TWO ATTORNEYS, ONE JOB

A 68-year-old author and a 33-year-old mother of two toddlers have found something in common -- the same job at the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor's office.

Assistant prosecutor Ian Sutherland will take on a part-time role starting in June when former federal prosecutor Teresa Bright Pearson assumes part of his duties.

"I'm delighted to be able to do it," said Sutherland, who has been an assistant prosecutor since 1988.

Pearson, a former Mississippi County prosecutor and assistant federal attorney in Cape Girardeau since 1997, has chosen to cut back on work to spend more time with her children.

Considering what's at stake, Pearson said the choice to leave the federal prosecutor's job wasn't hard. Her youngest daughter is a year old, and the second daughter will soon be 3.

Two prosecutors sharing one job isn't common, and so far in Missouri it's unheard of, said Gary Toohey, spokesman for the Missouri Bar Association.

Becoming more common

But job sharing between attorneys will likely be a growing trend nationally, said Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.

"More and more women have joined the legal profession during the last two decades, creating a large number of people in the work force who are women in their child-bearing years," Swingle said.

Tentatively, Sutherland is scheduled to work three days a week while Pearson will handle two days. The salary for the one job will be pro-rated between them.

Job sharing has already been used by the prosecutor's office for the child support investigator's position, but Swingle said he hesitated to try this with attorneys.

"At first I was a little leery that we would lose something in continuity and efficiency by having a different person at work on different days of the week," he said.

The two attorneys will work out ways to cover for each other, so that lapses don't occur, Sutherland said.

"It'll take a few months for things to change because I've already got so many upcoming trials," he said.

As a former county prosecutor, Pearson said she is looking forward to returning to handling a larger variety of cases than what appear in federal court.

The new arrangement will benefit Sutherland as he works toward updating his book, "History of the Special Forces of the U.S. Army." A part-time workload will make it easier to travel to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., this year to finish the archival research needed, he said.