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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowWords from her nominator, Mag. Pauline Beeson, Marion Superior Court
Professor Watson’s entire career has involved breaking down barriers or challenging the norms within the legal profession. When Frances graduated law school, women comprised approximately only 8% of all lawyers in the United States. Today, almost half the number of lawyers in the United States are female. It is because of lawyers like Frances. She graduated in a predominantly male class of future lawyers. After law school, Frances went on to an accomplished career dedicated to public service and advancing the legal profession. She worked as a deputy public defender, and an assistant corporation counsel for the city of Indianapolis before becoming a clinical supervisor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. In 1990, Frances served as the first Chief Public Defender in Marion County. Prior to the creation of the Marion County Public Defender Agency, public defenders were appointed directly by the trial court judge. The creation of the Marion County Public Defender Agency not only took away the optics of bias between the public defender and the judge but also revolutionized indigent criminal defense in Indianapolis and throughout the State of Indiana.
As a Clinical professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, Professor Watson taught her students the importance of challenging what appeared at face value. Whether it was in the Criminal Defense Clinic or the Wrongful Convictions Clinic, Frances never accepted the first answer when reviewing a case. She always went one layer deeper, oftentimes identifying the key piece of evidence to secure the case. Through Frances’s determination and incredible legal talent, she has secured exonerations for 5 wrongfully convicted individuals who would have otherwise lived the remainder of their lives in prison. In 2019, Frances was able to successfully persuade the legislative branch to pass HB 1150 – legislation passed to secure compensation for people who were wrongfully convicted in Indiana. This made Indiana the 35th state in the country to have compensated innocent individuals who had spent years of their lives behind bars for crimes they did not commit.
Frances has always persevered in the face of marginalization. She advocated for women in the legal profession every step of the way – and was a trailblazer in her own right. As the first Chief Public Defender, she hired and inspired many other female lawyers. In the law school, she helped all her students, but she taught her female students to use their qualities for maximum gain. She never encouraged us to change, in or out of the courtroom. For instance, Frances is a compassionate person. She used that as a superpower in the courtroom. Her clients and their families adore Frances for that attribute. Many men would have criticized a woman for being that way, but it fueled her tenacity.
Whether it is by her own example or by teaching future or current lawyers, Frances has made the legal profession of women attorneys better. I met Frances in 2004 when I worked as a paralegal in the Marion County Public Defender Agency. She saw me studying for the LSAT and when some of the male attorneys I supported were encouraging me not to go to law school, Frances emphatically did the opposite. She told me that our profession needed female lawyers. She still mentors me as a working female lawyer. She prepared me for how to handle the sexual harassment I would likely (and did) encounter in the workplace, taught me to be taken seriously as a “young woman” lawyer, gave me tips about how to maintain a heavy workload while experiencing the exhaustion of pregnancy, and how to juggle the demands of being a working mother, while appreciating the moments of enjoyment. My story is far from unique, but the lessons she gave me I teach to my mentees and students.
Frances is involved in the community in several ways – all of which she does quietly. Most noteworthy, though, is that Frances spearheaded the effort to form the Indiana Innocence Project. This organization works to help Indiana’s innocent prisoners secure freedom and rebuild their lives upon their release. She has also served on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, the Marion County Criminal Justice Planning Council, the IUPUI Forensic Science Advisory Board, and done work for the Children’s Policy and Law Initiative.
If you’d like to see Frances accept her well-deserved Antionette Dakin Leach Award, you can secure tickets to the luncheon by visiting www.indybar.org/adl. The luncheon will take place on October 30 at The Landmark Center from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.•
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