By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

When Melissa Pavlicek was growing up on Maui in the 1970's, she never met a woman lawyer. In fact, she didn't meet a woman lawyer until she was 25 years old — which makes the comment she got recently from an elementary school student all the more resonant.

Pavlicek, now an attorney with Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing, was invited to speak at a Nanakuli career day. When it came to question-and-answer time, one little guy raised his hand and asked if boys could be lawyers, too.

"I thought it was great because it showed the power of just physically being there. Without saying anything more than 'I'm a lawyer' it just showed the kids that there's a possibility there to have that job."

She assured the boy that, yes, if you can see it, you can be it.

That's her personal motto these days.

Pavlicek, who works full-time as an attorney specializing in business transactions and government affairs, holds myriad volunteer positions and has two very young children at home, is running for president of the Hawai'i State Bar Association. If elected, the 41-year-old mother of a 1-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy would be only the third woman to serve as president of the Hawai'i bar out of 56 past presidents. She'd also be one of the youngest to serve.

"Our incoming bar president, Rich Turbin, said last year when he was running that this was a good time in his life to hold the position because his kids are in college and he has lots of time to volunteer," Pavlicek says. "I guess I won't be making that speech."

It concerns her, though, that what she's trying to do is still so unusual.

"I chair the diversity committee for the bar. We talk a lot about equal opportunities for women. We come out of law school graduating with 50 percent of our class being women and yet we enter a profession where less than a third of the acting attorneys are women. Women have been graduating from half the class of law schools for 25 years. So what's going on? I think it's not always hospitable to women to be in this profession. To have only two women bar presidents out of the last 56 in Hawai'i really shows there's a gap and a disconnect there, especially from a profession that's based on justice and equality."

Her opponent in the race is Wayne D. Parsons, a personal injury attorney who also has a master's degree in physics. Members of the bar will vote via mail-in ballots in October. The winner will be announced in November at a Bar Association dinner.

One past president told Pavlicek the position will require five hours a week. Another said 25. She's guessing it's closer to 25.

Pavlicek accepted the nomination to run because she has specific ideas for the HSBA; but also to show kids, including her own children, what is possible.

Lee Cataluna's column runs Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.