More on the Boalt case: If this does lead to a lawsuit, it will not be the first time Laura Stevens has represented a client suing UC Berkeley for discrimination. In early 2001, Berkeley's Haas School of Business settled a gender discrimination lawsuit filed by a single mother who claimed she was unfairly denied admission to the school's part-time evening MBA program. The plaintiff had a team of lawyers, one of whom was ... Laura Stevens.

Stevens is a civil rights attorney who professes to some expertise in using discrimination lawsuits to squeeze corporations--and now universities--to change their policies:

"I have seen corporations really review and revamp personnel policies in response to allegations made formally or informally," says Laura Stevens. "I would not go so far as to say anybody actually sees the light, but they do see the light on the balance sheet. They see how costly it is to resist equal employment, and as a result of that change their ways."

Stevens describes one client she had, a food processing plant that operated canneries in the Northwest, that was successfully sued by the EEOC for its sex-based job classifications. While the lawsuit was in progress, the company opened a new cannery in southern California, with the same discriminatory policies. "I showed them the legal bills they had already incurred in the North, and told them you can have the same thing in the South. I said 'You can make me rich, but it won't do you any good.'" Her client took her advice and changed its policy.