.

But I stayed.

I was privileged to work with a fellow who was then nationally known in litigation of a very sophisticated sort.

Unfortunately, he and his wife were killed in an automobile accident about a year after I started.

And from that point, I became a free agent, if you will, working in a variety of litigation,

which ended up greatly to my advantage once I went on the bench. I handled cases in antitrust,

in workers' comp, in oil and gas disputes, and eventually I was pushed into bankruptcy law

because the firm needed a lawyer in that area. When I became partner, 1982, I was out on maternity leave with

our second child. And everyone treated me very well. The firm had a lot of gentlemen, but once

...