A Closer Look: Jill Zwagerman
Partner, Newkirk Zwagerman Law Firm
KENT DARR Feb 5, 2016 | 12:00 pm
6 min read time
1,362 wordsBusiness Record Insider, Government Policy and Law, Lift IOWAMaybe Jill Zwagerman just likes to hear herself talk. The civil rights attorney says that is the case with a lot of trial lawyers. Still, you can argue that jurors apparently enjoy the experience too. Zwagerman is a partner in Des Moines-based Newkirk Zwagerman Law Firm, where she won what might be the largest jury award in a civil rights case: $12 million for a woman who worked at Manley Toys Ltd., a toy manufacturer that had operations in Indianola. A jury determined the award based on evidence that illustrated an extreme level of sexual harassment. In all, four women sued the company. Zwagerman represents all of them. She has received a consent judgment in the second case, and two more are set to go to trial in Warren County District Court.
Zwagerman also represents Jane Meyer, the former University of Iowa assistant athletic director who lost her job after her partner, former University of Iowa field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum, was fired after leading the team for 14 years. Zwagerman’s law partner, Tom Newkirk, represents Griesbaum.
Zwagerman also was a track star at Sibley-Ocheyedan High School, where she was the state champion in the 200- and 400-meter dashes in 1995, and at Drake University, where she was a member of a 4×400 relay team that set the still-standing school record.
Did you intend to become a lawyer when you went to college?
I had gone to college because I wanted to go into broadcast news. That just didn’t pan out. When I got to the end of it, it just really wasn’t my thing anymore. I went to law school because I thought I could put bad people in jail. I wanted to be a prosecutor. Then I got to law school and started looking at the dynamics of criminal law and thought, “What the heck is this?” It’s so gray. When you actually got into it, it’s not one side or the other. Now if I got back into it, I think I would be a defense attorney.
Why are you doing employment law?
I found my calling in employment law. It is one of those areas where you can really do the right thing and where you really can make a difference and help people who are probably at a real low point in their lives. We as Iowans can define ourselves a lot of times by our jobs and we value a hard day’s work, and when someone is not permitted to do a hard day’s work because of their gender or because of their race or because they got a little bit older and someone decided that they were working too slow, that is just inherently wrong.
When did you realize that you wanted to do employment and civil rights law?
I think it was in my second year of law school, and I started taking some labor courses, and it just sort of clicked. It just sort of made sense. I’ve always kind of been a big mouth. I’ve always been one to speak my mind and stand up and say that’s not fair, that’s not right, and this particular area gives me a platform to be able to voice those concerns.
What makes you a good trial lawyer?
A lot of times as lawyers, we like to hear ourselves talk. I like being in a courtroom. I went to law school because I wanted to be in a courtroom. It is stressful. It is a lot of work. Sometimes I think I become a terrible mother because my focus, my energy, everything goes into trying that case. The legal profession is very stressful, and it’s even more so for trial lawyers. But it’s also hard from the female perspective. If I am assertive, if I am putting myself out there and sticking my nose in places where people don’t want me to, there’s still a bit of double standard in the legal profession. As opposed to being assertive, I’m considered the B-word, and I’m really not. I’m actually a fairly nice person.
Do you ever think you have a sure thing?
It’s dangerous to think that way. I don’t let myself think that way. With Manley Toys, I thought we should have a good chance with this. But you’re always worried.
Are people reluctant to allege employment discrimination?
Absolutely. It still surprises me how many people come in and tell me, “I don’t believe in lawsuits. I’m not a person who sues; I don’t do this.” But they know what has happened to them is so inherently wrong, it’s illegal, that they are left with no other options. They usually make pretty good clients because you know those people aren’t out for vengeance. That’s important to me when I take cases. I want to know people are doing it for the right reasons. … They want to make changes, they want to see justice done, they know it was unfair, but the client who is just in it for the money is probably the client that I am not taking.
Why do the cases wind up in a courtroom rather than being settled before trial?
Some of my clients just need to go through that process. They need to have a jury tell them whether they are right or they are wrong. It can be a therapeutic thing to help them get past this. Sometimes we just can’t reach a settlement, sometimes we don’t even get offered a settlement, and when they don’t offer a settlement, where else are you going to go?
You prefer trying cases in state court. Why?
Federal court has a high rate of throwing cases out before they ever get to a jury. We like for our cases to get to a jury, and we have a better chance of getting before a jury if we are in a state court.
Are you concerned that the country might take a few steps backward on civil rights issues?
I think everyone agrees that men and women should be paid equal for the same job. I’m always worried because there are people who can make bad decisions. But I think we are really on the verge of pushing forward, of making another movement. You see it with more acceptance of gays and lesbians and sexual orientation. It’s still not accepted by everyone. But I think the pendulum could swing. We are right on the edge of it. But it’s always scary, because it could go the other way and we could be where we were 20 years ago.
Did you encounter sexual discrimination while running track at Drake?
I don’t remember there being any issues at Drake. We had 26 women on the track team, and we had one coach. I didn’t even know that I was complaining about Title IX, but I remember talking to the people in the administration and saying: “When are we going to get another coach? This just doesn’t seem right.” We just thought it was a budgetary thing. At the time, I didn’t even know what I didn’t know. I couldn’t ask the right questions because I didn’t know enough to ask the right questions. …
College athletics is one of the areas where there is the biggest difference. It’s not because they hate you because you are a girl; it’s because if you are a boy, you are worth more to (them) so (they are) going to value you more. That’s shown in the way that uniforms look and how often one team gets new uniforms. It’s shown when one group gets iPads and the other doesn’t, or this coach gets more for recruiting and the other doesn’t. There might be a higher spending rate for marketing for one coach and another coach doesn’t get anything.
It’s just the disbursement of the funds and the resources that a lot of the college athletes don’t even know is going on because it’s all kept secret, it’s all hush-hush. You don’t know that the boys’ baseball team gets this much and the girls’ softball team gets this. They should all be equal, but they are probably not.