It’s 2015, and — surprise, surprise — women in the legal profession continue to be judged based on the merits of their outfits instead of the merits of their legal arguments. Over the course of the past five years, women have been lectured on “what not to wear” by bar associations, Biglaw firms, law schools, and even federal judges.

This week, yet another state bar association stepped in to advise women lawyers as to the style of their dress. On Wednesday, February 18, the Virginia State Bar held one of its mandatory continuing legal education courses on professionalism in the practice of law for newly admitted attorneys. Course registrants were able to choose from a variety of specialty workshops to attend, from civil litigation to intellectual property, but they also had to attend a general workshop. Little did the lawyers know that they would be receiving a crash course in sexism at the conclusion of the day’s general workshop.

We’ve been told that during the event’s closing remarks, the director of the professionalism course — a woman — decided it was time to pass on some supposed wisdom to the women lawyers who were in attendance, but the advice was apparently being given to them on behalf of the judges before whom they would someday argue in court. The message given made it clear that judges in Virginia do not approve of seeing women attorneys’ cleavage, and further, seeing women attorneys’ legs displayed in court is a grave offense to their ostensibly delicate sensitivities.

It seems that one of the biggest problems facing the Virginia justice system is not its gross prosecution and over-incarceration of minorities, but women lawyers in skirts. Women lawyers in skirts are apparently a huge problem for the judges who preside over the Virginia courts; in fact, women lawyers should strive to wear skirts less often, and if they do choose to wear skirts, they must wear pantyhose. Women who argue before judges in Virginia need to “stop showing off [their] legs” — not to mention their cleavage — as they plainly represent an affront to justice. More than 200 newly admitted attorneys were present earlier this week to witness this groundbreaking news.

Following her assault on women’s fashion on behalf of Virginia’s judges, and perhaps as an afterthought, the event’s director casually mentioned that men should wear socks to court.

Several women who attended the CLE event contacted us to express their shock and outrage with this lecture, but one comment stood out the most to us:

Gee, thanks lady. Socks? Boy I can’t believe it. How dare men show off that ankle bone. I’ll be over here sawing off my legs so that I don’t have to worry about them being perceived as me “showing them off”… here we all were thinking our legs had a function… like for standing or walking. Had we known the Honorable judges of the Commonwealth were so distracted we would have started going full Burka for trials. In this day and age, women shouldn’t be lectured en masse about how the old male judges perceive us. I have yet to see a colleague dressed inappropriately, and not a woman in the room was pleased at the end of our CLE.

No, women do not need to be “lectured en masse” about what they wear, but it happens continuously, and we fear it may never stop until the members of the legal profession realize that women are no longer interlopers in what once was — and is still perceived by many to be — an old boys’ club. The fact that women lawyers at this event were scolded by state judges from afar as to their choice of professional ensembles from nearly head to toe while men were reminded about the need to wear socks speaks volumes about the silent creep of sexism that’s ravaged the culture and inner workings of the legal profession.

Given the repeated commentary and conjecture about what women attorneys wear and the fact that their outfits still speak louder than their oral arguments, we felt it was important to highlight a passage we wrote recently about sexism in the legal profession:

It’s important to note that not every slight against women in law is sexist – but the ones that truly are sting the worst. The simple ability to recognize the sexism that women face in this profession is the first step in being able to overcome it. The unfortunate reality of the situation is that while the legal profession claims to be dedicated to justice, its leaders sit idly by and watch as its female members suffer some of the greatest injustices of all. Stop watching. Do something about it. Entire generations of women in the law have seen the less noble side of this profession. Future generations shouldn’t have to endure more of the same.

We cannot allow continuing legal education courses that are used to support the future leaders of this profession to devolve into the denigration of women attorneys — unless, of course, the continuing legal education we truly wish to provide is that women in this profession will continue to be demoralized based simply on their gender.

Clothes do not make the lawyer, and justice is supposed to be blind. If Virginia’s judges can’t see past what women attorneys are wearing without being “distracted,” we humbly suggest that it may be time for them to hang up their robes and retire.