University of Delaware Office of Public Relations The Messenger Vol. 5, No. 3/1996 Lawful care A public health nurse in inner-city Detroit, bringing care and understanding to the sick and indigent, many of whom are Russian immigrants. A high-powered civil lawyer for the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Francisco, trying cases that deal with federal employees. These scenarios are not pilots for upcoming television shows. They are the real-life roles of an energetic and hard- working heroine, Beth McGarry, Delaware '75. Currently an attorney specializing in employment law, McGarry studied nursing at Delaware and credits that beginning for her success as a lawyer. "Delaware teaches nurses to be teachers," says McGarry, "and I still use those skills in my work as an attorney." Right out of nursing school, McGarry followed the lead of one of her cherished professors, Barbara Wilcox, joining the Detroit Visiting Nurses Association. For two years, she provided home health care to the inner-city poor, until she was hired as the head nurse of the outpatient department at Sinai Hospital. "My focus was to upgrade the nursing services in the outpatient department," McGarry says. "We were the primary medical care for Detroit's Jewish community, which sponsors many Russian immigrants, and the language barrier posed a special challenge." McGarry broke down that barrier by bringing in local Russian and Yiddish translators. When McGarry's husband, Richard Gasteiner, a financial analyst with the U.S. Postal Service, was promoted, she followed him to Bakersfield, Calif. There, she worked as a public health and renal dialysis nurse, and, again, it was the teaching aspect of nursing that appealed to her, while she was counseling people diagnosed with kidney failure. When yet another promotion led the couple to San Francisco, McGarry became spokesperson for San Mateo public health nurses, serving as their representative to the California Nurses Association union. While acting as shop steward, McGarry says, she became "fascinated by the contract negotiations. I knew that I was ready to head to law school." When she graduated from the University of California Hastings College of Law in 1986, McGarry became an employment lawyer, representing the U.S. Postal Service management in the western region. What drew her to this area of law, despite her desire to work with people? "It is a fairly technical aspect of law, which makes it challenging and difficult to learn. And, it's never stagnant. As society changes, the law reflects those changes. However, because the very nature of this law demands getting involved in people's lives, emotions can run high for both parties, both employees and managers," she says. Currently, McGarry works in the civil division of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. She represents federal agencies and managers who are being sued. "In my area of law, a federal employee can only come to federal court to sue on limited issues, and the main one is discrimination," she says. She tries about two cases a year and usually wins. When she isn't preparing and trying cases, McGarry teaches legal writing and research to first-semester law students and trial advocacy to second- and third-year students at her alma mater. And, she travels around the country to teach employment law to new assistant U.S. attorneys. In March, McGarry received the 1995 Director Award for superior performance from the Department of Justice, in a Washington, D.C., ceremony. Even McGarry's opposition acknowledges her exceptional work with employment law. Thanks to a nomination by opposing council, she was selected as a barrister for the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court. Based on the English model, this organization honors accomplished lawyers and fosters collegiality among opposing attorneys. Once a month for the next three years, McGarry is invited to share an evening with the same people whom she faces off with in the courtroom. "The University of Delaware was a wonderful experience for me," she says. "It combined a challenging intellectual atmosphere with a beautiful setting and small college atmosphere. What I would really love is to return to Delaware as a visiting professor." -Donna Speers